Marcel Peruffo

in many european economies with predominantly pay-as-you-go pension systems, average public old-age pensions have grown faster than labour compensation since 2008 given the demographic shift ahead, it’s increasingly hard to argue that this model remains fair to young workers

Try to imagine a US President telling Ford that they shouldn't sell cars to foreigners, and that they should cut their R&D. It wouldn't happen. But that's what we're doing to one of America's most important exports: Education. 🧵

Australia uses migration to mitigate population ageing. But migration has diminishing returns for slowing the rate of ageing. So its proper role as a demographic tools is this: it buys a country time to deal with an ageing population—a huge challenge. That means if you care about long-term population growth—which I think you should—then the ultimate problem to solve is fertility decline. And that means tackling one of modernity’s greatest and most mysterious challenges. Here's a clip from my recent podcast with Abul Rizvi, where we discuss these issues in depth. It's long but worth watching the whole thing:

Creating more useful open space and make a few rows of eastern suburbs housing more affordable - what’s the downside?