The primary reason why demographic winter would cause concern is the fact that the very essence of the process called “demographic winter” results in a nation’s – as well as well world population’s in general – shrinking. This is pure mathematics: less people are being born, more people are living longer. This ensues several conclusions. First of all, the structure of a society in which demographic winter happens is so that the working groups of people are constantly and incrementally getting smaller. This means a couple of things, including the decline in productivity of a nation (given than less people are working) as well as more problems for social security. The latter is being complicated because usually pensions and other remunerations for the elderly are formed out of a part of taxes paid by the working group of people. The smaller the group, the harder it is to support the elderly (Demographic Winter).
Secondly, the demographic winter means that a nation risks evaporating. For the moment this may not be visible that much with the UN reports about the constant growth in number of the world population in the background. However, such growth is a temporary phenomenon, and here is why: in fact, this increase is the result of the baby boom of the 1950s and 1960s. This is namely the reason the population is still going up under its own inertia. At the same time, the mentioned decline, caused by the difference between the diminishing number of children being born and growing number of elderly people living longer, is about to claim its place in the world’s reality (Demographic Winter).
The abovementioned is namely why pretty much everybody should be concerned about the phenomenon of demographic winter. The latter causes an entire array of problems, including social, economic, political and existential.
There is a broad array of issues causing the phenomenon of demographic winter. Here are some of them:
Sexual revolution. Attitude of people towards sex and responsibility in relations has led to a brand new look at the essence of relations and at a much more careful action in family-planning.
Feminism. For women it is more important nowadays to build their career than to plan a family which usually makes them forget about having children until at least thirty.
New concepts of relations. Things like free relations or child-free principles shape the new types of social relations in modern societies.
Materialism. IN our age it has become more important for people to work on their wealth rather than on their families at least in their 30s.
Late marriages that happen more and more frequently and massively lead to a situation where a woman just does not have enough time to have more than one child (if any at all).
The diminished certainty in family relations: statistics show that these days marital ties do not mean any irreversible decision as divorce becomes way more common than in the previous century (Gray, Part 3 2008).
Solving this problem is tough. There are no easy ways for that because the problem is embedded firmly in too many stereotypes. There could be some promotion of the increase of children being born through granting different social benefits, promotion of adoptions instead of abortions, but to be frank, these are not very much likely to stop the trend (Gray, Part 5, 2008).
One would say that given the current overpopulation the trend of the demographic winter is even not a problem. But it really is. Scientists say that the trend is hardly reversible already and that the rate of its accentuation is still to impress us towards the middle of the current century.
References
Demographic Winter. (N.D.) New Economic Reality. Retrieved at: http://www.theneweconomicreality.com/learn.html
Gray, Ron. (2008). Demographic Winter (Part 3): specific causes of ‘demographic winter.’ CHP Canada. Retrieved at: https://www.chp.ca/commentary/demographic-winter-part-3-specific-causes-of-demographic-winter
Gray, Ron. (2008). Demographic Winter (Part 5): Can we avoid “demographic winter”? Maybe. CHP Canada. Retrieved at: https://www.chp.ca/commentary/demographic-winter-part-5-can-we-avoid-demographic-winter-maybe
