I wonder what would happen given today’s demographic if mass migration was shut down. There may be similar change. But ruling class is hard at work to avoid that.

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missedthecue 4 days ago | parent [-]

The black death killed a lot of people, but mostly the old and infirm. Europe was left an extremely young and dynamic place.

Today's demographic situation also involves a shrinking population, but it's for lack of young people. The world is getting a lot older really quickly, and that means less energetic and dynamic, and it means a lot of resources flowing to older unproductive people.

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mantas 3 days ago | parent [-]

Still less work hands would mean change of balance between the capital and the labour. The changes in real estate pricing, which is one of the main expenses for labour, would be massive.

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missedthecue 3 days ago | parent [-]

It doesn't really mean that because there isn't a forever fixed amount of labor being bidded on by the workforce. That side of the market is also dynamic. As population ages and then shrinks, labor demand will also shrink. If supply and demand shrink in tandem, wages don't increase.

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mantas 3 days ago | parent [-]

Real estate bubble would pop for simple reason that were would be significantly less people overall.

And much lower real estate prices could amortize a lot of wages shrinking, from labour perspective.

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missedthecue 3 days ago | parent [-]

Real estate bubble won't pop with a shrinking population, because shrinking populations retreat to city centers. Spain, Italy, Japan, and Korea are full of $10,000 houses and all of them are overpriced. Meanwhile, Madrid, Rome, Tokyo, and Seoul are, without hyperbole, more expensive than they've ever been.

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mantas 3 days ago | parent [-]

Japan or Korea are not shrinking that much, but they’re getting older. Give it a couple decades when last bigger generations start vanishing entirely en masse.

	▲	missedthecue 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		Japan is already shrinking a million people per year, and Korea about 100k, but both are accelerating. It won't be long before Korea is also shrinking a million people per year.