Asia's Looming Social Challenge: Coping With the Elder Boom

Source: Science 17 December 2010: vol. 330 no. 6011 1599

Clearly these Asian societies are going to have real trouble supporting large populations with relatively few workers. One wonders how the political systems will respond to the challenge of the needed transition in the productive and economic institutions.

It seems likely to me that these societies will have to become far more integrated into the global economy if they are to adapt well. While some of the workers will be in non-tradable productive areas, such as government, health and educational services, many will have to be concentrated in those areas in which their nations have the greatest comparative advantages, trading for the goods which they produce relatively less efficiently. All that would need to be done in about one generation!