More elderly than children: are robots the answer?

A report form the OECD economics think tank warns that "the middle classes are being 'hollowed out', with declining chances of rising prosperity and growing fears of job insecurity", wrote S Coughlan. In "most of the big economies in Western Europe and North America, the 10% highest earners have increased their income by a third more than middle earners." "In the United States over the past three decades, the top 1% of earners have increased their slice of total annual income from 11% to 20%." Property prices have risen more than income and millennials are in danger of slipping below middle class. This may give rise to "new forms of nationalism, isolationism, populism and protectionism". Last month the US Federal Reserve decided not to increase its Funds rate this year. "The Fed's signal that it will keep interest rates on hold for the full year reflects concern that the economy is slowing, lower energy prices are weighing on inflation and risks from abroad are dimming the outlook," wrote J Smialek. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut its forecast for global growth from 3.6% to 3.3% in 2019, but expects it to go back up to 3.6% in 2020. "For the first time in history, there are more elderly people in the world, than young children, according to the United Nations." That means that there will be fewer people paying taxes for the care of the elderly. "There are now 705 million people over-65 on the planet, while those aged 0-4 number about 680 million." In Japan in 2014, "At 21.3 million, the number of registered pet dogs and cats now outnumbers the total number of children under the age of 15, at 16.5 million." It was the baby boom after World War II, along with increase in productivity, that resulted in high growth rates, wrote R Sharma. Now that birth rates are falling a low economic growth rate will be the new normal. The slowdown in global growth is supported by a fall in global debt. According to the Institute of International Finance (IIF), the world incurred only $3.3 trillion of debt in 2018, compared to $21 trillion in 2017. Total debt stands at 317% of global GDP. A study claimed that digital technology will destroy 45 million jobs by 2025, but "Productivity gains through digital technologies will help create up to 65 million new jobs during the same timeframe". But, there will not be enough people with the technological knowledge to fill those new jobs. The only way to raise employment levels maybe to encourage companies to spend more on labor than on technology and to grow low-skill, labor-intensive sectors, such as tourism, construction and services, wrote Prof D Rodrik. Let robots look after the elderly, while young people work. That may create a new middle class.