Why can’t our stupid rulers understand “demographics will always beat economics”?

I’m not an economist. I’m just a failed writer who can’t get people to buy his books or view his YouTube videos.

So, I sometimes wonder if I’m going mad when it’s blindingly obvious to me that the economic policies being pursued by our rulers can only end in total failure and a massive economic crisis (a sovereign debt crisis) that will make the 2007/8 financial crash look like a pleasant picnic.

Let me try to briefly explain:

All around the world, economically-illiterate politicians and their lickspittle, forelock-tugging central bankers are trying to generate economic growth and 2% to 3% inflation. Since the 2007/8 financial crash, interest rates have been held close to zero to try to encourage us to spend more rather than save. And now some countries (Japan, Sweden, the Eurozone) are playing around with negative interest rates.

The idea (as far as I understand and maybe I don’t understand) is that if it costs�banks money to hold their money with central banks and it costs us money to hold our savings in banks, then banks will be more likely to lend to businesses and we’ll be more likely to spend. And the lending and spending will supposedly lead to economic growth and the targeted inflation.

Great plan? �No, not really. What’s wrong with it? �Demographics mean it can never work.

How do I know that when much more intelligent people than me assure us that they know what they’re doing?

I need to show you two simple charts which explain why our rulers’ policies can only fail.

First, a�chart that shows spending levels by age group:

(This is probably from the US. But it doesn’t matter as the same pattern applies in all developed countries)

The chart shows that we reach our peak spending level between the ages of 45-54. After that our spending declines significantly.

My second chart shows how the populations in many developed countries are ageing:

This shows the percentage of the population aged 65 and over in 2014 and a prediction for 2050.

So, I lay before you two pieces of evidence. First – as we get older we spend less. And second – the populations of most developed countries are getting older.

Given this situation, it doesn’t matter what our useless rulers do as they play around with our economies, because demographics mean our spending will continue to go down.

What our rulers should be doing is managing the likely decrease in spending rather than trying to fight demographics.

And finally a third chart – rising debt levels. Western governments are borrowing and borrowing and borrowing to try to hide the fact that our welfare states (where the majority of people take more out than they pay in) are no longer affordable when our economies cannot grow:

Demographics mean our economies will stagnate and even decline as the population ages (and as we import millions of low-intelligence, unemployable, violent Third-World garbage). And ever-increasing borrowing is not a viable long-term solution.

We are heading for economic and social catastrophe. I’m sure all my readers can understand this, even though our politicians, economists and central bankers apparently can’t.

(Tomorrow – How to beat your wife)