Efforts to increase the number of births fail when people are faced with ever increasing child care and uncertainty in the economic and political world, whilst environmental concerns and climate change are growing ever more concerning.
The only solution is migration, and we have seen across the world how unpopular that can become as numbers grow. It also highlights the problems of cutting foreign aid to ciuntries like Nigeria and Mali where there is still rapid population growth (albeit at diminishing % points). In the UK, due to a relatively large cosmopolitan population the trends are only just starting to be seen statistically.
The job market will continue to change. Autimatic vacuum cleaners, automation of chain restaurants (I believe McDonalds are trialling automatic drive throughs) will reduce the need for lower skilled workers. Car mechanics will be reduced as electric cars need less maintenance. What is education doing in response to the challenges that our children will face in the future?
Is it the east Lothian Debate which questions why Scottish MP’s have a vite on issues in Parliament solely concerning England? Maybe debates about education should be confined to those with recent involvement in education – House of Lords reform anyone? Then I remembered reading that Guiliss had once been a teacher, although that would seem to be as hard to believe as tooth fairies!
I can argue that we have too many people in this country anyway. Are we building houses on greenfield sites that will not be needed in 50 years (many will fall down about then if reports are correct on some. new build houses!).
Back to politics! And South Korea. They are debating reducing immigration controls. As everywhere this will feed nationalistic tensions and extremist groups. People generally do not like change – unless it is on their terms. Brexiteers are whimping due to everything not being how they thought it should. This leads to support for bullies (eg.Trump) and fantasists and liars (eg.Johnson) and the sychophants with whom they have a symbiotic relationship (eg.Gove).
What to do? First and foremost is to reform education. Too many students are being failed by their qualifications and ability to succeed in areas of no point. I will take humanities as an area here – I think it is vitally important that all students understand te basics, but whether they understand how an ox-bow lake is formed, or how many wives Henry VIII had, or what is the capotal of Laos, or how many disciples JC had, are all easily answered via google. Cognitive thinging and understanding are much more important and difficult skills. I do not believe we should be teaching for todays employment market as this will change rapidly. Butwe will. need more students with IT ability – not just typing, opening and sending attachments – but coding.
As ever it comes back to what do we do about the Wayne’s and Sharon’s . Spend their time on social media and “infuencer” sites. I guess there will always be a place for the numbskulls – but fewer of them. Children from poorer backgrounds do less well in education. This is not a rocket science revelation. But is teaching them quadrilateral equations really necessary, or valuable to them, society or anyone? I am sure mist could learn a skill that would benefit them and society.
Maybe the Luddites were correct all along – with a few midifications over the last 310 years I suspect we would have a better society? Will the population demographic change, which is happening, have an impact on globalisation? Theoretically globalisation will need mire freedom of movement, but to maintain the subservance of the people in a country it will need the globalisers to vilify the very people they rely on.