Aging populations are definitely hitting Asian countries first, but this is indicative of a larger problem. I wonder how the west is going to handle dealing with this in 20 years while also not being able to rely on china for cheap labor. Governments and investors burying their heads in the sand until the last moment certainly inst helping.
Most of the west has already been dealing with this for decades, and the way they typically deal with it is through offshore manufacturing and immigration. The process has been to identify a low cost nation, build up enough infrastructure to work from there, move manufacturing to that nation, and then when the nation becomes wealthier and no longer able to be exploited, restart the process. We’ve seen this cycle with India and China, and now it’s starting to branch out (a lot of South American nations are being bulked up as “near-shore” partners that are cheap, but also in the same timezone and closer for shipping). Africa is another continent with a lot of potential future options.
Aging populations are definitely hitting Asian countries first, but this is indicative of a larger problem. I wonder how the west is going to handle dealing with this in 20 years while also not being able to rely on china for cheap labor. Governments and investors burying their heads in the sand until the last moment certainly inst helping.
Most of the west has already been dealing with this for decades, and the way they typically deal with it is through offshore manufacturing and immigration. The process has been to identify a low cost nation, build up enough infrastructure to work from there, move manufacturing to that nation, and then when the nation becomes wealthier and no longer able to be exploited, restart the process. We’ve seen this cycle with India and China, and now it’s starting to branch out (a lot of South American nations are being bulked up as “near-shore” partners that are cheap, but also in the same timezone and closer for shipping). Africa is another continent with a lot of potential future options.