Uzbeks in training in Uzbekistan to boost Japan's logistics industry as truck drivers

Recommendable! An aging and shrinking population in Japan.

Why is Japan not developing robo trucks? Instead of teaching Uzbeks to speak Japanese and to drive trucks?

(1829) Uzbeks in training to boost Japan's logistics industryーNHK WORLD-JAPAN NEWS - YouTube

Yale University: The unforeseen consequences of the ‘great aging’ of America or Gerontocracy in America

Food for thought! What is democracy by elected representatives? A tyranny of the  majority? 

Is this Yale professor inciting/stoking an uprising/revolution of the younger against the elderly?

His chosen dichotomy is dubious and very simplistic! His prescriptions are even more dangerous and are calling for big government if not socialism!

According to Google Scholar this professor "Samuel Moyn

Professor of Law and History, Harvard University" has only a total citation count of 14521 (as of 7/30/2026 since 2021), but he has authored over 480 publications. Not very impressive!

Caveat: I did not read his book.

"Yale law professor Samuel Moyn’s new book argues that a “gerontocracy” now holds sway in America, with wealth and power disproportionately concentrated in the hands of older people. In a Q&A, Moyn explains how that happened, why it’s a problem, and how we might fix it."

"What Moyn calls “the great aging” has, he says, transformed America into a society in which older people control a disproportionate amount of political power and wealth [???] and “hoard” jobs and housing [???], depriving the young of opportunity and political say. 

Some of the statistics Moyn cites: The median age of congresspeople is more than 60. The median age of voters is 52; in some campaigns, donor ages average as high as 70.

Workers over the age of 55 now comprise nearly a quarter of the workforce, compared to 10 percent in 1990. ...

“If Americans deserve a society that is oriented to innovation and problem-solving, and equips and launches the young into the prime of life, the country is heading the wrong direction,” Moyn writes. ...

His book prescribes a host of possible strategies for wresting control from the aged, from making voting mandatory [???] and boosting public funding [???] of elections to reevaluating age-related tax breaks and bringing back mandatory retirements. Finally, he suggests that a more socialistic model of elder care in America would help reduce the angst around aging that compels older workers to cling to jobs and wealth. ..."

Yale Today

The unforeseen consequences of the ‘great aging’ of America

Poor countries are aging fast but can’t keep up with the cost. Really!

Maybe we need lots and cheap robots to assist the aging populations!

Maybe we need more machine learning & AI to quickly develop new medical treatments for older individuals!

"Developing nations like Thailand are growing old before they are growing rich [???]. Their societies are aging quickly but without the pension systems and personal savings that sustain older people in most rich countries."

The Wall Street Journal What's news

China shutters 30,000 preschools and primary schools in a single year

Wow! Signs of a shrinking and aging population! Demography is destiny!

China shutters 30,000 preschools and primary schools in a single year - Nikkei Asia "Prolonged demographic slump is reshaping the country's vast education system"

The pig in the python or how successive population cohorts influence economics and labor supply

Demography is destiny!

Like so many economic and social science theories, they explain historical data very well for a time and make reasonable predictions, but eventually they fail.

"In 1978, Richard Easterlin stood before the Population Association of America and predicted that the wages of young American men — falling since 1973 — would turn around by 1984.

He had earned the confidence. As we have discussed in the past, Easterlin’s relative cohort size hypothesis was the most successful applied demography of its era, and it had already explained the biggest population event in American history—the Baby Boom. He replaced the mysticism about returning GIs, swooning Rosie Riveters, and suburban optimism with actual social science. ...

Easterlin found the explanation for the unexpected Baby Boom in economics. The Depression produced small birth cohorts. Those cohorts came of working age in a booming postwar economy and immigration tightly restricted by the Immigration Act of 1924. The “lucky few” folks walked into a market starved for workers. They got high wages relative to what they’d grown up expecting, and so they married early and had a lot of children.

Tight labor markets and closed borders made the Baby Boom. That is the core of Easterlin’s thesis, and it is the part of his work that has aged best. ..."

From the significance and abstract:

"Significance

The large size of the baby boom cohort depressed economic opportunities for that generation as it flooded the labor force in the 1970s.

Contrary to the predictions of Richard Easterlin’s relative cohort size hypothesis, however, there was no rebound of opportunities with the advent of smaller cohorts in the mid-1980s; incomes of young adults remained depressed until the 2010s.

New measures of flows into and out of the labor force make it simple to assess the relative impact of retirement, female labor-force participation, and immigration in concert with the size of birth cohorts entering the labor force. The results suggest that the departure of baby boomers from the labor force will have profound implications for economic opportunities of new workers.

Abstract

This analysis revisits the relative cohort size hypothesis proposed by demographer Richard Easterlin in the 1960s.

Easterlin argued that the economic and social prospects of a generation are influenced by the size of the cohort relative to adjacent cohorts.

He hypothesized that relative cohort size affects wages, employment, marriage, and fertility decisions.

The theory fits the data well for the period from 1940 to 1980 but fails in later decades.

I present a more nuanced view of the impact of demographic factors on worker competition through the lens of a measure of decennial labor-force flows. This approach allows consideration of the effects of retirement, female labor-force participation, and immigration on labor-market competition.

I calculate these flows for the period from 1910 to 2040 and propose an index of employment competition. The results show that trends in labor-market competition are consistent with wage trends of young workers since 1940. Projections to 2040 show that we are on the verge of a radical reshaping of labor markets in which new workers will be in extremely short supply."

Breitbart Business Digest

The pig in the python: US decennial labor flows and economic opportunity, 1910–2040 (no public access)

South Africa says 53,000 foreigners deported in campaign

Good news!

"The South African government says more than 53,000 foreign nationals have been deported or repatriated since launching a "migration management" campaign five weeks ago.

Most were from Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique, officials say, and the number is likely to rise as repatriations and deportations continue.

South Africa is carrying out one of its biggest crackdowns on undocumented migrants in years, following weeks of anti-immigration protests that have seen violence, intimidation and looting. ..."

South Africa says 53,000 foreigners deported in campaign

The Great Fragmentation: Why the institutions of liberal democracy must be reinvented

Recommendable! Food for thought!

"The received wisdom held that the world was converging. Globalisation, the internet, mass migration — all were supposed to flatten differences and draw humanity toward a shared modernity. Yet the reality unfolding around us tells a fundamentally different story. Our societies may be converging in many respects. Yet, at the same time, they are fracturing in much more others. The forces reshaping the modern world are producing not homogenisation but an accelerating diversification of values, identities, and ways of life. The institutions we rely on to hold them together were designed for a world that is rapidly disappearing.

This is not a political observation but a structural one, with implications that go far beyond the culture wars dominating our current moment.

Technology Divides as Much as It Connects ...

Institutions Built for a Different World ..."

The Great Fragmentation - by Institute of Economic Affairs

Over 8.5 Million Ukrainian refugees Abroad Since 2014

This is huge! The current population of the Ukraine is estimated at about 39.5 million.

In 2014, Putin the Terrible annexed Crimea and President Obama and the rest of the West did not do much about it! Very regrettable and a huge mistake!

Over 8.5 Million Ukrainians Displaced Abroad Since 2014, Ombudsman Warns "Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets announced that 8.5 million Ukrainians have fled abroad since the onset of Russian aggression in 2014. Speaking at the Global Ukrainian Summit, Lubinets cited UN data showing that more than 5.7 million of these departures occurred after the 2022 full-scale invasion began. The Ombudsman called for the continuation of international temporary protection statuses until active hostilities end, while condemning illegal foreign seizures and adoptions of Ukrainian children."

Japan's fertility rate at record low; 10th straight year of decline

When will the Japanese people go extinct? No more Sushi, Samurais and Sumo wrestler! Just kidding!

Demography is destiny!

Japan's fertility rate at record low; 10th straight year of decline - Nikkei Asia "Births in 2025 lowest since survey began in 1899" (behind paywall)

Source

So gesund fühlen sich Senioren in der EU

Ein erstaunliches Gefälle zwischen den Mitgliedsländern der EU! Ziemlich unerwartet!

Wie gross ist der Unterschied zwischen gesund fühlen und tatsächlich gesund sein? Eine ungeklärte Frage!

So gesund fühlen sich Senioren in der EU - iwd.de "Fragt man die Älteren in den EU-Mitgliedsstaaten, wie es ihnen gesundheitlich geht, erhält man je nach Land positivere oder pessimistischere Einschätzungen. Die Senioren in Deutschland halten sich, wenig überraschend, für vergleichweise krank."

Lifestyle, Zeit, Geld, Karriere: Hund statt Kind

Auch ein Thema, dass seit mehreren Jahrzehnten immer wieder aufgegriffen wird.

"Regen, Kälte, Wind. Noch einmal sich hochraffen, um mit dem Hund Gassi zu gehen, eine letzte Runde vor dem Schlafen. Für jeden Menschen ohne Vierbeiner klingt das womöglich schon wie eine Last, viel Mühe und Einschränkung. Für Menschen mit Kindern muss es lächerlich wirken. ..."

Große Teile der Wirtschaft setzen nicht mehr auf Bundesregierung

U.S. Records Net Negative Migration Across Every Metro Area With illegal border crossings at their lowest level since the 1970s

Good news! Massive illegal immigration like under the administration of the senile and demented 46. President finally came to an end!

"The United States has achieved a historic turnaround on immigration, with net migration falling across every single metropolitan area in the country last year. ... 

With illegal border crossings at their lowest level since the 1970s, the U.S. recorded net negative migration last year for the first time in at least 50 years — reversing decades of open border failures that undermined American workers, strained public resources, and eroded national sovereignty. ..."

America First in Action: U.S. Records Net Negative Migration Across Every Metro Area – The White House

Remote work by couples may help boost fertility

Closeness makes a difference! Just one touch away! :-)

Governments of so many countries around the world are struggling to get the birth rate up of their population to counteract e.g. aging populations. How about tax incentives for couples to work from home and their employers? :-)

"A new working paper suggests that remote work may help boost fertility. Using survey data from 38 high- and middle-income countries, the researchers found that couples who work from home at least one day a week have about 0.32 more children on average than those who don’t."

Doomslayer: Progress Roundup

130,000 individuals Missing or about 1% of population: Inside Mexico’s Escalating Disappearance Crisis with Palki Sharma

Bad news! Horrible! And the disappearances have accelerated in recent years (like under President AMLO).

How much is due to organised crime or policing activity?

(242) 130,000 Missing: Inside Mexico’s Escalating Disappearance Crisis | Vantage with Palki Sharma - YouTube

Switzerland to Vote in referendum on Capping Population at 10 Million with Palki Sharma

Palki's arguments are screwed up in more than one way! Switzerland is a small, wealth country. Thus a 10 million population limit is not a bad idea! No the population will not shrink! Switzerland is too attractive!

I think, Palki is not familiar with robots who will assist an aging population!

(256) Switzerland to Vote on Capping Population at 10 Million | Vantage with Palki Sharma - YouTube

Systemic racism accounts for much of the difference between the average life expectancy of Black and white adults. Really!

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Washington Compost spread again dubious theories or junk science!

Do not black Americans suffer from higher death rates due to smoking? What about violent deaths? What about obesity? The abstract of this study does not mention any of these factors!

"The prevalence of two proteins connected to inflammation and stress supports the “weathering hypothesis” that systemic racism accounts for much of the difference between the average life expectancy of Black and white adults, per a new study published in JAMA Network Open. ..."

From the key points and abstract:

"Key Points

Question

Are elevated cumulative stress across the lifespan and inflammation associated with racial disparities in mortality between Black and White populations?

Findings

Within this longitudinal cohort study of 1554 individuals, greater cumulative stress across the lifespan and higher inflammation partially mediated elevated mortality among Black participants.

Meaning  These findings suggest that heightened cumulative stress and elevated inflammation are plausible mechanisms through which mortality disparities arise between Black and White individuals; there is a continued need for preventions, interventions, and policies that limit stress exposure and its potential impacts on health to reduce racial disparities in mortality.

Abstract

Importance  In the US, Black individuals experience higher mortality risk than White individuals. Greater stress exposure and its biological sequelae are theorized to drive this heightened risk.

Objective

To evaluate whether greater cumulative lifespan stress exposure and elevated inflammation are associated with increased mortality risk among Black compared with White US individuals.

Design, Setting, and Participants

This longitudinal cohort study (St Louis Personality and Aging Network) recruited participants from 2007 to 2011 from the St Louis, Missouri, metropolitan area. ...

Exposure

A latent lifespan cumulative stress factor was derived by applying bifactor confirmatory analysis to assessments of childhood maltreatment, lifetime trauma exposure, research assistant–verified stressful life events, major experiences of discrimination, and indices of socioeconomic status (ie, highest level of self and parental education, and annual household income).

Main Outcomes and Measures

C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) were measured from serum collected from 2014 to 2019 following all indices included in the cumulative stress factor. A CRP–IL-6 composite was formed. Mortality and cause of death were obtained from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Death Index queried in December 2023. Linear regression and accelerated failure time models estimated mediational effects (ie, direct and indirect associations).

Results

Among 1554 participants (505 Black [32.5%]; 1049 White [67.5%]; 853 [54.9%] female; mean [SD] age at baseline, 58.1 [2.9] years), Black individuals had shorter survival times than White individuals (time ratio, 0.937 [95% CI, 0.918 to 0.957]). Cumulative lifetime stress and the CRP–IL-6 composite, which were each higher among Black compared with White individuals, partially mediated the associations between race and mortality, accounting for 49.3% of racial disparities in mortality (indirect associations: serial, b = −0.006 [95% CI, −0.008 to −0.044]; cumulative stress, b = −0.009 [95% CI, −0.017 to −0.002]; CRP–IL-6, b = −0.016 [95% CI, −0.025 to −0.009]).

Conclusions and Relevance

In this cohort study of St Louis adults, heightened cumulative lifespan stress and elevated inflammation were associated with shorter survival among Black participants, suggesting these pathways may represent plausible mechanisms mediating racial disparities in mortality among Black and White US individuals. The findings underscore the need for policies that address structural racism, alongside treatments that reduce inflammation and limit stress exposure to reduce mortality disparities."

Global Health NOW: Measles Marches Across Europe; Tributes to William Foege; and Classifying Postpartum Psychosis

Stress and inflammation in Black communities shortens survival, study says. "New evidence shows how discrimination shortens lives in Black communities"

Cumulative Lifespan Stress, Inflammation, and Racial Disparities in Mortality Between Black and White Adults (open access)

Figure.  Results of Linear Regression and Accelerated Failure Time Models

Roughly 10 million US adults reported microdosing psilocybin, LSD, or MDMA in 2025.

One nation under drugs?

"... Psilocybin (also known as magic mushrooms) remains the most used psychedelic. As the figure below shows, more than 4 percent of respondents reported using psilocybin in the last year. That’s about 11 million Americans. Psilocybin was followed by MDMA, Amanita muscaria mushrooms, ketamine, and LSD. ...

But one of the biggest takeaways from the survey is just how common it is for people who use psychedelics to microdose—to take a very small amount without intending to alter their state of consciousness.

• Roughly 10 million adults reported microdosing psilocybin, LSD, or MDMA in 2025.
• Among those who used psilocybin in the past year, 69 percent microdosed at least once.
• The total number of days that U.S. adults used psilocybin in 2025 exceeded 200 million. Nearly half of those days involved microdosing.

..."

Millions of Americans Are Microdosing Psychedelics

U.S. Psychedelic Use and Microdosing in 2025: Insights from a Probability-Based and Nationally Representative Survey | RAND

How Robot Housekeepers Could Spark a New Baby Boom

An interesting suggestion, but I am not entirely convinced or the new baby boom could be much less than previous baby booms.

Robots that can make the live of the growing population of older humans easier are probably more welcome!

What is wrong with lower global fertility? Maybe not much! Currently, about 8.3 billion humans roam this planet. Maybe too many?

"... There is much disagreement on what caused the 1950s baby boom, but one theory is that the rise of time-saving technologies played a key role. Between the 1920s and 1950s, domestic responsibilities were transformed as the number of households equipped with electric appliances, including refrigerators, stoves, vacuums and washing machines, rose dramatically. The new machines lessened the burden of household labor, freeing up time and making parenthood easier. ..."

How Robot Housekeepers Could Spark a New Baby Boom "The potential of technology to free humanity from the burden of household labor deserves more attention."

What is the ratio of transgender women to transgender men in the US?

Based on news media coverage there should be a very significant imbalance between the two in favor of transgender women.

News media, academia, Google and Bing use at least three very deceptive tricks to report the ratio (or to inflate the numbers):

1. Heavy reliance of self reporting via opinion surveys
2. They mix in nonbinary individuals (whatever this means)
3. Very high, disproportionate inclusion of teenagers and young adults in these surveys. Teenagers and young adults are known to be susceptible to manias, current influences and hype etc.

Maybe transgender men are more hiding their identity for understandable reasons and they may not share showers and locker rooms as much.

According to Google a "full transition" (either way including necessary surgeries) costs can "exceed often $100,000".

When you ask Google it will give you a politically correct answer with a strong leftist tilt: "While older data suggested more trans women than men, recent U.S. estimates from the Williams Institute (2025) show a near-even split among transgender adults (around 33-34% each for trans women and men), with a significant portion (about 33%) identifying as nonbinary, indicating evolving self-identification trends, especially among youth, notes The Guardian [???] and USA Today."

Notice also how Google mixes in self-declared nonbinary individuals to obfuscate the answer. 

Bing also provides a similar, but more diverse answer to the question: "

The ratio of transgender men to transgender women varies across different studies:

• According to a UCLA study, approximately 34% are transgender men and 33% are transgender women, indicating a nearly equal distribution.
• The National Center for Transgender Equality's survey found that 23% identify as trans men and 47% as trans women, suggesting a higher prevalence of trans women.
• Some sources suggest a general ratio of 2:1 or higher for trans women over trans men. 

Overall, the ratio can vary, but recent studies indicate a significant presence of both transgender men and women in the population."

The other trick being used to 

"At least 2.8 million Americans [???] – including 724,000 in the 13-17 age bracket – identify as transgender, according to a recent analysis of data from federal and state health departments by the University of California, Los Angeles.

Of the 2.1 million adults who identify as transgender, about 33% are transgender women. About 34% are transgender men and 33% are transgender nonbinary adults, the UCLA study said." (Source)

How Many Adults and Youth Identify as Transgender in the United States? (This is one of the main recent and relied upon reports on this subject) "Using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, and advanced statistical modeling, this study estimates the population of adults and youth who identify as transgender nationally and in each of the 50 states, plus the District of Columbia. It also provides estimates regarding gender, age, and race/ethnicity."

Notice what a shoddy chart by the UCLA School of Law, the absolute figures for each group are missing (they only appear when your cursor hovers above the greenish bar)

Wieder ist eine Großstadt von Asylbewerbern ins Sozialsystem der Bananenrepublik D eingewandert

Typisches aus der Bananenrepublik D! Dann war da noch die SED Kanzlerin Merkel!

Kriegsflüchtlinge, wie die Ukrainer, sollten nicht mit Asylbewerbern vermengt werden! Warum bekommen die Kriegsflüchtlinge Bürgergeld?

"... Hinzu kommt: Deutschland nahm 2025 voraussichtlich rund 80.000 Ukrainer auf, die statt Asylleistungen kostspieligeres Bürgergeld erhalten. Insgesamt leben derzeit über 1,3 Millionen Ukrainer überwiegend vom deutschen Sozialsystem. ..."

Wieder ist eine Großstadt ins Sozialsystem eingewandert "Zwar sind die Asylbewerberzahlen im vergangenen Jahr gesunken, doch die Zahl der Anträge liegt immer noch bei über 168.000. Aus der Ukraine kamen rund 80.000 Menschen – die statt Asylleistungen Bürgergeld empfangen."