
Demographic change will have big economic impacts - prostoalex
http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21667928-demographic-change-will-have-big-economic-impacts-greys-elegy
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hwstar
I. Regarding Zero-hours contracts: The UK worker should be thankful they don't
have the following US labour "freedoms":

1\. "Employment At Will" 2\. Privately insured healthcare 3\. Exempt
employment and no limit on hours per week demands.

American workers are at a significant disadvantage to their first world
counterparts.

II. I don't see labour market dynamics changing any time soon for the good of
the average worker in a first-world country. There's an army of reserve labour
in the African nations, India, Cuba, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and maybe even North
Korea.

III. In the best case, living standards in the first world countries will
deteriorate and meet the the improving living standards third world countries
in the middle. In the worst case, there will be war. War brings economic
opportunity on a big scale to the world's working population. After the
depression in the 30's it took World War II to improve things for the US and
UK. Even Germany and Japan recovered nicely.

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dang
Url changed from [http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/27/the-
era...](http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/27/the-era-of-cheap-
labour-is-over?CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2), which points to this.

