The demographics of Western nations are so appalling that unless we have a social revolution, and soon, we are doomed. That is not being melodramatic. Last week the European Commission hosted the Brussels Economic Forum and the problem of ageing populations was discussed and the figures couldn’t have been more stark. 

According to current projections, the old age dependency ratio (the number of people over 65 as a percentage of the working age population) will rise in Europe from 22 per cent today to almost 50 per cent by 2050. 

In the US the ratio will rise from just under 20 per cent to just over 35 per cent. In China it will go from 10 per cent to 40 per cent and in Japan it could reach a staggering, utterly suicidal 80 per cent.

These figures are indicative of societies that are thinking only of the present and not of the future. Their populations are seeking to maximise their utility in the here and now and don’t want to make any sacrifices for the future, least of all to have children at anything like replacement levels. In this regard the US is considerably better off than Europe meaning the US will have more of a future. Europe is entering a period of very radical decline. 

What is to be done? What is needed is a radical social revolution that is pro-family and pro-natal. But current thinking in the West is fixated on self-fulfilment and tends to see children as an obstacle to personal freedom and the achievement of gender equality (unless the children are put in crèches, of course). Short of a social revolution there is simply no way out of the coming demographic death spiral.