April 10, 2006
THE DEMOGRAPHICS OF DOOM IN A NUTSHELL:
Old dorms fill need for nursing homes (YOSUKE FUKUOKA, 4/11/06, Japan Times)
There was a time when many companies had dormitories for young, single employees.During the bubble economy, corporations built luxurious apartments in prime locations in an effort to woo top-flight recruits.
But tougher conditions and staff cutbacks in the bubble's collapse have forced more and more firms to try to unload residential properties or convert them to other uses.
Another trend may help them out of their predicament. Japan's aging population has left nursing home operators scrambling for new facilities to meet growing demand. Now company dormitories are being remodeled to serve as private nursing homes.
Fewer young workers and more old retirees is a formula you can't make work. Posted by Orrin Judd at April 10, 2006 8:50 PM
Mr. Judd, your recent pronouncements on graying populations and birth rate declines reminds me of Mark Twains' comment about the weather.
So what exactly do you think these countries should do about their empty cribs and looming pension burdens? How would you force or encourage women to have 3 or more kids?
Funny this came up today. An unregenerate leftie told me yesterday that so many boomers will be retiring with less than ten thousand a year that abandoned army barracks will have to be pressed into use to house them.
You know the ones she means, they were too inhumane to house New Orleans refugees temporarily, but will do fine for permanent boomer housing.