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But why would people retiring cause plants to close.

The article talks about layoffs.

But if they are having layoffs, and people can't find work, that would indicate they do have workers, not a shortage of workers.

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Not just about the raw number of people. When your hear "the population is aging," it means the median age is increasing over time. It puts a lot of strain on an economy when the ratio of retirees to working age people gets too high. Retirees are expensive.

Perhaps it puts a lot of strain on an economy where 1% of the people get 50% of the wealth. Perhaps it is hard for current workers to send the lion's share of what they produce to the 1%, and still pay for the retirement of past workers.

The current trends are unsustainable, sure, but just unsustainable for our current economic regime.

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