The Washington Post keeps pushing the “hard to get good help” line, this time in reference to China. It told readers how the country is ending its one-child policy, but that many families are likely to still decide not to have more than one kid. The piece then told readers:

“That’s a problem for China. The people born in Mao’s era are growing old, and there will be far fewer people of working age to bear the economic burden.”

Actually, the declining ratio of workers to retirees is likely to have relatively little impact on China’s economy since the impact of even modest rates of productivity growth swamps the impact of demographics as third grade arithmetic students everywhere know.

It is striking to see the fears of running out of workers co-exist with the regular stories in the media about robots taking all the jobs. This shows the unbelievable bankruptcy of economic debate in the United States that these two directly opposing concerns exist side by side among people who consider themselves knowledgeable about economic policy.

Note: correction made, thanks heropass.