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“The times they are a-changin’” is a quote from Bob Dylan back in 1964, and boy are they ever. Artificial intelligence, the breakdown of the post-World War II world order, demographic changes here and abroad, and more are all mashing together to create plenty of disruption for business and government leaders alike.
For example, in a recent study by Gallup, only 21% of U.S. families led by 30-year-olds have children. In 1980, 38% of families led by 30-year-olds had kids, and in the 1950s, the number was 50%. I have written before about how lower birth rates are going to impact employers everywhere, and Delaware is no exception. What also needs to be understood is that fewer young people mean fewer workers will replace recently retired individuals, and that will have major impacts on public revenues and spending.
Public policy evolves, and the models of old that created publicly funded programs were based upon an economic model that no longer works. When families had two, three, four, or maybe even more children, revenue forecasts to support those programs were based upon the theory that a growing number of taxpaying citizens would make all of this viable. The math simply no longer works. We need to quickly “right-size” our spending priorities.
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