> (good population age distribution, the classic "pyramid")
I would say that this is part of the problem: relying on something that is basically a ponzi scheme. Of course the European social systems work if you can constantly increase your population. But this doesn't work in the real life - the area of the country doesn't increase, therefore you can't increase your population infinitely. The reason young folks nowadays don't have 3 kids is that it's just not economically feasible any more. Add the fact that the top of the pyramid is getting wider every year (life expectancy is increasing) and here we are. The system was flawed since the beginning and now we are hitting the limits.
Ponzi schemes are much more common in nature than humans like to think. The default population dynamics for most species are feast-or-famine: population grows exponentially until it exhausts all available food sources, and then mass numbers of individuals die off all at once, leaving more resources for the survivors. Hell, life is a ponzi scheme: our cells divide, accumulating genetic mistakes (= technical debt) each time, until our body's ability to repair the damage is overcome by the accumulated mistakes. And then we die, hopefully having produced a fresh new individual to repeat the process.
Assuming no great technological breakthrough, the same thing will happen on a societal level: we'll die. But then, we knew there was 100% chance of that happening from the beginning.
I would say that this is part of the problem: relying on something that is basically a ponzi scheme. Of course the European social systems work if you can constantly increase your population. But this doesn't work in the real life - the area of the country doesn't increase, therefore you can't increase your population infinitely. The reason young folks nowadays don't have 3 kids is that it's just not economically feasible any more. Add the fact that the top of the pyramid is getting wider every year (life expectancy is increasing) and here we are. The system was flawed since the beginning and now we are hitting the limits.