No evidence ageing or declining populations compromise socio-economic performance of countries

Concerns about declining or ageing populations often centre on the fear that fewer people will translate to a weaker economy and lower living standards. But these fears are frequently based on oversimplified or misapplied interpretations of economic models, and appear to be driven more by political agendas rather than evidence. In reality, long-term prosperity depends more on how societies invest in education, skills, and technology, not just how many people they have. We examine national data at the global scale to test whether slower population growth or ageing populations are linked to worse economic or social outcomes. Using nine different indices of socio-economic performance (domestic comprehensive wealth, income equality, research and development expenditure, patent applications, human capital, corruption perception index, freedom, planetary pressure-adjusted Human Development Index, healthy life expectancy at birth), we find no evidence that they are. In fact, we find that countries with low or negative population growth perform better on average for all indicators, and that even within-country time series show that most older and slower-growing populations fare better on average. These findings challenge common assumptions and highlight the need to move beyond fear-based and politically motivated narratives toward a more informed understanding of what truly supports thriving societies.

Shooting hoax at Villanova spread panic during orientation: 'Harder to leave our children'

A campus alert had been sent around 4:30 p.m. ET during an orientation Mass welcoming new students, who had recently moved in on Aug. 20.

Con trai 22 tuổi đi theo chỉ dẫn từ các cuộc điện thoại, gia đình mất 3 tỷ đồng

Phòng Cảnh sát hình sự, Công an TPHCM vừa giải cứu thành công một nam thanh niên 22 tuổi bị một nhóm đối tượng lừa đảo bắt cóc qua mạng và ép gia đình chuyển gần 3 tỷ đồng tiền chuộc.

The Hoax of Semi-Freedom in Babylonia

This article maintains that the term “semi-free” for describing the personal status of individuals and population groups in ancient Mesopotamia is overused and underexplained. As long as this label is attached to any non-slave who happens to be burdened with duties of whatever kind, it remains a hollow cliché. It was the free, non-slave individual who was subjected to taxes and corvée, even if he was of high social standing. Declaring dependent groups, such as non-priestly temple personnel or foreign deportees settled on royal land, to be “semi-free,” despite being qualified to own and bequeath property, live in families, and perform state duties, limits the number of “really free” individuals considerably, basically, to male heads of wealthy households and noble descent only. Even their sons, wives, and daughters experienced diminished freedom of whatever fraction one wishes to choose – even more so their underlings and the dependents of state and temple households. Manumission records are the key to our understanding of personal status, as they spell out the steps necessary for status change and, thereby, the features pertaining to these steps. Relying on the Neo-Babylonian archives, this article distinguishes between several types of manumission, specifically the redemption and oblation type. Based on insights into the mechanics of these procedures, this article argues that the place of an individual within a household and his relation to the head of this household were additional parameters, besides the legal status (slave vs. non-slave), that defined his social standing.

Five envelopes containing suspicious white powder discovered at NYC ICE field office, building evacuated – never sleep