Moving beyond Europe's denial to despair: muddling through the messy middle

Stop catastrophizing. Start building.

Europe’s demographic dividend has flipped to a demographic drag. The EU’s old-age dependency ratio — 33% today — is projected to hit 55% by 2050: fewer than two working-age adults for every retiree. This mirrors Japan, South Korea, and increasingly China. The growth model that worked for 70 years is breaking.

Unless we automate our way through it.