RE: Could childless leaders be the death of Europe?
Sweden is pretty much done :(
What most don't see on the surface is so much deeper than what visibly manifests already. This already predetermined the trend and the direction beyond of point of no return. Regardless of whether future politicians will have kids or not.
The whole Europe is slowly but surely is following the trend and probably will be over in our lifetimes. :(
The worst is that there is no real freedom of speech anymore and problems are not recognized, while those that are recognized are not dealt with (the real roots of them). People who sound legitimate alarms silenced. Those few who are not silenced ridiculed and shamed and blamed for speaking out and certainly not listened to. Largely ignored even by their peers. They certainly have no power to change anything because there is no critical mass. Most people are sheep. Politicians have their own agenda and don't represent the will of the people anymore. (Did they ever?) When there will be a critical mass it will be way too late already. That's the time when the society will explode and there will be civil unrest in lots of places.
Maybe I'm just too pessimistic about it but when I try to model in my mind where things could go from here and how, based on the patterns and trends that I can clearly see, unfortunately I don't see a rosy outcome no matter how I look at it.
Hope for the best though.
Overall, things tend to get better. But usually only after they got worse. Which makes sense if you assume some sort of cycle mechanics, ie. a complacent voter base that needs to be awakened from its sleep into which it fell after a long period of relative calm.
Except when something crosses a point of no return. Then no matter who you vote for will have the same problem on their hands that will take generations to solve. Also painful to solve. Most politicians would go populist route rather than honestly present painful cures. People would rather rob their children and grand children but would not vote for painful measures now.