I am the leader of a large country. My position and tenure as leader is secure.
My objective is to ensure that my country becomes globally dominant. My timeframe for achieving my objective can be measured in decades, rather than years. I have taken steps to project influence and power at a regional and, increasingly, at a global level.
Economic development within my country depends on constant high levels of production and growth. I realise that future demographic shifts in the population will impede growth. In particular, the ageing of the population will create the need for increased social security nets, requiring higher public investment and revenue generation among younger workers. This situation is exacerbated by previous shortsighted measures aimed at limiting population growth.
I therefore need to determine a way in which I can reverse this demographic shift. Increased immigration is not feasible. Increasing the birth rate is difficult as urbanisation increases. I decide therefore that I just reduce the number of elderly people.
i instruct my scientists to create and leak a virus that disproportionately affects elderly people. The death rate must be significant, but not too deadly so as to allow it to burn out quickly. Asymptomatic transmission makes it virtually impossible to control and allows for it to spread quickly and efficiently within the population. A neat side effect is that it also destabilises my most aggressive geo political rivals. By eventually releasing the vaccine (pre-prepared) I will elevate my nations standing in the world and expand influence through soft power initiatives eg free mass vaccinations.
Implausible?
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Implausible
Reverence for elders is embedded too deeply
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Oh man, I love text based role play games.
: Pick up fire.
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Don't think it meaningfully affected the number of elderly people.
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Go to page 37
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:throw sandwich into cave
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The economist was always full of articles about how China was going to get old before it got rich
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Interesting to see how some people have interpreted this.
confirmation bias?
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Nearly all nations have a boomer problem in terms of them being the pig in python demographic segment that is an increasing financial burden on the stage.
It’s not a uniquely Chinese issue.
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Precisely
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So your conspiracy theory is that the VuVu is a cunning plan to slim down the Boomer population so that everyone else doesn’t have to fund their pensions?
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Heh @ Pinkus
Not implausible in itself, but demonstrably and utterly implausible in light of the containment efforts by China following the outbreak.
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“I’m worried about growth so let’s do something with an effect on a par with the Great Depression. That’ll get those economic fires burning.”
You could argue they underestimated the world reaction to it - but they were the ones who started welding people into buildings.
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Some countries’ economies are growing again...
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Given that they’re quite happy to run massive budget deficits now, using the BoE to fund it, I’d say no probably not.
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If that was the plan it seems to have failed. It's not as if the virus has made a meaningful dent in the population, elderly or otherwise.
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