Demographics: China’s fertility rate drops to 0.93
Over the longer term, China's population is collapsing from 1.4 billion perhaps to 600 million or lower.
Public library usage has collapsed
My county recently opened new libraries – and one of them is in my city, where the square footage of the original library has been doubled.
Demographics: US probably saw a drop in population in 2025
For the first time in at least 50 years, the US population in 2025 likely dropped.
Innovation: The decline in the incidence of home structure fires
Since the 1970s, the incidence of structure fires has declined by 55%.
Economy: “Home prices have quadrupled relative to income”
This finance influencer chart is bogus.
Economy: What % of households have 0, 1, 2 or 2+ income earners
55-70% of US households have zero or one wage earner, contrary to the memes about "two wage earners" can't afford to live in the U.S. today.
Demographics: Most Americans live within a short distance of where they were born
Most Americans live close to their birthplace: about 60% live within 10 miles, and nearly 80% live within 100 miles of where they grew up.
Economy: What caused the Great Depression?
Speculative investments in stocks and real estate, fragile banking system, Federal reserve policy mistakes that made things worse. And what about "late stage capitalism"?
Personal finance: Klarna and personal finance
Is use of Buy Now, Pay Later a sign of stretched budgets? No. Almost all purchases are discretionary in nature, not necessities.
Demographics: World total fertility rate since 1960
The fertility rate is trending down globally since 1960.
Demographics, housing: What happened to mobile home parks?
Trailer parks/courts once provided low-cost housing options in the U.S. Since 1970, 1 in 3 trailer parks have closed.
Who invented popular programming languages?
Surprisingly, most of the major programming languages were invented by Baby Boomers, and PHP and Rust by Gen X.
Gen Z: “Choosing the soft life”
Gen Z says "Boomers had it easy" but simultaneously says they reject the work and burnout culture of their parents. A bit of a contradiction.
Demographics: Yet another US fertility rate chart
This one comes from: Social Security’s Financial Outlook: The 2025 Update in Perspective – Center for Retirement Research
Social Security was designed as a mostly “pay-as-you-go” system
In the 1980s onward, Social Security was a "pay as you go" system, about 90% funded by then current workers, who also funded the "trust fund".