3  Constraining these outlays by any mechanism other than prices will involve some form of rationing - an approach that in the past has not been popular in the United States. turnaround. But rising pressures on retirement incomes and a growing scarcity of experienced labor could induce greater labor-force participation.
Immigration, if we choose to expand it, could prove an even more potent antidote for slowing growth in the working-age population. As the influx of foreign workers in response to the tight labor markets of the 1990s showed, immigration does respond to labor shortages. An expansion of labor-force participation by immigrants and the healthy elderly offers some offset to an aging population.