Japan's shrinking, aging population is quietly wrecking its economy, and the same trap is closing around the US and other rich nations.

• Japan is heading toward one worker supporting one retiree, with taxes and social security already eating nearly half of people's income.
• Birth rates crashed not from apathy but money: unstable, low-paying jobs since the 1990s mean many young men can't hit the income needed to marry.
• Women who have kids get pushed out of good jobs and stuck in low-pay contract work, so millions choose a paycheck over a baby.
• The country now has 9 million abandoned homes, worker shortages that leave even rich people unable to get goods delivered, and young people shifting their savings into US stocks and foreign funds instead of a shrinking home market.
• Robots can make things but can't buy them, so automation fixes supply but not the collapse in demand from having fewer people.

Outlook: Japan's decline is likely to deepen, and the US, Canada, and Europe are expected to hit the same wall as immigration stops being enough to paper over falling birth rates.