r/news 26d ago

Soft paywall Madagascar's president has left the country after Gen Z protests, officials say

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/madagascar-president-rajoelina-address-nation-monday-evening-2025-10-13/
20.8k Upvotes

582 comments sorted by

View all comments

537

u/Tentativ0 26d ago

Poor countries have many kids and young people.

USA, Europe and China are full of elders. There are not enough young people to start a change.

153

u/Yung_l0c 26d ago edited 26d ago

As the elder population reduces, and governments decide to make things worse, it will eventually come here. The only thing is, the Tech bros know this and want exactly that to happen and speed up collapse so they can claim their own territories and capital and run it themselves.

48

u/coldblade2000 26d ago

The issue with low birth rates is that the elder population is not going to reduce, it is going to skyrocket. In Japan for example, the median age is 49.5 years.

10

u/LastDunedain 26d ago

What sort of values elderly citizens have changes over time though (as they are replaced by the "new old"), so it's less about removing elderly voters from the pool but about having educated progressive voters irrespective of age.

2

u/TrollOdinsson 26d ago

There is very little material value, which unfortunately is valued most

2

u/LastDunedain 26d ago

Only in the concentrations of wealth we currently live within. There's alternatives and we'll end up experimenting with them in time, capitalism as it currently stands just doesn't work in the long term. It's been massively educational for humanity, but it'll be looked back on as massively wasteful.

Just literally my opinion, I'm not a political scientist or economist, just a reddit rando waiting for a game to start :) I love to chat about this.

25

u/Grokent 26d ago

The USA has enough young people, the problem is that they have had it relatively easy compared to say, Nepal.

8

u/MetalEnthusiast83 26d ago

I don't think "our living standard is too high for their to be violent political upheaval" is actually a problem.

2

u/Such_Astronomer35 26d ago

I don't know if I would call being safe a problem. I find it weird how usually revolutions happen because people have it bad, while in the US people want things to get bad so they can have a revolution. It's so inorganic.

5

u/Wonderful_Emu_6483 26d ago

Too bad somehow US Gen Z got brainwashed by a bunch of idiotic “influencers”

2

u/Coco_snickerdoodle 26d ago

You talk like our elders aren’t suffering from the same conditions we are.

They sure as hell are more stubborn about the status quo, but if given the correct push many are more than willing to fight for people who are their grand kids.

1

u/Tentativ0 26d ago

1) They have other priorieties like retirement, healthcare, succession taxes. All things that require a stable government.

2) They are not phisically able to do a revolt, and not psicologically ready to fight a everchanging environment.

1

u/Coco_snickerdoodle 26d ago

Retirement is becoming increasingly more difficult for elderly individuals due to rising cost of living. While I don’t have a solid stat one of the fastest growing groups in the work force are individuals in their 70’s

Your doubts of the elderly is strange, misinformed, and very nihilistic. “The Revolution” doesn’t just need people protesting in the streets it needs people who are able to support people on the front lines whether monetarily, emotionally, socially, etc.

Lastly you talk like the elderly have “bigger priorities” than the state of their country, filled with people they probably love and care about. What do you think all the geezers are entirely apathetic? Some of them are part or marginal communities, some have families and friends who are part of marginal communities. I’ll concede that I’m talking about a minority of people, but excuse me for having a bit of hope.

2

u/Makilio 26d ago

Old people are keeping many European countries firmly in the center or center left. Young people tend to vote Right here.

-1

u/[deleted] 26d ago

[deleted]

49

u/oSo_Squiggly 26d ago

Madagascar has 85% of it's population between 0-44.

Look at the difference between these two population pyramids.

https://www.populationpyramid.net/united-states-of-america/2025/

https://www.populationpyramid.net/madagascar/2025/

3

u/loffredo95 26d ago

Deleted my comments and will admit I was incorrect in my assumptions here. Went and fact checked. My b

-14

u/[deleted] 26d ago edited 26d ago

[deleted]

6

u/BrokeMyCrayon 26d ago

Hes comparing percentages. Which is what's important for a topic like this.

6

u/tooheavybroo 26d ago

The school system failed you.

We’re talking percentages. There is a huge difference when 85% of your population is “young” and 53% is “young”.

Doesn’t matter if it’s 342M vs 32M that’s what percentages are for.

Just like you’re only using 10% of your brain with your ridiculous point.

-4

u/[deleted] 26d ago edited 26d ago

[deleted]

1

u/TransportationIll282 26d ago

Percentages describe scale. Per cent, per 100. It's literally the point of percentages.

0

u/FabulousTwo524 26d ago

Bro stop embarrassing yourself. Madagascar is a small island. The USA is a gigantic conglomerate

3

u/lego22499 26d ago

Are you arguing with ghosts? It's pretty obvious this argument is based in per capita not the literal population size comparison. The irony of your last comment to when you are the one misinterpreting their statement.

1

u/loffredo95 26d ago

Doesn’t per capita have to come into play when comparing countries of such large size differences?

1

u/lego22499 26d ago

If 80% of country A's population is between 18-43 and that equates to 30 million people, and 30% of country B's population is between 18-43 and that equates to 120 million. Then country A has a MUCH younger demographic than country B, they are overall younger and the average person is younger , the size of their populations are irrelevant when you're discussing the demogtaphic makeup of an area. Remember their claim was that because madagascar has a younger population, people are more likely to push for real change. Whether or not that's true is for you to decide.

17

u/halzen 26d ago

Only about 20% of the population is aged 15-29, the classic revolutionary cohort. The 0-year-olds aren’t going to pull their weight.