Here is another problem: declining birth rates. Iranian birth rates rival Europe and other stagnant country’s in continuously falling.
How can you afford to get married? Have a child in iran?
That is why the West/China/etc are moving so fast on AI and robotics.
Something needs to replace the lack of youth educated individuals
Iran is absolutely screwed. It has neither the capital nor the power generation capability currently to build massive AI datacenters nor access to NVDA chips for inference. In robotics while Iran has for years been in robot competition, it is no where close to Boston Dynamics or Chinese companies. Look at what UAE and Saudi Arabia and Qatar are doing in terms of AI funding.
Iran sacrificed the future of its country for the Palestinian cause, while the Arabs prospered for decades by just accepting that challenging the West is futile.
So these sanctions secondary effect that will be felt decades from now will be an Iranian population that is:
- skewed to older demographics
- Has less childbirths than replacement
- Less educated
- Smaller workforce that is aging
- With less access to AI than rival nations
While US will benefit from immigration for years to come, Iran doesn’t have that benefit as no one is trying to immigrate to Iran.