Bob Brown, the former Greens leader claimed, “We are already using more than what the planet can supply and we use more than the living fabric of the planet in supply.” Bob is one of the believers that population growth is unsustainable in hindsight. However, the business magnate, Elon Musk, had vouched for the opposite claim that the world is marching towards a population decline. Recently, he shared an old video. A few hours earlier, he had presented statistics that hinted at the lower fertility rate in the United States.
Elon Musk Says “Population Collapse Is The Biggest Threat To Civilization”
The world is advocating for population reduction for the betterment of the planet and socio-economic equality. However, Tesla’s CEO calls it “the biggest issue in 20 years.” Recently, a user aided in resurfacing a pre-pandemic video where Jack Ma, co-founder of Alibaba Groups, and Elon Musk shared a stage to talk about Artificial Intelligence and a strikingly surprising phenomenon of “population collapse.”
In the video, Musk claimed, “Most people think we have too many people on the planet, but actually, this is an outdated view.” Jack Ma agreed to the statement. He added, “The population problem is going to be facing a huge challenge. 1.4 billion people in China sounds like a lot, but I think next 20 years, we will see this thing will bring big trouble to China. And … the speed of population decrease is going to speed up. You called it a ‘collapse’. “
Population collapse is the biggest threat to civilization https://t.co/ZrHN5DsrVB
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 24, 2022
Not all is false in the claim of the alarming situation of the accelerated process of population collapse. It is estimated that the global replacement fertility rate will fall. The phenomenon can be understood as the average births that a woman has to give to replace a generation. Currently, the GRFR is 2.1 births, but by the turn of the century, it will reduce to 1.9 births.
Musk Is Concerned With Fertility Rate Trends
It was speculated that the pandemic may lead to a sporadic increase in the population. However, that is not the case. There was a decline of 763 births in 2020 than in 2019 during the peak pandemic, as per the Census.
Talking about statistics, Musk also updated his Twitter about the descending graph of the birth rate in the country. He shared a line graph from The Wall Street Journal indicating the “fertility slump” in the US.
Contrary to what many think, the richer someone is, the fewer kids they have.
I am a rare exception. Most people I know have zero or one kid.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 24, 2022
The fertility rate has fallen below the required 2.1. In the thread, he also claimed that the richer people have fewer kids, but he is a “rare exception.” The fertility rate is not just a concern in the US but around the world. In Japan, the government noted a decline in the population for 41 years now.
Xi Jinping’s regime in China also switched to the three children policy last year. The government has ensured that the move will come with “supportive measures, which will be conducive to improving our country’s population structure, fulfilling the country’s strategy of actively coping with an aging population and maintaining the advantage, endowment of human resources.”
The aging problem is real. The working population consists of people from the age range of 15-64 years. A study shows that the younger population will decline from 681 million in 2017 to 401 million in 2100. People over 80 years of age will increase rapidly from 141 million in 2017 to 866 million in 2100. This will have a huge economic impact.
Questions like demand-supply gap, tax procurement, the load of pension and healthcare, etc., arise due to the increase in the retired population.
Why do people like Musk have so many children? The reason might be the higher living standards. If the working population reduces, the consumption pattern will also falter. Less consumption will lead to less employment and may affect the production capacity and in turn the GDP of the country. The low population will hamper living standards but will slow the pace of the development due to a lack of research. A low fertility rate now will affect future generations as well.
Wolfgang’s hypothesis, called the “Low-Fertility Trap Hypothesis”, suggested that there is a direct relationship between the couple planning a baby and their material aspirations. But, if the fertility rate remains lower, then the burden of taxes, pensions, and healthcare for an aging population will fall on the handful of the young working population. The possible remedy can be migration, which may increase the total fertility rate helping Musk’s expedition to Mars.
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