The problem developed nations are currently facing is that we need enough young people working to continue to support the current population as it ages and retires. The absolute population probably doesn't need to be as big as it is (unless you plan on starting a war like Russia for example) but it's not clear how to manage a reducing population gracefully.

We? No. Capitalism? Yes.

It’s only a dumb question if you’re looking at all the people now. Birth rates across the board are declining and most developed countries are well below replacement. We’re just not noticing yet because people live like 80 years.

Most population projections have us peaking in 25-50 years, then population declines. That’s not all bad but how steeply does population decline and when does it stop? How does it impact economies, politics, who had influence and power. It looks like it could be steep and disruptive, with no prediction on when it will level off.

However if we start mitigating that, start encouraging people to have children, provide more support for raising children, give more hope to potential parents, working together for a brighter future consistently for the next 50 years perhaps we can manage the decline for least disruption. Perhaps we can find a sustainable population to level off at which is still big enough for today’s rapid advancements

We need some more people. Much as I agree as the future is bleak, if we all simply stopped procreating then there wouldn't really be any point to anything and truly no reason to want to make the world better. Can't get to Star Trek future without a future.