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[–] 10 points 4 months ago* (3 children)

Declining birthrates are a good thing for sustainability. But it's a generally a bad thing for the older generation as they need the economic and societal support of the younger generation.

Can't be a pyramid scheme unless the base keeps growing.

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    The decline in birthrate is also catastrophic for the "infinite growth theory" adhered to by the "line go up" crowd. I fear that unless drastic things are done to compensate, it will lead to outcomes that translate to terrible living conditions and compounding population decline.

    I think the rich and the policy makers have this fantasy that if things get bad enough, it will trigger increased procreation, but just the opposite, actually.

    I guess they'll learn whether they can eat money.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    We are so much more productive nowadays and so much more could be automated. With a fair wealth distribution, we could easily retain our standard of living despite our declining population. Could.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago

    I would argue yes, but to a point. Should the population continue to be below replacement, that would still fail, unless we get the "best case AI situation" where it acts as a benevolent godlike intelligence that makes robots for us and runs off of renewable energy and sodium ion batteries or something.

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