Elon Musk warns against the perils of underpopulation
Overpopulation was the alleged issue for many years. Common environmental concerns, such as pollution and global warming, were motivated by the possibility of too many people living on a limited earth. Many educated couples chose to delay having children altogether or to have only one kid in order to contribute to the effort to stop overpopulation. A single child was a forced choice in China.
Recently, Elon Musk tweeted out this:
For years, Musk has voiced his concern about the falling birth rate. In 2017, he tweeted, “The world’s population is speeding towards collapse, but few appear to notice or care.” The population collapse was dubbed “possibly the greatest risk to the future of humanity” by Tesla CEO last year. “Although there will be an increase in human population for at least another forty years, current demographic patterns show that there is a considerably greater existential threat from global underpopulation.” Contrary to popular belief, wealthy people tend to have fewer children. Elon Musk is an unusual exception. With a fortune estimated to be worth more than $200 billion, Musk is the richest person in the world, according to Bloomberg.
Underpopulation is not something to celebrate like most people think
Many people would welcome a decline in the world’s population. However, the fertility rate is falling below the replacement level in many countries, resulting in an impending unsustainable population worldwide. When there is negative population growth, there are fewer children born to each generation, who in turn have fewer children, until there are none. Along with the majority of Europe, Eastern Europe, Russia, the Former Soviet Republics, and some Asian nations, Japan currently has a population that is far below replacement level. Further, absolute population reduction is occurring in Ukraine and Germany too.
Fertility rates in a large portion of Africa, South America, the Middle East, and Iran are declining fast. In several sub-Saharan African countries, the decline in fertility has just come to a halt, but this is because development has stagnated in those countries. Because fertility rates are correlated with urbanisation, they will decline once development picks up again. There is a complex feedback loop at work: the less children couples have, the easier it is for them to enhance their quality of life, and the less growth there is in the desire for large families. The end effect is the modern population reduction problem. In a century from now, there is a good chance that we would have too much food but too few mouths to feed.
Many nations are already seeing the negative effects of underpopulation
Japan, Russia, and Australia all offer bonuses for new babies as a means of preventing this terrifying population decline. Singapore, which has the lowest fertility rate in the world, offers couples up to $18,000 for a third child and $5,000 for a first child, but it is useless because there is only one child for every woman there. In the past, severe measures to lower fertility rates were challenging, but they were effective. So far, drastic methods of boosting fertility don’t appear to be effective. Throughout human history, there has never been a time of declining population and rapid advancement (including during the Black Plague years).
In the future, there will always be a smaller market for your products or services, fewer workers to pick from, and a smaller audience than the year before. Sound scary yet? This is exactly what Elon Musk warns us about — the perils brought by potential underpopulation.
