Elon Musk is Right: A Great Population Collapse Is Coming

A rose by any other name?

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The population panic is pure nonsense.

I accidentally sparked this controversy while shooting the breeze in Washington Sq. Park with a few NYU students. I wanted to keep the conversation light, of course. I was attacked. Molested.

“Overpopulation can't be 'debunked;’ it's a physical limit placed on every species on Earth,” an NYU undergrad said. “Sure, the Earth could have a lot more people but considering the devastating amount of resources that are wasted every year, we will soon find out that overpopulation is not a myth.”

Yes, it seems logical, that at some point, a population density will be achieved that is no longer sustainable, from a food, energy, and waste perspective.

This, however, is not a careful reading of the current data or trends.

Anyone who makes this argument is relying on outdated models or is intentionally misinterpreting the data. As Elon Musk once warned, the real danger is that we are facing a population collapse.

The real danger is not this:

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The Terrible Shortage of Young People

There is no doubt that the world’s population is growing. In 1950, there were 2.5 billion people. In 2023, there are 8 billion.

The world’s population more than doubled in just over 70 years.

Scary, right?

But here’s the thing: You have to look at trends, not just raw numbers.

When you do that, a very different picture emerges.

The current trend is that young people aren’t having babies at the rates of the Silent Generation or Boomers. It is the complete opposite: college-educated women are having the fewest babies in human history and fertility rates are falling all over the world. It is just as bad for men. Today, 1 in every 10 men in the United States experiences erectile dysfunction.

When you have fewer people reproducing the trend compounds itself as future generations join the fold.

Many experts believe that global population will cap out around 2080 and then begin a dramatic decline

This is Elon Musk’s point about being underpopulated. He’s concerned that the smartest, most college-educated people are having the fewest kids.

It’s literally the plot of “Idiocracy.”

My Harvard-educated cousin has already decided not to have children and pursue his career as a lawyer instead. “Dual income, no kids” (DINK), he told me.

We are obsessed with work, not making families.

And as soon as society started requiring both parents to get jobs, population growth halted like a car running out of gas.

According to a 2022 study by UPenn titled “The Decline in Fertility: The Role of Marriage and Education,” married women are at least three percentage points more likely to have a child than unmarried women, and simultaneously marriage rates among women 25 to 29 declined 15.9 percent since 2006.

BBC

So where is the current global trend pointing us?

It’s pointing us towards de-population.

It’s pointing us toward China.

China’s infamous one-child policy is causing a crisis where now the majority of its young people are male and they have an aging population. It is a country that is literally dying. They aren’t the only ones:

• Japan recorded its largest natural population decline in 2022

• South Korea reported an “Extraordinary Fertility Decline” in 2022

• Greece, Portugal, and Spain are all in the top ten for lowest birth rates in the world

What’s ironic is China’s one-child policy was implemented based on The Club of Rome’s “Limits to Growth” report, which warned of overpopulation and the consequences of unchecked growth.

The Club of Rome was wrong. Their models were inspired by a man named Paul Ehrlich who is also famous for his book “The Population Bomb.” In it, he predicted that in the 1970s and 80s, hundreds of millions of people would starve to death in famines.

There were no famines. Ehrlich was wrong.

China had to revoke its one-child policy after falling for the Club of Rome's sleight of hand and now in a span of eight years, China has mandated a two-child policy, and more recently a three-child policy!

Don’t Underestimate Children

The overpopulation argument is based on current technology.

These writers, critics, and “environmentalists” have no idea (and could never) know what some genius kid can grow up and invent that changes the game entirely. It’s not better to “play it safe” as a species because we have always been about expansion and growth and you can’t forcibly stop that without devastating consequences (i.e. what’s happening in China)

It’s similar to the issue in the early days of New York City with horses flooding the streets with horseshit. The papers and people panicked that, eventually, the city would be knee-deep in shit and no one would be able to walk anywhere.

Then Ford invented the Model T.

Thank God someone decided to have a kid, huh?

“We are entering an era when we shall create resources which shall be so constantly renewed that the only loss will be not to use them.” — Henry Ford

I do want to play Devil’s Advocate and mention that biodiversity is going to take a hit over the next few decades with many researchers estimating that more than 1,000 larger species of animals will go extinct in the next century, from rhinos to eagles.

They call it the “sixth mass extinction.”

I’m fully behind supporting organizations that are working to save animals from extinction, but if solutions involve human population control, then I’m out.

Let’s start with strongly discouraging poaching, stopping black markets in Asia, and ending the illegal wildlife trade before we shame people for wanting to have children.

Final Thought

Overpopulation should be a non-starter. The solution is fewer people… and literally, all of the ways to do that are authoritarian, fascist, or straight-up genocidal.

Plus, you start dipping your toe into eugenics — something Margaret Sanger, the creator of Planned Parenthood supported ironically — since you wouldn’t be targeting scientists or doctors for sterilization. Or, we could kill at random, like Thanos.

“Fine. I’ll do it myself.” — Thanos

It makes me wonder how many of these “environmentalists” would do the snap given the chance. Would they be able to kill half the population? I hope not.

Now, I want to talk to you, yes, you — do not believe that the world is too corrupt or overpopulated for you to have a child.

The world has always been corrupt since man crawled out of the slime and it will always seem overpopulated as long as we exist.

In fact, the opposite is the truth. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder, the entire world’s population could fit inside the state of Texas. Not to mention we have solved many environmental problems before and we will solve them again.

Your child could be the one to change everything. They could be the next Elon Musk. Believe in the power of human potential, not in the false narratives of overpopulation.

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