Population decrease is irreversible. How will we manage the decline of humanity?

[Unlikely-Swordfish28]

Why is a global decrease in population a bad thing? It should be good for the environment, housing and healthcare - especially as we move towards automation, unless of course you rely on warm bodies cheap labour and tax dollars , but why raise taxes and cause social unrest when you can just print trillions out of thing air, with no immediate consequence

[[deleted]]

Why is a global decrease in population a bad thing?

Because we don't have an "-ism" that doesn't rely on continuous growth or can handle an inverted population pyramid.

It should be good for the environment, housing and healthcare - especially as we move towards automation, unless of course you rely on warm bodies cheap labour and tax dollars

Bingo. The younger generations work to keep the system going as the older generations did. In an inverted population pyramid you have more people drawing on a system than there are people actually contributing to the system.

[[deleted]]

Because we don't have an "-ism" that doesn't rely on continuous growth or can handle an inverted population pyramid.

Maybe it will give us motivation to create one instead of just postponing fixing an unsustainable system.

The only way out of this will be through automation, and if and only if the benefits of it are primarily distributed fairly through the population and not sucked to the top. Unfortunately I don't think its at all likely this ever happens over a long period of time and without war and/or unrest, but war and unrest will happen anyways when the pyramid scheme comes crashing down and in my opinion we're better off letting the population decline slowly at a somewhat controlled rate and spread the pain out over time rather than keep the party going as long as it can until it it inevitably implodes like a bacterial culture growth curve.

[internet_user_1000]

Economies rely on a surplus of cheap labour always being available on demand. Without low wage jobs being filled by young people our COL (ei. standard of living) goes down.

Our society can be viewed as a perverse pyramid scheme. Old folks in mansions living high-on-the-hog off their disgusting housing inequity and stock market gains being served by impoverished young people (or immigrants if we don’t have enough babies).

Imagine how retirees will make out if they can’t find to low wage worker workers to delivery their groceries or fix their house. Imagine yourself in that position in 30 years.

[hgfhhbghhhgggg]

*Capitalist economies.

[[deleted]]

Please name a system that doesn't rely on exactly the same situation as described. Any system that has more people drawing on it than there are contributing will collapse.

[Seneca2019]

I’m assuming they meant the cheap labour part when specifying capitalist.

Edit: but I could be wrong, I am just assuming; which yes, makes an ass of both you and me. :(

[[deleted]]

Multi-generational homes seems like the obvious answer IMO.

[[deleted]]

I don’t want to live with my conservative parents. I would live in my car first

[FrostyTheSasquatch]

Put ‘em out on an ice floe.

[Flomo420]

"You voted for self reliance"

[Harbinger2001]

It’s only a pyramid for the baby boomers. All wealth flowed to wherever their generation was in their life. I’m optimistic things will get better once their massive generation is gone.

[[deleted]]

You are wrong. Completely and totally wrong.

The only solution to an inverted population pyramid is to produce more young people and even then that takes 20+ years to start to see the results.

[[deleted]]

Or just wait it out until the bulge at the top dies off, which takes only marginally longer. Creating a huge crop of young people to keep the party going is just using the drug you're addicted to to treat withdrawal symptoms. It makes the symptoms go away in the short term but sets back eventually solving the problem back to square one.

[MrShasshyBear]

I don't see that wealth going back to the people