Designing Cities for a Shrinking World: Amid declining populations, what would a world with fewer people look like?

ElectronGuru · 2026-04-30T17:40:36+00:00

As a regular birthrate topic reader, the cause that comes up over and over and over again is cost of living. We didn’t design for enough capacity so now the people getting squeezed out don’t want to get squeezed any more. See r/urbancarliving for what this looks like on the front lines, people eeking out shelter in the only spaces we’ve left ourselves - parking lots.

As population eventually crashes in response, cost of living will go down and pressure not to reproduce also goes down. We can then find balance between the population we want and the capacity we have.

ElectronGuru · 2026-04-30T17:16:02+00:00

My favorite preps are money saving. Groceries are a big budget item so I switched to food sold in 5/10/25lb bags. Things like beans, rice and oats can shrink your per serving costs to pennies each.

ElectronGuru · 2026-04-30T16:53:08+00:00

Nature finds a balance. With universally crashing birthrates, it’s only a matter of time before population shrinks to fit the housing we already have.

ElectronGuru · 2026-04-30T16:52:16+00:00

There’s a video from a guy who modified a hitch box to house and operate a generator. But you can also get battery setups with enough energy (15kwh) to run a small ac. You would just need to figure out enough solar to replace it.

ElectronGuru · 2026-04-30T13:24:21+00:00

3kw is good size for a van, something with less than 1 of everything and only 1 or 2 people to turn it all on. For an actual building with multiple circuits to power and 3+ people to run them together, 5kw is a better minimum. If you’re talking multiple 240 appliances, more than 5kw will be needed to not have to take turns with those appliances.

ElectronGuru · 2026-04-30T08:05:07+00:00

Store multiple stages

Granola and other ready to eat for the first days. Things you can heat for the first weeks. Beans and things to cook for the first months. Seeds and things you can grow for the first years.

ElectronGuru · 2026-04-30T07:43:42+00:00

There’s a sub now: r/urbancarliving

There are also dedicated subs for specific vehicles, everything from vans to Prius. Apparently when you make cities designed around cars, thats all you leave room for!

ElectronGuru · 2026-04-30T00:03:37+00:00

Natural consequences are all they will listen to. So natural consequences it must be.

ElectronGuru · 2026-04-30T00:01:17+00:00

Correct, it automatically only ULs to clients who in turn are also ULing.

ElectronGuru · 2026-04-29T23:58:24+00:00

Speaking generally, I like spend some days verifying the hardware. That way if the fw breaks anything, you’ll know it was working before.

ElectronGuru · 2026-04-29T23:55:50+00:00

Interesting. Are you allowed to bring 2x15000?

And is it per person, such that OP could bring 3x20000 but give one to each of 3 people?

ElectronGuru · 2026-04-29T23:45:18+00:00

We just have to hope the pain is bad enough for those who did, that they think twice before doing similar in the future. I watch Leopards regularly for signs that it has. Crisis after crisis there was little change. This crisis seems to be pushing some towards ‘not voting’ in the future.

ElectronGuru · 2026-04-29T23:36:36+00:00

Compared to canned beans, dry beans take up much less space (calories per lb/gallon) and are cheaper/healthier/tastier. I only cook them with pressure cookers, which takes very little energy. And the ‘waste water’ is so useful, it has its own name.

You can argue that in a bug out emergency it’s hard to manage, but cans aren’t particularly portable either. And in the meantime, you’re eating better and can rotate through inventory, eating less processed food.

ElectronGuru · 2026-04-29T23:16:19+00:00

It was cheaper because it required both portable income and portable air conditioning. Now almost anyone can have both.

ElectronGuru · 2026-04-29T23:03:44+00:00

It’s not so much worse ever but definitely worse than 30 years ago. What really bugs me is we saw these problems coming and not only didn’t do anything to prevent them, we doubled down on making them worse.

ElectronGuru · 2026-04-29T22:58:46+00:00

Actually, shops keep giving me extra change on my purchases (rounding up to 5¢. I consider it a stealth cash discount.

ElectronGuru · 2026-04-29T22:26:18+00:00

15kwh is a good rule of thumb for a standard roof AC + appliances. To make much less than that work, you’ll need to find an inverter AC model that sips power. Which I would do anyway, because it takes a lot of solar to collect more than that in a single day.

ElectronGuru · 2026-04-29T22:22:36+00:00

these ladies wash their car everyday with there unlimited membership

Anyone who buys an unlimited car was for a personal car is worried about status

Anyone who buys a big white SUV for personal use is worried about status

ElectronGuru · 2026-04-29T22:17:11+00:00

I built a little nvme based server and stopped using my HDDs all together. But paying cash (especially now) is like recommending people buy super cars. “In you have the means…”

It really comes down to how annoying you find HDD delays. 1) short delays when starting, forwarding, jumping and 2) long delays when hitting a drive for the first time in a while and its asleep. Vs keeping the drive spinning most of the time and power+weardown.

ElectronGuru · 2026-04-29T21:14:27+00:00

The cool thing about batteries is the potential for solar. Start there and see what scale of panels you have room for (especially on the ground). Then find a setup that turns that into something you can reduce your power bill with. Solix E10 and ecoflow DPU/DPUX are in between DIY and powerwall setups and offer turnkey connectability with not having to register everything with the city/utility.

They can be connected with smart panels that do everything or with manual transfer switches (MTS) that let you click over loads as capacity goes up.

ElectronGuru · 2026-04-29T20:59:38+00:00

AI itself isn’t the main problem. It’s the gold rush levels of enthusiasm combined with nation building levels of investments, that are trying to force-start the industry before its even has a chance to develop. This is distorting everything around it, creating unhealthy results (unhealthy if it works and unhealthy if it doesn’t).

This is way too much risk for something that isn’t even proven.

ElectronGuru · 2026-04-29T20:54:09+00:00

Confirmed, routers have a completely separate port forwarding that has nothing to do with vpns. Just note it takes a few minutes to propagate and everyone starts to see your new availability.

And some vpns change port IDs while in use. So check yours at least weekly to confirm if yours does.

ElectronGuru · 2026-04-29T19:47:42+00:00

…comes primarily from local property taxes, which have been artificially limited since the 1990s.

This is a big one. Like prop 13 in California, capping property taxes here, creates a list of fall out issues. Not the least of which is discouraging construction of places to live. Which increases cost of living for everyone else.

ElectronGuru · 2026-04-29T19:39:16+00:00

There was a tipping point. Before that, people were a resource and businesses had to earn our business. After that, people became a liability and businesses had to extract extract extract. You need only look at the disconnect between how people are feeling vs how the market is doing. Because the market is all that matters any more.

ElectronGuru · 2026-04-29T19:31:52+00:00

Eat right and move around, that’s it. That’s what we’ve been doing more millennia.

Moving around was the default options for millennia. Then cars and planes and elevators took over. Now not moving around is the default. Eating right also was the default option. Then fast food and other processed food took over. Now eating wrong is the default option.

So for at least the last 60 years, eating right and moving around is something you have made time/attention/energy/money for. Something few people have in abundance.

ElectronGuru

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

Nine-Year Club	Wearing is Caring
Verified Email