Re:Tech firms face growing resentment of parent employees du...
by ebruchez on Wednesday September 09, 2020 @01:08AM
(#24417335)
> We are at almost 8 billion and growing very rapidly
The "growing very rapidly" part is not true (1). The main reason the world population is still growing is that people live longer. Only relatively few countries still have out of control natality, mainly in Africa. The world's fertility rate is now at 2.4 (2) children per woman.
(Of course, these are just projections and imply some speculation. Things could still turn around.)
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projections_of_population_grow...
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_d...
Modern technology means that we need much less labor than we previously did, while doing much more. That rate is increasing. Jobs are disappearing.
Why do we need to add so many people? We are at almost 8 billion and growing very rapidly.
> If all of a sudden, say, 50% of the people having children now, in developed countries, would decide to not have children, we'd probably have societal collapse
Maybe. Maybe not. Because the effects won't be felt for a while. It's possible that society would collapse, but it is also possible (and very likely) that it would adapt.
If it turns out that we can't adapt to this, then it means that humanity's days are numbered anyway. Because we can't keep growing indefinitely. One day this cycle has to end, one way or another.