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Re:The U.S. birth rate has fallen by 20% since 2007 by exitb on Wednesday May 17, 2023 @05:18AM (#35972911)
Is there a factor that would make it stabilise at some equilibrium, rather than fall indefinitely?
Re:The U.S. birth rate has fallen by 20% since 2007 by dumpsterdiver on Wednesday May 17, 2023 @05:32AM (#35973035)
I believe so, yes. If birth rates continue to decline then the pool of available workers will decline, and their work will become much more valuable. At that point, workers will be making enough money to feel comfortable enough to have children again.
Re:The U.S. birth rate has fallen by 20% since 2007 by pjc50 on Wednesday May 17, 2023 @05:56AM (#35973229)
Exactly. I'm boggling at all these people who think that a dip is an inevitable decline and that civilisation will evaporate in a straight line without anyone ever thinking to change anything.
Re:The U.S. birth rate has fallen by 20% since 2007 by dumpsterdiver on Thursday May 18, 2023 @11:52PM (#35997551)
On the other hand there is always the possibility that we regress to a sort of feudal age, and the lords of the land require that all inhabitants produce children while surviving off of the allotted amount of rations, otherwise they face consequences.

Edit: Not only are there natural corrections that occur, there is also a lot of room for human-made "corrections". Is it ugly? Yes. Is it unfair? Yes. Will it ensure that the local economy continues to function? Yes. The vast majority of us in such a scenario would live in poverty.

(This is where I go off the deep end) Imo, the proliferation of LLM's will truly lead to massive amounts of people being displaced from meaningful work. I foresee that in the not-so-distant future "normal people" who didn't attend elite institutions (or who are otherwise not extraordinary in some sense) will only find "flesh work" available to them - i.e. prostitutes. As long as human flesh exists there will always be work for humans. It's dark, I know, but ask yourself if it's true.

Disclaimer: I find prostitution appalling and sad, but it's existence is no secret.

Re:The U.S. birth rate has fallen by 20% since 2007 by CalRobert on Wednesday May 17, 2023 @07:10AM (#35973695)
Certainly. Continuing to grow the population ad infinitum could result in a population crash that settles down at 0 people after we have pushed the world to 5C+ warming.