Comment on I think we might be leaving the "boring" part of this dystopia
EtherWhack@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
IMO
We don’t need more people in the world right now. We should be concentrating on figuring out how to agree on having and applying the best support for the ones we already have first.
Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
You’ll be glad to know that populations around the world, particularly in energy-intensive nations, are starting to decline. Some, like the US, are propping this up with immigration (for now) but places like South Korea, Japan, and a lot of Europe have been below replacement for some time.
And to a lot of people this would be a good thing. Fewer people means less impact on the planet and more to go around for everyone. But a lot of our systems are predicated on eternal population growth. For example, a lot of countries have pension systems that require there to always be more young people paying into it than there is old people taking payment.
Then you have the problem of who does the jobs that these retired people rely on. If there are fewer young people to do all the jobs in society, how will the non-working elderly buy groceries or get medical care or have packages delivered or clothes to wear? Automation can solve some of this but not all of it, plus who’s going to develop and build the robots?
It’s going to be a very drastic change in how societies are organized, especially combined with how the Internet and climate change are going to affect society. Hopefully we’ll come out the other side a little smarter.
Goddamn ancient Chinese curse, stupid interesting times…