{"id":43980,"date":"2019-09-04T06:00:39","date_gmt":"2019-09-04T10:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=43980"},"modified":"2019-09-03T15:36:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-03T19:36:00","slug":"from-population-explosion-to-population-collapse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2019\/09\/from-population-explosion-to-population-collapse\/","title":{"rendered":"From Population Explosion to Population Collapse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Fifty years ago, people were in a panic about the prospects of a population explosion, leading many countries<\/a> to adopt policies of forced sterilization and mandatory abortions.\u00a0 Today, though, we are facing the opposite problem:\u00a0 a population implosion.<\/p>\n

At a recent meeting between the high-tech entrepreneur Elon Musk and the head of the Chinese equivalent of Amazon.com Jack Ma, the two agreed that the world\u2019s biggest problem in the next 20 years will be \u201cpopulation collapse.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Catherine Clifford, Elon Musk and Jack Ma agree: The biggest problem the world will face is population collapse:<\/a><\/p>\n

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When it comes to the future of humanity,\u00a0Tesla CEO Elon Musk<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Alibaba founder Jack Ma<\/a>\u00a0disagree on whether people should be scared by the potential of artificial intelligence. Ma is optimistic about AI, while Musk is more\u00a0apocalyptic<\/a>. But the two billionaire businessmen do agree on the biggest problem the world will face in the future: not enough people.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people think we have too many people on the planet, but actually, this is an outdated view,\u201d Musk said while on stage with Ma at at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on Wednesday. \u201cAssuming there is a benevolent future with AI, I think the biggest problem the world will face in 20 years is population collapse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest issue in 20 years will be population collapse. Not explosion. Collapse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI absolutely agree with that,\u201d Ma said. \u201cThe population problem is going to be facing huge challenge. 1.4 billion people in China sounds a lot, but I think next 20 years, we will see this thing will bring big trouble to China. And \u2026 the speed of population decrease is going to speed up. You called it a \u2018collapse,\u2019\u201d he said to Musk. \u201cI agree with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, accelerating collapse,\u201d Musk said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The global birth rate will fall below replacement level by 2070, though the effects will show up in some countries before that.\u00a0 Europe, Asia, South America, North America are all facing plummeting populations, with Africa being the only region with population growth.\u00a0 This is a problem because the decreased number of children means that the populations as a whole will be aging, with fewer young workers to support them as they retire.\u00a0 The population drop will also mean fewer workers, though advances in productivity through technology can help make up for that.\u00a0 But the population decline will also mean fewer consumers, all of which will make for major economic problems.<\/p>\n

The problem is particularly acute in China, which is why Jack Ma is so worried.\u00a0 China responded to Paul Ehrlich\u2019s apocalyptic warnings in his book The Population Bomb\u00a0<\/a>by imposing its \u201cone child policy.\u201d\u00a0 This meant forced abortions.\u00a0 And, for the large number of families that wanted their \u201cone child\u201d to be a boy, abortions of girl babies.<\/p>\n

Though China has since switched to a similarly oppressive \u201ctwo child policy,\u201d the demographic consequences of sex-selective abortions means that there are not enough women for men to marry.\u00a0 This, in turn, means a decline in families and their stabilizing influence.\u00a0 Here and in India, which also has been practicing sex-selective abortion, the \u201cwoman shortage<\/a>\u201d has been a major factor in the rise of sex trafficking, with poor women and girls being abducted, bought, and sold for the sexual use of men who can pay the traffickers, a market that has spread throughout the world, including the United States.<\/p>\n

Population collapse is thus connected to moral collapse and cultural collapse.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image by\u00a0Gerd Altmann<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Pixabay<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Fifty years ago, people were in a panic about the prospects of a population explosion, leading many countries to adopt policies of forced sterilization and mandatory abortions.\u00a0 Today, though, we are facing the opposite problem:\u00a0 a population implosion. At a recent meeting between the high-tech entrepreneur Elon Musk and the head of the Chinese […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":43986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,16,27,42],"tags":[429,3859,8673,6971],"class_list":["post-43980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economics","category-family","category-life-issues","category-social-science","tag-chinas-one-child-policy","tag-population-demographics","tag-population-explosion","tag-population-implosion"],"yoast_head":"\nFrom Population Explosion to Population Collapse<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Fifty years ago, the concern was population explosion. Today, it's population implosion. 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