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Comment by miningape | Hacker News Reader

I wonder if decades of fear mongering about birthrates might have something to do with it?

I still don't understand why we see lower birth rates as a problem when overall the population of the planet is still increasing. There are actual and a lot more impactful sustainability issues to address but how many children people are having is absolutely not one of them.

Because elderly voting for social policies that basically make living in such country a nigthmare. It's one of the reasons why a lot of Eastern European countries are stuck and not evolving (economically and culturally speaking).

> I still don't understand why we see lower birth rates as a problem when overall the population of the planet is still increasing

This is like saying "I still don't see why gravity is a problem when the overall height of the ball is still increasing."

The problem isn't today, it's tomorrow - after the large population starts dying off and the population starts shrinking. People don't live forever.

I'm sorry, what are you talking about?

Let's do some math. Today, there are approximately 8.2 billion people living on the planet. The current rate of increase is that there will be ~2billion more in the next 60 years.

Even if the population starts declining for some reason, it would still take centuries even millenia before it becomes even remotely problematic.

Just look at South Korea, with a birthrate less than 1 they are expected half their population by 2100. Sure, there are a million more Africans being born so the overall population on earth may remain the same but to pretend this won't have a devastating effect on the SK economy and culture is delusional.

https://www.populationpyramid.net/republic-of-korea/2080/

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