Comment by jmclnx | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jmclnx | Hacker News Reader

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This is all well and good, but population dropping will only impact our civilization a little. I think this is an issue only because the "very rich" may actually see their standard of living fall. For the poor, it will have no real impact.

Plus it is probably a good thing population will start dropping.

The much larger worry should be Climate Change, a dropping population can only help Climate Change in the long run. But right now, due to how we all live, we are heading into a whole lot of hurt due to Climate Change. Far more "hurt" than the population falling.

Also, worried about population dropping ? Wait to see how fast it drops when Countries start massive wars due to dwindling resources.

EDIT: want an example of the Impact of population dripping ? Look at Europe during the Plague in the 1300s(?). What happened was the rich had a hard time finding labor, so they had to start paying people a lot more for their work. To me, that is the big fear, the rich may have to start paying more.

> For the poor, it will have no real impact.

It will likely bring back the problem of old age destitution as rule, not exception. It's a previously common scourge that never went completely away[1][2], but went into the sidelines by early-mid XX century, and is set to coming back with a vengeance, by the time current people in their 20s-30s reach old age. It hits the poor hard.

[1] https://www.marketwatch.com/story/successful-educated-but-no...

[2] https://citizenmatters.in/mumbai-abandoned-destitute-elderly...

The history of the world and economics is far more nuanced than rich people hoarding wealth. Wealth is the economy, it's created from systems. The feudal system in the medieval age was relatively poor at generating wealth. A series of technological and intellectual developments began to rapidly increase in the 1400s that culminated in the modern era, including especially the printing press.

But in the 1300s serfdom was still the norm in Europe. Serfs did not get paid and so the Plague made no difference except 2/3 of the population died. Serfdom would last another several hundred years after the plague, and in some countries all the way to the 20th century.

Financialization can also make it appear wealth has increased when really nothing has happened.

If all property is “owned” by the crown and people only have various “rights” to it that can be inherited but never encumbered or sold, then there’s really no point in “valuing” the land beyond simple comparisons.

Once land can be bought and sold value appears to track it; but the land was always there.

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