At least the stray cat population will be kept in check.

But how will this affect the resale of the greatest sports car ever made; the miata?

Asking for a friend

Why does the population have to grow? I never understood this logic.

Oh no, what if our natural resources are shared by fewer people? What if housing prices go down?

LIke who would want to live in Japan, what a cesspool...

It’s economic

old people are more expensive and less productive than young people. If the population doesn’t grow then there aren’t enough productive people to support the population. Korea, Japan, and China will all get hit hard by this

And healthcare will be even less affordable and available. Etc.

Well actually... Japan has a bit of problem, the old will soon outnumber the young.

No strictly saying that population *has* to grow, but it normally has for all of human history (minus a few black swans) and our economic models and ability to care for the elderly has generally relied on that fact. A human ponzi scheme if you will.

There are obvious potential benefits to lower population (basically resources as you said). But some major economic and societal adaptions would have to occur to prevent some seriously bad consequences.

Actually, it looks like we (at least the youngest of us) are going to find out. Many economically advanced countries already experience negative population growth due to low birthrate, and the ones that don't require immigration to keep growing.

Of all the major economies, US might be least impacted due to immigration (Japan for example doesn't really allow significant immigration).

Right now, low birthrate in the developed countries can be offset by immigration. But global population will go inverted (ie decline) in the 2080's according to current projections. It's expected to peak around 10B which isn't much more than what we have today (8B).

As countries advance economically people tend to favor birth control and are less inclined to reproduce until later in life, or not at all. Global population *growth* actually peaked in the 1960's and is plummeting for negative terriritory as we speak.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projec...2_revision.png

In a debt based monetary system, you need growth. Without growth, the system breaks.

If you are interested in learning more, I suggest "The Price of Tomorrow" by Jeff Booth.

Now we see the violence inherent in the system!

What about all the retirees pulling out their 401k at the same time? The next gen doesn’t have much invested. Will the s and p invert as well? I think inflation and affordability could cause revolution if it not for a cultural shift in the young, resigning to never owning a home and spending their income on latte and door dash to float the economy.