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[-] thebestaquaman@lemmy.world 10 points 15 hours ago

It's a dog whistle every time.

Population decline isn't inherently a problem (unless you're a racist worried about "your people" losing power). Too rapid population decline is a big problem. We're already seeing the effects: When the sum of birth rates and working-age immigration fall fast enough, the ratio of working-age people to care-needing people also falls. I don't think I need to explain why it's a problem that every able-bodied working age adult will be responsible (directly or indirectly) for taking care of more people. It puts more pressure on everyone, and impacts societies ability to care for those in need of it.

A controlled, slow, population decline would probably just be a good thing at this point. However, that's not what prognoses are pointing towards, and that's why (non-racist) people are worried.

[-] Psionicsickness@reddthat.com 1 points 1 hour ago

Easy solution, eliminate the boomers. Crisis averted.

[-] whalesnrainbows@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

I’ll acknowledge that saying it’s a dog whistle every time was slightly hyperbolic. 

However, I’d argue that the claim that the global human population is declining too rapidly is actually pretty hotly contested. The world's population is still growing — around 8.2 billion now, heading toward a peak near 10.3 billion in the 2080s.

That being said, in some countries there will be a surplus of retirees and not enough workers to fund them through the existing tax structure, which is a legitimate problem. But it's a problem best remedied through better social safety nets, not by popping out more babies.

The biggest contention I have with the concern over population decline is that population decline doesn’t matter at all if we don’t adequately address climate change within the next decade. If someone’s house is actively on fire and they express concern to me that their roof should be re-shingled, I’m not going to give a shit about their roof shingles until I’m certain their roof will survive the fire.

[-] TheTetrapod@lemmy.world 3 points 13 hours ago

I was gonna say we could start pushing people out on ice floes when they get past 60, but climate change is ruining that for us too.

this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2026
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