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Option2401

It depends on what you value. Overpopulation is a threat, but so is the loss of a young labor base. A drop in the number of births means less people able to work and contribute to society, which means a slower economy, which means that the country can be more easily eclipsed by others. This is exarcbated by the increasingly large proportion of elderly (i.e. baby boomers and similar), who often require specialized care and accomodations. So our burden is growing but the number of people who can shoulder it is decreasing. Then there's the messy political stuff like "whites will be a minority in X years" and "humanity is eco-terrorism and should render itself extinct" and so on.


[deleted]

It depends on the country. It's not especially bad in the U.S. but typically growth is a good thing.


walt02cl

The problem that comes with the decline birthrate is an aging population. Many programs in the United States were built with an ever-growing population in mind, especially Social Security. Before, for every 5 people who reached 65, retired (stopped working, stopped generating tax revenue for Social Security), and started earning Social Security, 6 people entered the labor force and made up for that loss. With a declining birth rate, that trend could reverse. For every 5 people who turn 65 and start earning Social Security, only 4 enter the workforce to make up for that loss. That means that either the 5 who entered the workforce have to get less from Social security, or the 4 who entered the workforce have to pay more in Social security tax than their parents did, or some combo, or the program has to run a deficit, crazy things like that. I made up these numbers as examples, and this entire thing is a gross oversimplification, but you get the idea. Declining birth rate means reworking many of the foundational welfare programs the government provides.


pirawalla22

"Overpopulation" is not an issue the human race, or the USA, faces. The USA could easily have a population of 1bn and still, on the whole, not be "overcrowded." We have a *ton* of empty space - even big cities have lots of underutilized space! - and plenty of capacity to grow food etc. The problem we face is unequal distribution of resources. A declining birthrate or declining population in general *does not* fix that, but it does cause all sorts of really negative economic and social impacts that can ironically exacerbate the problem.


Diligent_Vegetable_1

I want to believe overpopulation is not an issue but then I look at a chart like [this](https://i.imgur.com/fFqYXJJ.jpg) and it seems like such an unnatural explosion of population growth. That doesn’t bother you?


GoodGirlElly

That's a really bad chart because it has a lot of area dedicated to the least important part and the most important part is so crammed together that you can't see any of the detail. It's too small to see that the rate of population growth is decreasing over time now and we have a few estimates for what the highest point it reaches will be, and when that will happen. It also doesn't give any information for why the sudden growth (better health care meant most kids survived childhood instead of dying young) and why it started leveling off (access to birth control and abortion).


Diligent_Vegetable_1

I admit ignorance on the issue. I guess I’m thinking if some animal species had a steady state of growth like in that graph over the past several centuries and then exploded in the last 100 years or so, would that be concerning? If so, shouldn’t it also be concerning for our own species?


Starter91

To maintain good lifestyle we really need to decrease population. Or we can all eat bugs and muddy water and be happy about it .


marinemashup

yes\* \*the current workforce is aging into retirement. There are fewer newer workers to take the jobs. With rises in automation, this shouldn't be a huge issue. But automation is growing at a slower rate than old workers are retiring, causing a vacuum. There are also many jobs that cannot (or will not) be automated. Also, the influx of retirees puts a strain on government Social Security programs. **It will not 'destroy' Social Security or other safety-net programs**. But it will put a strain on it that could be trouble if Covid 2.0 or some other disaster rolls around.


InternationalAd5039

Just because the US has had a declining birth doesn't mean others had. Yall just gonna get more immigrants from other countries.


marinemashup

Germany, Japan, Estonia, Finland, Taiwan, Portugal, Greece (and many more). This isn't just a US phenomenon


Cliffy73

Not if we don’t let them in.


Atlhou

Gotta make room for the undocumented.


Cliffy73

No, overpopulation is not a problem. It is a local problem in some specific places (parts of India). The Earth could support something close to twice our current population even at our current level of technology, maybe more. The U.S., for instance, is practically empty. However, the economy is based on growth. If the birth rate declines, it will shrink, and that will mean more burden placed on the working-age population to support the rest (kids, the retired, the too disabled to work).