Here’s a piece that challenges my challenge to the assumption, especially in America, than more is better, that the economy must always expand, that the population should continue to increase indefinitely. My point has been that this literally cannot continue forever. At the same time, projections acknowledge that the human population will continue to rise to a point, later this century, and cap out at around 10 or 12 billion, then level off and even decrease — an effect of wealthier populations deciding to have few children all by themselves. Because, in a sense people don’t consciously realize, you don’t need to churn out so many children when most of them these days will survive past infancy.
Big Think, Jason Crawford, 21 Aug 2024: The overlooked virtues of a crowded world, subtitled “In a world of rising cynicism, a celebration of our capacity to create, adapt, and thrive.”
