Elon Musk thinks we need to start cranking out more babies, ASAP

[NickB79]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2021/12/07/elon-musk-declining-birthrate-threatens-human-civilization/6414749001/

Business mogul Elon Musk is more concerned with under-population than over-population. The Tesla CEO said Monday that there are "not enough people" in the world and it could threaten human civilization.

"I think one of the biggest risks to civilization is the low birth rate and the rapidly declining birthrate," Musk said at the Wall Street Journal's annual CEO Council. The 50-year-old was answering a question about how the proposed Tesla Bot could solve some of the world's labor issues. Musk had previously called the bot a "generalized substitute for human labor over time."

"And yet, so many people, including smart people, think that there are too many people in the world and think that the population is growing out of control. It's completely the opposite. Please look at the numbers – if people don't have more children, civilization is going to crumble, mark my words."

I think Elon Musk is a quack more and more every day. At the pace climate change is set to unfold, we'll indeed see a population collapse in the next 50 years. But it will be from global crop failures, economic collapse, war and disease. Adding more people will accelerate that future.

[Voltaire2]

1. Why Grimes fled?

[regnaD kciN]

17. Maybe she should have done so...

…before helping him increase the birth rate?

[bucolic_frolic]

2. So is that an advertisement?

[JustAnotherGen]

3. The Celebrity CEO

Speaks - and we are supposed to listen? Shut up and make cars Elon

[Captain Zero]

32. Maybe more low wage workers for his brother's

weird Next Door restaurants?

[DBoon]

4. once again proving the need for a high wealth tax

a quack opinion is just an opinion.

a quack opinion backed up by musk's extreme wealth is a threat to global civilization.

[PortTack]

5. Every time he opens his mouth..removing any doubt about his intelligence

[Caliman73]

6. This is the problem with (I will say it again) celebrity culture.

Musk is intelligent and he has helped to build innovative products. He is not however, all knowing or able to see beyond his own biases. Because people give him attention every time he farts, he thinks that what he has to say is always spot on.


The problem isn't necessarily the amount of people on the planet. The problem is how the resources are distributed. You have 5% of th worlds population consuming 25% or more of the resource and 400 families across the world controlling more of those resources than 4 billion of those people. That is the problem. The capitalist economies of the world are built on infinite growth and large short term gain, while we need to be thinking more in terms of an equitable and sustainable environment for all people and creatures living on the planet.

[NickB79]

7. The planet is a credit card, and we're on the verge of maxing it out

We're borrowing from future generations to enjoy our lifestyles now. Fertile topsoil, fresh water, seafood, forests, coral reefs, etc. All being pissed away at a prodigious rate. Even if the resources we have today were equitably distributed, those resources are still being acquired in entirely non-sustainable ways. The only reason we didn't see a global collapse sooner from population growth is because of the Green Revolution, which introduced us to massive inputs of fertilizer, chemicals and fossil fuels on farms globally. That can't go on forever.

But just like a credit card, you eventually hit your limit, and the bill comes due. That's what we'll see by mid-century.

[WarGamer]

27. verge?

The issuing bank canceled the card 15 years ago, reported it to the Credit Agencies and got a Judgement in Court...

Mankind ignored it all and keeps on going.

It's cute when people think that there's "time left" for Mankind to turn it all around.

[RandomNumbers]

16. Yes and no.

I totally agree with your first paragraph.

The problem IS the number of people on the planet, at some number anyway. What's the number, 10 trillion? Not likely. No matter how perfectly resources were utilized and distributed. Okay, so there's a number. Does humanity have even a fucking clue what that number is? Well some people think they do, but they tend to disagree. For myself, looking at the Great Extinction currently going on, tells me we've probably already passed the number. Wouldn't hurt to stop greedy shits from burning up resources with no concern whatever for the planetary ecosystem, but I suspect even if we did that - if we actually gave every living human being a DECENT life, with the technology required for that - we'd still be using too many resources to sustain the planetary ecosystem. That's just a RandomNumbers gues though. I'm the first to admit that I do not know. But I'd rather err on the side of caution. And an equitable society with the technology we have, doesn't need to be popping out babies at replacement rate. It's completely unnecessary.

[jimfields33]

23. We shut the entire world down for a year and it barely moved the needle.

It didn’t even add a day on to the climate change disaster date of 14 years or so. That to me is depressing.

[Farmer-Rick]

8. I am starting to believe that our plummeting birth rate is due to the filthy rich

The majority of Americans are not even near as wealthy as the idiot Musk. The majority accounts for the birth rate. The handful of filthy rich are killing this planet and economy for fun and more profits. The majority has very little chance of earning enough to support their children through college age. Therefore they are having fewer children.

If idiots like Musk want more babies, then they need to stop taking so much of our wealth. The more they take, the less for the rest of us and then we have smaller and smaller families.

This is happening in almost all capitalist countries.

Stop taking so much and leave some for others if you want people to have more babies.

I think what with all the deaths this year and last, and the dropping number of births, we are into smaller growth rate of the population.

According to this link the growth rate has declined by 11.6 million.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_decline#:~:text=The%20global%20growth%20rate%20in,will%20reach%20a%20steady%20state.

So no worries about out of control population if people like Musk keep taking more than they need.

[IbogaProject]

13. No the amount of growth has declined

World population in 1988 was way lower than now. https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/world-population-by-year/ I'm in favor of going below replacement. But our economic system will need a drastic overhaul.

https://psmag.com/magazine/fallacy-of-endless-growth

There isn't enough resources in the Galaxy to support 5% annual growth over hundreds of years.

Though plenty of opposing views are being published.

[Farmer-Rick]

18. Yeah, I misread that.

Funny, I didn't believe it when I read it either. I must be getting tired.

[RandomNumbers]

14. I think you read that incorrectly - no effin way has population declined.

What you said:

According to this link there are actually 11.6 million fewer people alive today then in 1988.

What your link states (emphasis added):

The global growth rate in absolute numbers accelerated to a peak of 92.9 million in 1988, but has declined to 81.3 million in 2020.[3]

Rate of growth, not number of people alive.

This page has a graph of actual population and projection:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population

We'll hit 9 billion around 2040, give or take.

[Farmer-Rick]

15. Oh,, you're right

"The global growth rate in absolute numbers accelerated to a peak of 92.9 million in 1988, but has declined to 81.3 million in 2020.[3]"

I read that as absolute numbers in total population.

So yeah growth rate has declined not total population numbers.

[IbogaProject]

9. Yes how much is he willing to pay for it?

So how much of his wealth is he willing to COMMIT not pledge but fully commit? Otherwise he is just trying to push up the number of desperate cannidates for his likely hellish Mars project?

[Stinky The Clown]

10. Oh go sit on a rock and launch yourself to Mars

Or just let it stretch your asshole as wide as your mouth, you creepy incel.

[Pachamama]

19. [phone]

[eShirl]

11. or we could let more people immigrate

[dutch777]

12. As long as he promises to not help name ANY OF THEM....maybe

[msfiddlestix]

20. Fewer Customers? Fewer souls to save? Less Profiteering?

All of the above, me thinks.

No thanks Elon, sell your snake oil to India.

make your enterprises available to the poor. Then you'll be ok.

[roamer65]

21. He's worried he will have to pay people more.

Less people equals smaller workforce equals higher wages.

All about money with these scumbags.

[FreepFryer]

22. Being rich doesn't make his opinion count, enabling these assholes is our species' true failure (Nt)

[Johonny]

24. The cost of children does not keep up with what people like Musk want to pay employees

People know more kids is a bad way to stay in the middle class.

[sarcasmo]

25. Elon needs future moon miners.

[Goodheart]

26. I'm beginning to think that Elon Musk is just a lucky moron.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

29. Christ, ya think?

[ProfessorGAC]

28. His Mind Has Taken A Walk Off The Map

This guy is not right!

[634-5789]

30. Fuck that guy.

[iemanja]

31. the declining birth rate is in the Global North

Not, to my understanding, in poor countries. Seems to me that this is about race.

[uponit7771]

34. +1, great minds

[uponit7771]

33. Who's the "... we..." he's talking about ?!

[Iggo]

38. Right? My people are making tons of babies!

[nilram]

35. I think Elon needs to get to Mars ASAP or sooner

[texasfiddler]

36. He is becoming the modern day Howard Hughes.

[Iggo]

37. You first, Elon.

[Maru Kitteh]

39. Then you better grow yourself a uterus and assume the position, Elon.