Are We on the Verge of Societal Collapse? A Path to Populating a Depopulated World

Since the 1960s, the world population has more than doubled, but the growth rate has been falling progressively over the decades. And that trajectory has become a massive problem.

This isn’t a unique issue in Western developed countries, where, some might say, citizens traded having kids for more leisure time. The truth is that fertility rates have fallen everywhere, but they are just falling to varying extents.

If the current rate continues, then China’s population will be less than half its present size by 2100. That’s 800 million fewer people and contributors to the economy.

South Korea can expect a similar shrinking with approximately 60 percent fewer people. Poland and Japan will similarly fall by 50 percent. Eastern Europe, which has been particularly opposed to immigration, would shrink by 40 percent. Even India — the most populous country in the world — has already seen the number of people who entered the workforce peak.

And countries seem to not be able to find any particular solution.

So what are some of the solutions? Are we all doomed? Is societal collapse imminent?

Not quite.

Let me explain.

“We can solve all the world’s problems if we reduce the world population to where it was 500 years ago.”