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> A rapidly shrinking population would be disastrous to society. Who said population should be shrinking _rapidly_? Making world population size constant would

• martindbp 5y ago
  It's already shrinking in the whole western world, as well as China, South Korea and Japan AFAIK. Rapidly in many places. So despite large increases in places like Nigeria, we're still reaching an equilibrium soon without encouraging even lower birth rates in struggling western countries.
  • caskstrength 5y ago
    > So despite large increases in places like Nigeria, we're still reaching an equilibrium soon without encouraging even lower birth rates in struggling western countries. What are you basing these claims on? Projections that I saw predict further population increase for at least next 50 years. And even though sources disagree when the population will peak, none of them forecast _rapid_ population shrink after the peak.
  • fleddr 5y ago
    No, it's not shrinking at all. You fail to take into account that as many as 4 generations are alive at once, hence an actual decline is very far away. Likewise, first a population peak of 8 billion was predicted, now it's 10-11 billion.
    • martindbp 5y ago
      Let me rephrase, I should have said: rapidly _aging_ population. You're right the population is not shrinking that quickly even in Japan. But it's the aging of the population that is the dangerous part, not the shrinking.