I deliberately chose the population number graph rather than the birth rate graph because that's the one that actually affects resource usage (housing etc), rat

I deliberately chose the population number graph rather than the birth rate graph because that's the one that actually affects resource usage (housing etc), rather than its first derivative. If the numbers start dropping to the extent that opportunities open up, I believe that people's views might start changing. We see localized depopulation of e.g. small Italian or Japanese villages as the local economy dries up. But Korea still has a real and growing economy! It's just perhaps not evenly distributed.