>One statement in there grates: the idea that there never was a big population drop before Nobody actually thinks there was never a population drop. The issue

>One statement in there grates: the idea that there never was a big population drop before Nobody actually thinks there was never a population drop. The issue is there never was an economic, pension and welfare system built on population growth, so that when populations did dip, nobody was affected by the dip. But on the contrary, in the past of agrarian societies, population declines massively benefited the working class, as they had more bargaining power with the landlords. This doesn't work in the economies and societies of today when your retirement depends on there being constant economic and population growth.