General Discussion

I skimmed the article. 90% of it is about "why oh why is fertility declining, and what can we do about it?!!1??"

It is NOT about, and does not present, any compelling argument as to WHY IT IS A PROBLEM.

Early on there is the usual "demographic shift" canard.

Well GUESS FUCKING WHAT. Old people, and people in general, will be working less ANYWAY. BECAUSE AI. Or "automation" if you think AI is overhyped (I partially agree there ... but it will over time take more and more jobs ... until civilization collapses due to the REAL issue, discussed below ).

THE PROBLEM IS NOT DEMOGRAPHICS.

The problem is, AS IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN, the distribution of Earth's resources.

And GUESS FUCKING WHAT #2? Overpopulation + overconsumption is inevitably destroying resources at an alarming rate. Meanwhile the billionaires suck out as much as they can, for what? So they can have more private planes and personal stewards, while other people starve? Meanwhile they do everything they can to drive down wages and social safety net support for us, and reduce their own taxes. So they can just get richer. Again, for what? Maybe some of these assholes think eventually enough $$$$$$$$$$ will buy them eternal life? As if any normal person would even want that ...

Now, let's talk about the actual problem ...

Yes, there will be fewer young, healthy people to support the aging population. But that said, the fact is that the "aging population" is - or at least damned well could and should be - a helluva a lot healthier than in prior generations. To the extent it isn't the case, a lot of that has to do with people succumbing to marketing (the rich getting richer) to live in unhealthy ways (think candy at the supermarket checkout line, but a million more ways that happens in our society).

So, if we aren't succumbing to capitalism, as old people we CAN work longer if we need to. (in many cases; obviously there are conditions that are separate from whether we indulge in booze or bad diet).

The problem is, the jobs won't be there. Older - experienced! - workers want more pay. Capitalist corporations are run by bean counters who think that person with 35 years experience is too expensive, and they will justify it in their pitch to replace the person as "bringing in fresh ideas" or some bullshit. Never mind that if they cultivated a proper talent pipeline, they would have plenty of new ideas. But they are just counting beans, not thinking humanly.

Meanwhile, wages and services stall or are cut, taxes for the already insanely rich are cut even more, the rich continue to plunder the planet, while encouraging everyone else to join in ... and species die off (we are experiencing that now); climate change - driven also by the plunder party - accelerates the species die off - and pretty soon it will become challenging to support even a relatively small population (compared to the current 8+ billion) on Planet Earth. (Because even though most seem oblivious to the fact, humans really are dependent on the web of life, that we are engaged in destroying.)

Having more babies is NOT going to fix it.