Because they are both dependent on people who are no longer being born? The scenario is a population collapse, it’s going to have major consequences. The labor shortage alone would destroy the economy and upend society. Our civilization would look completely different within a generation.
We’d do a different economy and society then. Not democratic capitalism of course. Something with total centralized control.
Our present system is vastly inefficient. 99% of our energy is spent in competition and friction. If we got properly organized, supplying the population with everything it needs would be trivial. Doubly so with heavy automation.
I think a big flaw in your thinking is that you aren’t considering that we still have all the people currently living to take into consideration. We wouldn’t be instantly reduced to a tiny population that is easy to restructure and organize, there’s still like 8b people on the planet, and none of the ones in charge are going to just say, “oh, well I guess none of this matters anymore, let’s focus on sustainability”.
It would take a couple years for us to see a significant decrease in population, and all the while, those currently in power would remain in power. We wouldn’t suddenly drop to a few thousand like minded individuals, all ready to work together to rebuild. We’d be a declining population that is scared and clueless how to save itself, making mistake after mistake.
Why would the economy and society collapse?
Because they are both dependent on people who are no longer being born? The scenario is a population collapse, it’s going to have major consequences. The labor shortage alone would destroy the economy and upend society. Our civilization would look completely different within a generation.
We’d do a different economy and society then. Not democratic capitalism of course. Something with total centralized control.
Our present system is vastly inefficient. 99% of our energy is spent in competition and friction. If we got properly organized, supplying the population with everything it needs would be trivial. Doubly so with heavy automation.
No centrally planed economy has managed that before.
What happens when you centralize control and a Donald Trump or Vladimir Putin, etc…is the one at the controls?
I think a big flaw in your thinking is that you aren’t considering that we still have all the people currently living to take into consideration. We wouldn’t be instantly reduced to a tiny population that is easy to restructure and organize, there’s still like 8b people on the planet, and none of the ones in charge are going to just say, “oh, well I guess none of this matters anymore, let’s focus on sustainability”.
It would take a couple years for us to see a significant decrease in population, and all the while, those currently in power would remain in power. We wouldn’t suddenly drop to a few thousand like minded individuals, all ready to work together to rebuild. We’d be a declining population that is scared and clueless how to save itself, making mistake after mistake.
I agree with your point of inefficiency, but your estimation is way off. You are very lucky if you can triple efficiency with centralized control.
A 95% loss in workforce would catapult us back to the stone age where 50% of the population has the sole purpose of generating food.
Go watch Children of Men
That’s pretty damn thin reasoning.