Human Population Decline - Retire Later?

dilettante

dilettante

Well-known Member
Location
Michigan
One answer to the labor shortage is for people to keep working longer, huffing and puffing to keep the machinery going. That might look fine to well off academics riding in the boat, but down here puling oars.... maybe not so much?

In any case, population decline doesn't seem to get a lot of coverage in the news. Much less exploration of its causes or now that it is inevitable how things may play out.

10 minutes:


A lot of people might be stuck in a 1970s mindset that told us population growth was out of control, a real hair-on-fire issue of its time. Most people don't even know that Canada is facing disappearance without a steady stream of immigration. Even Doctor Rosy Pants here says 96% of Canada's population replacement was from immigration last year.
 

dilettante said:
One answer to the labor shortage is for people to keep working longer, huffing and puffing to keep the machinery going. That might look fine to well off academics riding in the boat, but down here puling oars.... maybe not so much?
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Last May I called it a day, retired at 77, there's not been a day gone by when I haven't missed it. In fact I am still in hope of a phone call.
 
I think depopulation is a good thing, I'm not sure what an ideal world population would be, but I think we are over the limit now and the only way to get lower is to not panic about population decreasing.

But, I think our economies are dependent on constantly increasing consumption. Not sure how to handle that, I've never understood why the amount of profit has to increase every year for a company to meet its goals.

If we are very lucky, maybe the predicted loss of jobs to AI will soften the adjustment to lower population numbers.

If our population numbers decrease perhaps the other species on the planet will be able to recover their numbers (unless they already went extinct).

Canada pop.jpg
 

HoneyNut said:
I think depopulation is a good thing, I'm not sure what an ideal world population would be, but I think we are over the limit now and the only way to get lower is to not panic about population decreasing.

But, I think our economies are dependent on constantly increasing consumption. Not sure how to handle that, I've never understood why the amount of profit has to increase every year for a company to meet its goals.

If we are very lucky, maybe the predicted loss of jobs to AI will soften the adjustment to lower population numbers.

If our population numbers decrease perhaps the other species on the planet will be able to recover their numbers (unless they already went extinct).

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"I've never understood why the amount of profit has to increase every year for a company to meet its goals."

Because, like it or not ... that is how we measure corporate success.

And corporate success is what makes billionaires .

Not to pick on the rich [as they do support us all] But it seems like they never have enough. They just must have more than the billionaire down the road.

On the other hand .... IMO, most middle America just wants to be comforatble .
Bills paid and a few bucks in the bank .
 
With the rise in Automation, Robotics...and now, AI...the need for human labor is declining more and more. If there isn't a slowdown in human population growth, half the global population may be living in/near poverty in another few decades, Birth rates in the more affluent societies are on the decline, while those in already poorer situations continues to increase. If present trends continue, there are going to be some major issues between the Haves and Have Nots. Couple that with Climate Change which is causing large numbers to migrate, and I suspect that the effect will be felt, globally, by the end of this century,
 
rgp said:
"I've never understood why the amount of profit has to increase every year for a company to meet its goals."

Because, like it or not ... that is how we measure corporate success.

And corporate success is what makes billionaires .
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What you have observed in modern day take is that for some, no matter what they have it's never enough.
We know from living memory that country after country fell to The Nazis, but really, it was history repeating itself.
How big was The Roman Empire? Massive, but the question historians never ask is: How many lives did it cost?

rome.gif
The general consensus is seven million. Hitler's little war, as he put it, came in at a death rate of some 85 million. For war mongering types, death is but a statistic. For corporate types, whose sole objective is to increase their squillions, year on year, labour waste and redundancy is no more than a statistic.
 
I'm gonna try to hang in there til I'm 70 since I have no other choice but I doubt my body will put up with it. The less help in the work force with the physically demanding jobs the more work is piled on those of us who are here. I fear they're going to work us into the ground.

Right now in our department there are nights we are doing the work of 4 or 5 people and only getting paid for ourselves. Eventually that is gonna take it's toll. When it does, who will be there to work? Unless we become a department of migrants who don't speak english too well and hafta have everything translated for them.
 
dilettante said:
One answer to the labor shortage is for people to keep working longer, huffing and puffing to keep the machinery going. That might look fine to well off academics riding in the boat, but down here puling oars.... maybe not so much?
Click to expand...

Lol, I've been trying to compose a reply listing all the positive effects of staying in the workforce. I've edited several times, nothing sounds genuine or real. :unsure:
 
Often I've posted I'm a lucky man. I had the good fortune to be ready & able to retire early. During my retirement years I've experienced this.

Not because of shortage of workers.
1.In the 70's there was a fake gas shortage. 2.Recently a shortage of all kinds of stuff due to covid-19.
3.Global shortage of micro-chips impacted car manufacturing.

Given this as projection of population I don't think the lacking workers will be the problem.
The world population is projected to reach 8.5 billion in 2030, and to increase further to 9.7 billion in 2050 and 10.4 billion by 2100.

I think real shortages of resources will be the problem for people in their early 50's. Not complete exhaustion of resources but a reduction bad enough to cause world population to scramble for what is available. AND that won't be pretty.

Working longer doesn't sound appealing to me for those that will be looking at now as the best times of their lives.
 
Maybe less people is a good thing. There won't be such a frantic usage of our resources. And to compensate for the lack of those, who dilettante says "pulls the oars"; is automation. In all those sci-fi movies of the 50s/60s, robots did all the grunt work. As a kid, I used to wonder what people would then do to make a living. I guess I'll have to get a leopard loin cloth, and hit the stage. My "bump and grind" is now "shake and itch".
 
Haven't we already had threads here about a scarcity of elder care workers?

Haven't some of the sticking points in the entertainment industry strikes been demands for safeguards against automation? From the sound of it writers and actors both see automation as a threat. On the other hand robot roofers and welders and school teachers don't seem to be much of "a thing."

A short (under 4 minutes):

 
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