Birthrate Crisis: The Silent Threat to Our Future

Warning of Dire Consequences if Trends Continue

One issue not getting enough attention that people should consider is the declining birth rate, not just in the United States but globally. One of the smartest people on Earth is also deeply concerned, stating on X.com yesterday, “Civilization may end with a bang or with a whimper (in adult diapers).” This is nothing new for Musk, as he’s been sounding this warning for some time. In a 2021 interview with Peter Diamandis, Musk stated that basically if current birth rates continue, the young will become “slaves” to the elderly to support them, due to the imbalance of old to young. And the concern is not just with a few, the OECD continues to sound the alarm as well.

Interestingly, the continent with the highest birth rates is Africa, while those with the lowest are in more developed countries. According to some studies, central cultural precepts of Sub-Saharian Africa include the notions that many descendants must be produced to ensure the survival of lineage, the equation of female virtue with the production of a large number of children, the stronger influence of the lineage than the nuclear family, and a belief in the power of ancestral spirits. In the U.S., some reasons for our declining birth rate are concern over sexually transmitted diseases, socioeconomic factors that have led women and couples to delay having children, as well as irrational fears of climate change, and a lack of affordable housing is another large concern entering the equation for young people having children.

It is a notion as old as time, that the wealthier a nation, the fewer children it tends to have, while poorer nations tend to have higher birth rates. Meanwhile, younger “GEN-Z” Americans are having less sex than their elders at their age.

The culmination of all this makes for a dire future United States that could lead to economic stagnation and putting additional strain on a social security system that is already in unstable territory.

All this being said, others completely disagree with all this gloom and doom. A piece in Wired Magazine states, “Anxiety about falling populations, however, never went away. Now the most prominent public worrier is Elon Musk, for whom stagnating birth rates don’t just represent a crisis for specific countries, but an existential threat to the entire planet.”

While I will leave it to you to decide whether you think it is a problem or not, I view it as a future problem that can only be resolved by younger folk getting back to having more sex and purposefully deciding to have more kids - immediately.