If we are running out of resources and increasing pollution does a smaller population not help with this? As a species we have shrunk in numbers before and clearly increased again. Really keen to understand more about this.
In: 2155
Japan’s population stopped growing in 2008. Its population has been declining ever since.
Japan also has strict immigration laws that don’t allow many immigrants in. Japan is one example of what happens to an advanced nation during population decline.
And what has been happening to Japan? Its Gross Domestic Product, the economic value of everything that all of Japan makes, has not grown or shrunk. This is considered a failure by some economists and politicians.
Now, if Japan’s worth is 100 and it has 100 people and 12 years later Japan’s worth is still 100 and it has 90 people, that means 90 people created the same worth as 100. That means Japan’s per person economic value is actually increasing!
Overall, the means that Japan, whose population is decreasing, is actually doing pretty well. We may just be measuring what “doing well” means incorrectly.
Or maybe, computer, robots, and automation have really turned the corner so more people are not required for more per person economic growth. Maybe those non-human based tools allow us to create more value with fewer people.
However, big caveat here, Japan’s “success” even with population decline may be unique to Japan. They have a unique society and also Japan may be relying on *other* countries to keep growing their populations in order to keep growing their own per person economic value. They do this via investing money in countries whose populations *are* growing. It’s unclear what may happen when the entire world’s population stops growing.
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