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.
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The concerns people have with decreasing population are as follows:
– in traditional societies the children were responsible for managing the care of the elderly. With fewer children, the smaller generations will have to spend more on elderly care proportional to individual spending.
– in capitalist economies, shrinking populations mean less people to buy your goods and services and perpetually increasing profits become a non starter
– workers make less money the younger they are. With an older population, average salaries will rise and there will be fewer people to work the crap jobs that traditionally went to youths (though that’s not really the case anymore)
– some people are also concerned about the military, with fewer young peeler it would be more difficult to staff a perpetually growing military (I don’t honestly think this is a valid concern considering automation and advanced tactics. Even if we were to go into an all out war most of the forces wouldn’t be deployed)
To address your comment, we aren’t really running out of resources other than the blanket statement that many resources aren’t totally renewable, most of the resources issues revolve around logistics and greed.
That said, I’m no malthusian, but I also do not see an issue with having fewer people to worry about providing for.
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