Over the past few years, the biggest knock you&#8217;ve heard against the field of public health is that they completely mismanaged COVID, mainly by exaggerating its impact. They told us it was a potentially civilization-ending epidemic — one that justified lockdowns, mandatory shots, et cetera. In the end they were wrong, of course, and for that reason no one will ever trust one of these supposed experts again.
But the really extraordinary thing about the field of public health isn&#8217;t the epidemics they fixate on. It&#8217;s the ones they ignore. In particular, there is one ongoing public health crisis that these experts really don&#8217;t want to talk about — even though, if it continues for much longer, it will quite literally bring about the end of humanity.
I&#8217;m talking about collapsing fertility rates all over the world, which is a problem you really have to put in context if you want to understand how dire things are.
Right now, Russia, China, Hungary, Poland, Turkey, Ireland, Switzerland, Greece, Denmark, Australia, Canada, Qatar, the UAE, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, the UK, Germany, and the United States — and many others — have birth rates that are well below replacement level.
The U.S. fertility rate is at its <a href="https://twitter.com/ianbremmer/status/1783920672617443824" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lowest</a> point in nearly a century. What that means is that people aren&#8217;t having enough children to sustain the population. But not every country is affected by this crisis. There are countries where fertility is much higher than replacement level. They include such esteemed locations as Niger (one of the poorest countries on the planet), Chad, Somalia, Angola, Tanzania, Afghanistan, Zambia, Cameroon, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and of course Haiti.
It doesn&#8217;t take a genius to see where this is heading. Third-world hellholes are reproducing, while first-world countries — the ones that sustain the global economy that keeps billions of people alive — are not reproducing. As this goes on, and third-world inhabitants continue to pour into the first-world, the distinction between these two parts of the world continues to blur until they&#8217;re completely irrelevant. Eventually everywhere will be third-world.
This is not a new problem. But to the extent political leaders have tried to solve it, by and large, they&#8217;ve failed.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1357-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h4>
A decade ago, for example, China <a href="https://twitter.com/ChinaPowerCSIS/status/1781729541385249271" target="_blank" rel="noopener">eased</a> its barbaric one-child policy. They expected millions more births as a result. But the following year, the country saw only an additional half-million births. And the country&#8217;s birth rate has remained below replacement level ever since.
Beginning in the 90s, Japan undertook its own <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10615026/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">efforts</a> to raise the birth rate, including offering more parental leave, more child care services, et cetera. The result? Nothing has improved. It&#8217;s only gotten much worse. Last year, Japan&#8217;s birth rate was the lowest on record.
It&#8217;s the same story in Hungary. Starting with Orban&#8217;s government in 2010, Hungary doubled its spending on families. And yet, last year, Hungary, like Japan, recorded its lowest number of births in history.
So whatever the problem is here, it&#8217;s clear that it cannot be resolved solely through more spending or government intervention. Simply providing some ad hoc economic incentives isn&#8217;t cutting it — although those policies are good, they aren’t sufficient. So what is the solution? You can say that the broader economy needs to improve, which is obviously a big part of it. But the declines I&#8217;m talking about have been in progress for decades. Singapore&#8217;s birth rate has been dropping since the 1980s, and their GDP per capita grew dramatically in the new millennium. It&#8217;s a similar situation in Taiwan. And birth rates in the U.S. were declining pre-pandemic, for more than a decade — even throughout <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/us-household-incomes-soared-in-2015-recording-biggest-gain-in-decades/2016/09/13/a832da44-79e0-11e6-ac8e-cf8e0dd91dc7_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">periods</a> in which median household incomes were setting new records.
What this means is that figuring out the root cause of this problem is more complicated than looking at economic indicators alone. It means analyzing culture, and in particular, taking a close look at prevailing attitudes towards children and families, and trying to change them. That was the main goal of the Natal Conference, which took place at the end of last year in Austin, Texas. Speakers from all over the country gathered to assess what&#8217;s gone wrong and how to fix it.
One of them was Kevin Dolan, an organizer of the event. And he made it clear that, whether you personally like the idea of having kids or not, the collapse of fertility rates will have devastating effects on you and everyone you know. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="001 Economic Problem" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/151AO19JmPs?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Whether you agree with him or not, one of the first things you notice about Kevin Dolan is that he&#8217;s not a demagogue. He didn&#8217;t hold this conference to berate anyone for not wanting to have kids. He&#8217;s not some kind of cult leader who demands that everyone sign a pledge to create a certain number of children. He&#8217;s a normal guy. And he&#8217;s trusting, too, which is why he allowed a Politico reporter to attend the event to write about it.
How did that turn out? Predictably, Politico published a hit piece that&#8217;s so bizarre, and so totally disconnected from the event, that it verges on self-parody.
Here&#8217;s how Politico wrote about the conference <a href="https://twitter.com/politico/status/1784569937391956477" target="_blank" rel="noopener">on Twitter</a>: &#8220;The far right is so obsessed with making babies, they just held a whole conference about it.&#8221;
Yes, you heard that right. Politico has uncovered the sinister Right-wing plot to have babies and ensure the survival of the human species. They caught us. We are anti-extinction. Much to our shame.
Then if you click through to the article, you&#8217;ll find this <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/04/28/natalism-conference-austin-00150338" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sinister-sounding</a> headline: &#8220;The Far Right’s Campaign to Explode the Population.&#8221;
It&#8217;s not hard to see what Politico is getting at. Basically, they&#8217;re saying that anyone who wants Western societies to produce children — which is to say, anyone who wants Western societies to continue existing — must be &#8220;far Right.&#8221; It&#8217;s reminiscent of how &#8220;freedom&#8221; has <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/checkup/what-s-your-reaction-to-the-ottawa-standoff-and-the-border-blockades-1.6349636/why-the-word-freedom-is-such-a-useful-rallying-cry-for-protesters-1.6349865" target="_blank" rel="noopener">become</a> a dirty word in Canada. The people who want to destroy Western civilization aren&#8217;t doing a great job of hiding it anymore.
But if you go online to the Natal Conference&#8217;s website, you can find a bunch of speakers explaining very clearly what they think is happening in this country. They talk about everything from divorce laws to common fears people have about parenting, and the impact these considerations are having on fertility rates. None of this is a &#8220;Right-wing conspiracy.&#8221; That&#8217;s the familiar terminology they trot out whenever the Left knows that something is really happening and they want it to keep happening.
And indeed, there&#8217;s a very active anti-natalism movement right now. Spend any time on the darker corners of the internet, and you&#8217;ll find quite a few people who fully embrace depopulation as a positive good. It&#8217;s grim stuff.
In fact, mainstream media outlets routinely run stories about young people who don&#8217;t want to have kids because it will hurt the planet somehow. Watch:
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That&#8217;s the more socially acceptable form of the depopulation agenda, and it&#8217;s being promoted by corporate media. But the anti-natalism movement gets more organized, and more explicit, the deeper you look.
One of the leaders of this depopulation agenda is Les Knight, the founder of the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement. Here&#8217;s footage of one of his recent conferences. As you watch this, compare Knight&#8217;s presentation with the one you heard earlier at the Natal conference, just in terms of the general sanity of the speaker. Watch:
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That&#8217;s the first land acknowledgement you&#8217;ll hear that doesn&#8217;t just acknowledge some of the tribes or whatever, but also acknowledges some of the wildlife. This is as cultish and as creepy as it gets, but you won&#8217;t see Politico running any articles on this guy being &#8220;far Left.&#8221; They&#8217;re not smearing Les Knight. Instead, quite the opposite.
The New York Times recently published <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/23/climate/voluntary-human-extinction.html">a glowing profile</a> of Knight: &#8220;For the sake of the planet, Les Knight, the founder of the Voluntary Human Extinction movement, has spent decades pushing one message: &#8216;May we live long and die out.'&#8221;
In that clip you just saw, you heard Knight mention that no one ever talks about the fact that world population is increasing, even as birth rates plummet. But there are a couple of obvious explanations for this. One is that — as I mentioned earlier — not all countries are experiencing plummeting birth rates. The most dysfunctional countries on the planet are actually reproducing at extremely high rates. Additionally, just from a statistical perspective, it takes time for lagging birth rates to show up in world population figures. There might be a lot of young couples now having kids in some places. That doesn&#8217;t mean those couples will be around in 20 years, still having children. Birth rates decline first, and then population declines. When you get to the point where the population itself is starting to decline, that’s when the catastrophe has really hit. The goal is to prevent that from happening.
Reversing this decline should not be a &#8220;Right-wing&#8221; project. Yet there are very few prominent people outside of conservative circles who are willing to talk about this at all. Elon Musk is the only notable exception. In fact, it should tell us something that Musk — one of the wealthiest and most powerful men on the planet — considers depopulation to be the greatest existential threat we face as a species.
This weekend I engaged in a back-and-forth with Musk on Twitter about the causes of this existential threat. The conversation started when someone posted this chart on social media. It shows that the number of men under 30 who report having zero sexual partners since turning 18 has increased from 8% in 2008 to 27% in 2018.
https://twitter.com/SMTuffy/status/1783781813950845313
That&#8217;s obviously a striking chart, and it demands an explanation. I responded by <a href="https://x.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1783918984208765414">saying:</a> 
<blockquote>A lot of theories to explain this but it’s very clearly like 98 percent because of porn.</blockquote>
I made that observation because the iPhone and Pornhub were both born in 2007. Male virginity rates skyrocketed pretty much from that very moment, as birth rates plunged the opposite direction.
In reply to my tweet, Musk <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1784106328971227305" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote this</a>: 
<blockquote>It’s not porn, which has been readily available from the days of VHS tapes, but rather the general temptation of the online world, if you’re going to blame it on anything electronic. Sex is not what matters. Lots of people are having sex that have no kids. Population implosion is what will end civilization.</blockquote>
What Musk is saying about pornography is obviously true. Pornography clearly pre-dates the year 2007. But it was nothing like the pornography that&#8217;s been available in the past decade or so.
Here&#8217;s one small data point: Playboy at its peak sold around 7 million copies a month. Pornhub — just one site — gets something like 15 times as many visitors per day. Way more people are consuming porn today, way more often, starting at way younger ages. And on top of that, the porn itself is way more graphic and debased. This isn&#8217;t the whole reason that birth rates are declining. But it is a major plank in the depopulation platform.
That&#8217;s a strong argument for continuing to ban young people from accessing online pornography, which several states have already done. It&#8217;s also a good reason for parents to limit or even eliminate their kids access to electronics. And that should just be the beginning. If all of this sounds drastic, it&#8217;s probably because you haven&#8217;t been fully informed about the scale of the problem that Western civilization is now facing. And that&#8217;s by design.
A few months ago I did a whole <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-origins-of-the-anti-human-depopulation-agenda" target="_blank" rel="noopener">monologue</a> on the Jaffe Memo, and the origins of Planned Parenthood&#8217;s very comprehensive campaign to depopulate the planet. Very powerful &#8220;nonprofits&#8221; and political organizations in this country don&#8217;t want you to reproduce. That&#8217;s not conspiratorial; it&#8217;s just true. They&#8217;ve put it in writing.
The good news is that this is one of the few problems in our society that pretty much everyone can help solve. It&#8217;s maybe the single most solvable crisis in history. They have to expend all this effort and push all this propaganda to discourage reproduction because it&#8217;s one of the most natural things a person can do. But the propaganda is failing now. Because of the Natal Conference and efforts like it, as well as Elon Musk and other prominent figures, there&#8217;s more attention to declining birth rates than there has been at any point in recent history. That&#8217;s why Politico and Left-wing activists are melting down. There&#8217;s nothing they want to see less than more children being born. That tells you everything you need to know about their ideology — and it also tells you how to defeat it.

Family waving American flags

The Dastardly Right Wing Plot To Have Babies And Save Humanity From Extinction

Birth Control

Birth Rates

Dating

Elon Musk

Matt Walsh

Opinion

Population

Readers Pass

Aerial. People crowd on pedestrian crosswalk. Top view background. Toned image.

The Origins Of The Anti-Human Depopulation Agenda

Leftists

Planned Parenthood

The Census Bureau predicts that the U.S. population will decline for the first time ever by the year 2100 after peaking in 2080. 
Census Bureau <a href="https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2023/population-projections.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">estimates</a> released Thursday showed that the U.S. population — which now stands at roughly 333 million — is expected to reach 370 million by 2080, but then drop off to 366 million by 2100. While fewer Americans choose to have large families and fertility rates decrease, U.S. population growth mainly relies on immigration. In each projection other than the “zero-immigration” scenario, immigration is the most significant factor in population numbers in America. 
“The U.S. has experienced notable shifts in the components of population change over the last five years,” Census Bureau Demographer Sandra Johnson said. “Some of these, like the increases in mortality caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, are expected to be short-term while others, including the declines in fertility that have persisted for decades, are likely to continue into the future. Incorporating additional years of data on births, deaths and international migration into our projections process resulted in a slower pace of population growth through 2060 than was previously projected.”
The Census Bureau’s projection took the most likely immigration scenario over the next 77 years, but in a “high-immigration scenario,” the bureau said that the U.S. population would reach 435 million by 2100. In a “low-immigration” scenario, the U.S. population drops to 319 million in 2100, significantly lower than what it is today. 
The most alarming projection came from the “zero-immigration” scenario, which “projects that population declines would start in 2024 in the complete absence of foreign-born immigration,” the Census Bureau said, adding, “The population in this scenario is projected to be 226 million in 2100, roughly 107 million lower than the 2022 estimate.”
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The median age of the U.S. population is projected to rise in each of the Census Bureau’s scenarios. In the most likely projection, 29% of Americans will be 65 or older by 2100, compared to just 16.4% of the population being under 18. Currently, <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2023/05/2020-census-united-states-older-population-grew.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">16.8%</a> of the U.S. population is 65 or older, and <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/08/united-states-adult-population-grew-faster-than-nations-total-population-from-2010-to-2020.html#:~:text=By%20comparison%2C%20the%20younger%20population,in%20fertility%2C%20ongoing%20since%202007." target="_blank" rel="noopener">22.1%</a> is under 18.  
Earlier this year, the Census Bureau also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-median-age-reaches-record-high-as-americans-put-off-having-kids" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that the U.S. median age hit a record high at 38.9 in 2022. 
“It’s simple arithmetic. Fewer kids are being born,” said Andrew A. Beveridge, the president of demographic data firm Social Explorer.
Declining fertility rates and an aging population are issues already affecting European and Asian countries whose populations are expected to dwindle in the coming decades. Europe’s median age has increased to 44, and Japan’s median age hit 48 years old, making it the oldest country in the world.
China’s population is also in <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/18/china/china-population-drop-explainer-intl-hnk/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">decline</a> as India overtook the communist country as the world’s most populous nation earlier this year. The population in China shrunk in 2022 for the first time since Mao’s famine in 1961 that killed tens of millions of people.

New York City

U.S. Population Projected To Shrink For First Time Ever By End Of Century

Census Bureau

Immigration

U.S.

China, you’ve been told, is a rising power. Soon, you’ve been told, they’ll surpass the United States as the center of a new world order. Their annual gross domestic product averaged 9% growth from 1989 to 2022; their standing military has 2 million active personnel; their tentacles reach into Africa, the Middle East, and South America. The real story of China is far, far scarier, because China is a power in a state of inevitable collapse. The only question is when, and how much damage they’ll do before the Chinese regime implodes. That’s because China has at least five serious problems.
<h2>Problem #1 | Demographics</h2>
China is currently, according to geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan, the fastest-aging society in all of human history. A healthy demographic chart, in terms of age, looks something like a pyramid: most of the citizens will be young, a solid number will be middle-aged, and at the very top, the fewest will be elderly. 
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-603351 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-12-at-7.36.54-PM-copy-1014x576.jpg" alt="" width="1014" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-12-at-7.36.54-PM-copy-1014x576.jpg 1014w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-12-at-7.36.54-PM-copy-300x170.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-12-at-7.36.54-PM-copy-768x436.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-12-at-7.36.54-PM-copy-1536x872.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-12-at-7.36.54-PM-copy.jpg 1875w" sizes="(max-width: 1014px) 100vw, 1014px" /></div>
Even in 2000, the warning signs were clear in China. You can see the dramatic lack of people in the 9 and below group. That did not change. 
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-603353" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/Screenshot-2000-2023-08-12-at-7.37.21-PM-copy-1016x576.jpg" alt="" width="1016" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/Screenshot-2000-2023-08-12-at-7.37.21-PM-copy-1016x576.jpg 1016w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/Screenshot-2000-2023-08-12-at-7.37.21-PM-copy-300x170.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/Screenshot-2000-2023-08-12-at-7.37.21-PM-copy-768x435.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/Screenshot-2000-2023-08-12-at-7.37.21-PM-copy-1536x870.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/Screenshot-2000-2023-08-12-at-7.37.21-PM-copy.jpg 1874w" sizes="(max-width: 1016px) 100vw, 1016px" /></div>
So here’s what that same chart looks like by 2020. Look at how the vast bulk of the population is now over the age of 30. There is no supporting demographic base to pay all the bills. This is why Zeihan says China now has a “completely terminal demography.”
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-603355" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/Screenshot-2020-2023-08-12-at-7.37.39-PM-copy-1020x576.jpg" alt="" width="1020" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/Screenshot-2020-2023-08-12-at-7.37.39-PM-copy-1020x576.jpg 1020w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/Screenshot-2020-2023-08-12-at-7.37.39-PM-copy-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/Screenshot-2020-2023-08-12-at-7.37.39-PM-copy-768x434.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/Screenshot-2020-2023-08-12-at-7.37.39-PM-copy-1536x868.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/Screenshot-2020-2023-08-12-at-7.37.39-PM-copy.jpg 1880w" sizes="(max-width: 1020px) 100vw, 1020px" /></div>
China currently has a birthrate of less than 1.2 per woman. It’s worse in urban areas. 
The decline of Chinese birthrates can be attributed to two factors: first, the Chinese government’s evil one-child policy, implemented in 1980, ended in 2016, it resulted in three to four percent more boys than girls being born thanks to sex-selective abortion and infanticide; families literally killing off female babies in the womb or afterward. 
According to the Chinese government itself, the one-child policy prevented 400 million births. China’s population has already peaked — it’s now dropping. The question is as the population ages in a heavily Marxist system, who is going to pay the bills? 
<h2>Problem #2 | Lack Of Innovation</h2>
This brings us to problem number two: lack of innovation. If China were free, you know, an innovative, robust economy, it might be possible to stave off disaster for at least a little while. After all, the generation of new products and services might allow China to thrive economically in the short term, that would buy time for the social system to transition away from high levels of government support and toward something more sustainable. But China has no innovation, thanks to its state-controlled mercantilist schemes. Right now, the entire Chinese economy is reliant on producing things at scale, undercutting foreign markets, and stealing technology. As the young working population declines, producing things at scale becomes a lot more difficult. Cheap labor goes away. 
China is trying to fill the gap right now with robotics. In 2021, China represented 52% of global worldwide industrial robot installation. There is a problem with this. If a robot can do a job more cheaply than a human, why produce in China at all as opposed to somewhere that isn’t a geopolitical hellhole run by an authoritarian communist government? Furthermore, China has to import all those robots, largely from Japan.
And then there’s the problem of innovation. It turns out when you nationalize all innovation, you kill it. The solution is to rob everyone else of their IP and then try to recreate it. Some reports suggest that Chinese IP theft costs the United States up to $600 billion per year. This is an unsustainable growth model. It always leaves Chinese IP well behind Western IP. They’re stealing somebody else’s technology and then they’re trying to reengineer it. This is particularly true when it comes to microchips, where China manufactures a lot of basic microchips, but has actually been cut off from the world&#8217;s markets for sophisticated microchips. All of which brings us to the third problem: debt. 
<div id="attachment_603373" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-603373" class="size-large wp-image-603373" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/GettyImages-1322017304-1024x576.jpg" alt="Central Computer Processor digital concept" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/GettyImages-1322017304-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/GettyImages-1322017304-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/GettyImages-1322017304-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/GettyImages-1322017304-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/GettyImages-1322017304-2048x1152.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />MF3d. Getty Images.</div>
<h2>Problem #3 | Debt </h2>
If you can&#8217;t pay for things through innovation or through manufacturing, you got to get a lot of money from someplace else. Well, China’s growth has been disproportionately funded by debt. The country’s debt to GDP ratio is at least 159%, that is 60% higher than the global rate, according to the S&amp;P Global Ratings. The nation’s total stock of corporate, household, and government debt is now over 300% of GDP. It comprises 15% of all debt globally, according to the Institute of International Finance. 
Because Chinese banks are owned by the state, their decision making is rooted in government interests rather than profitability, that means they are probably carrying trillions of dollars in bad loans. As Professor Antonio Graceffo writes, “It is extremely unlikely that the Chinese Communist Party will be able to solve all of these problems or completely turn the economy around. The Chinese economy is too big and too complex to be able to remedy the deeply ingrained issues that have become endemic.”
The best visible example of China’s economic hollowness is its ghost cities. Literally cities that are just empty. China is chock filled with these so-called “ghost cities,” they include, apparently, up to 65 million empty units of housing.
<div id="attachment_603371" style="width: 871px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-603371" class="size-large wp-image-603371" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/GettyImages-614998450-861x576.jpg" alt="DANDONG, LIAONING PROVINCE, CHINA - 2016/10/11: Vacant streets, shops and residential buildings in Guomen Bay. Since the China and North Korea agreed to build a new Yalu River bridge at Guomen Bay in 2009, a large sum of funds have been invested in this area, hoping to develop a prosperous new city. However, the bridge's construction came to halt after 2014, Guomen Bay area seems to be a ghost city now. (Photo by Zhang Peng/LightRocket via Getty Images)" width="861" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/GettyImages-614998450-861x576.jpg 861w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/GettyImages-614998450-300x201.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/GettyImages-614998450-768x514.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/GettyImages-614998450.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 861px) 100vw, 861px" />Zhang Peng/LightRocket via Getty Images</div>
Why did this happen? Well, politicians borrowed insane amounts of money for make-work projects, with the government then encouraging people to put their retirement money into buying empty shells of apartments, assuring them the prices would continue to rise. This has generated a looming real estate catastrophe. Because none of these apartments are livable. But Chinese citizens keep putting their money in real estate because it allows them the illusion of actual ownership of something — and in a communist country, even the illusion of ownership is better than the reality that the government runs everything and you don&#8217;t own anything.
<h2>Problem #4 | Military </h2>
China has yet another problem: Military problems. Now, everybody thinks China is a powerful military country, and they kind of are. But, with China on the brink economically and demographically, they might be expected to get more aggressive militarily. And again, China does keep threatening surrounding areas, including most prominently, Taiwan. China’s 2 million man army is indeed huge. But, manpower isn’t everything, as we saw in the Ukraine War. And like Russia, the Chinese military isn’t up to snuff. China relies on older, less sophisticated chips, according to the RAND Corporation. The United States has worked to control import of chips into China, which means that their Chinese tech is just not as good as American military tech.  
The United States has even prevented Chinese companies from receiving software updates, spare parts, or technological input from Americans. 
<div id="attachment_603369" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-603369" class="size-large wp-image-603369" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/GettyImages-486276722-864x576.jpg" alt="BEIJING, CHINA - SEPTEMBER 03: Chinese soldiers ride in tanks as they pass in front of Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City during a military parade on September 3, 2015 in Beijing, China. China is marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II and its role in defeating Japan with a new national holiday and a military parade in Beijing. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/GettyImages-486276722-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/GettyImages-486276722-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/GettyImages-486276722-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/GettyImages-486276722-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/GettyImages-486276722-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/GettyImages-486276722-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/GettyImages-486276722-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Kevin Frayer/Getty Images</div>
According to Chris Miller, author of Chip War, China now lags the United States by up to a decade. What’s more, China doesn’t yet have the capacity to project deep water power. They have a lot of boats in their Navy, and their Navy is effective in coastal zones, but they have no capacity to project power beyond those zones. Which means that Taiwan and the South China Sea are squarely in China’s crosshairs – because 92% of all sophisticated microchips are produced in Taiwan, we could see China attempt to blockade the island with the threat of destroying TSMC, Taiwan&#8217;s microchip manufacturing company.
<h2>Problem #5 | Dictatorship</h2>
Finally, you have problem number five: dictatorship. Underlying all of these other problems is the biggest one of all: China is a one party dictatorship. While fools like Thomas Friedman of The New York Times write that “China&#8217;s one-party autocracy can impose the important policies needed to move a society forward” the reality is the reverse: because the dictatorship is the be-all end-all, it can’t allow the freedom and innovation necessary to grow the country and fix its problem. Instead, dictator Xi Jinping, in an attempt to enshrine his own power, has doubled down, seeking more economic control, more autarky, greater militarism, more carbon-based fossil fuels to push manufacturing growth.
China is in very serious trouble. Does this mean that China is going to break apart into a million policies? No. But it means that the current regime is on shaky footing. And that means they are likely to get very aggressive in the near term, in an attempt to shore up their foundation. Because if they don&#8217;t, that collapse is going to happen sooner rather than later.
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FACTS – Ep 2 China-V5

Despite What You’re Being Told, China Is Dying

Ben Shapiro

China

Military

Xi Jinping

The U.S. population has reached a record-high median age, according to Census Bureau data released Thursday. 
Americans’ median age hit 38.9 in 2022 as the country faces a rapidly aging population resulting from declining birth rates, The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/22/us/census-median-age.html#:~:text=What's%20New,Thursday%20by%20the%20Census%20Bureau.">reported</a>. The median U.S. age has steadily risen from 30 in 1980 to 35 in 2000 to nearly 39 in 2022. 
“It’s simple arithmetic. Fewer kids are being born,” said Andrew A. Beveridge, the president of demographic data firm Social Explorer. 
States with the oldest median age are Maine (44.8) and New Hampshire (43.3) while the youngest states are Utah (31.9), the District of Columbia (34.8), and Texas (35.5). Utah, whose large population of Mormons encourages adherents to raise large families, has one of the highest fertility rates in the U.S., <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/fertility_rate/fertility_rates.htm">according</a> to CDC data. Maine’s fertility rate of 49.9 births per 1,000 women falls far behind Utah at 63.6. 
The Times also reported that communities with a larger population of black Americans — such as D.C. and Kaufman County, Texas, a suburb of Dallas — are staying relatively young compared to the rest of the U.S. The median ages in both D.C. and Kaufman County were under 35 years old. 
The U.S. is following the trends of aging populations and declining birth rates that are alarming European and Asian countries. Europe’s median age has increased to 44, and Japan’s median age hit 48 years old, making it the <a href="https://www.worlddata.info/average-age.php">oldest country</a> in the world. Meanwhile, dozens of African nations are retaining a median age under 20. 
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Birth rates in the U.S. fell during the first year of the COVID pandemic before going up and then <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-birth-rate-in-decline-again-as-post-covid-rebound-subsides">slightly declining</a> again from 2021 to 2022. According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provisional report published earlier this month, there was a less than 1% decline in total births from 2021 to 2022, decreasing from 3,664,292 babies in 2021 to 3,661,220 in 2022.
Many American families are delaying having children if they choose to have any at all. The CDC report charted a continued rise in births from women in their early 40s and late 30s as well as a continued decline in teen births, which have dropped a staggering 80% since 1991. Births among women aged 40-44 have not decreased since 1981, with 2020 being an exception. 
Nathan Gay contributed to this report.

Back view of little boy and his great-grandfather walking on dirt track at backlight

U.S. Median Age Reaches Record High As Americans Put Off Having Kids

Americans' Median Age Reaches Record High

Children

General

Residents of several cities in the United States require a salary much higher than $100,000 to feel as if they are earning six figures due to elevated <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/inflation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">costs</a> of living and aggressive <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/taxes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">taxes</a>, according to a recent <a href="https://smartasset.com/data-studies/new-100k-how-taxes-costs-affect-us-cities-2023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">analysis</a> from SmartAsset.
The financial technology company found that residents of Honolulu, New York City, and San Francisco require salaries between $310,000 and $312,000 to earn the equivalent of $100,000 in an average part of the country since high earners in the three cities face tax rates above 40% and living expenses more than 80% above the national average.
“Those with a $100,000 salary earn more than double the median individual income for 2021, which might imply financial comfort on first glance. But when accounting for taxes and cost of living in America’s largest cities, those six figures will feel much smaller,” SmartAsset said in the analysis. “Ultimately, to have the purchasing power of $100,000, you will have to earn a substantially higher salary.”
Oakland, Los Angeles, and Long Beach followed the other cities with respect to the gross income needed to “feel like” one takes home $100,000. Residents of the cities see costs of living roughly 50% greater than the national average, partially due to expensive real estate, while income taxes approach 40% in Oakland and nearly 38% in Los Angeles and Long Beach. “California cities require the highest gross incomes of any state,” SmartAsset noted.
With an effective tax rate of 13.5%, California is among the most heavily taxed states in the nation, according to an <a href="https://taxfoundation.org/publications/state-local-tax-burden-rankings/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">analysis</a> from the Tax Foundation. The state also has among the most progressive income tax systems, meaning that wealthy households supply an outsized portion of revenues relative to other households, according to an <a href="https://itep.org/whopays/#:~:text=Some%20states%2C%20such%20as%20California,have%20very%20progressive%20income%20taxes." target="_blank" rel="noopener">analysis</a> from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
The most affordable cities for high earners, on the other hand, are Memphis, El Paso, and Oklahoma City, where residents need salaries between $117,000 and $120,000 to “feel like” they are earning $100,000. Cities in Texas, such as Corpus Christi, Lubbock, and Houston, are also among the most affordable for individuals earning six figures, who can “feel like” they are earning $100,000 with salaries between $121,000 and $125,000.
“In general, states with no state income taxes have an edge when it comes to overall purchasing power,” SmartAsset added. States without income taxes include Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming.
Population trends over the three years since the lockdown-induced recession broadly match the difficulty of earning robust incomes in cities with high costs of living and tax rates, as well as recent trends in crime and the extent to which lockdowns impacted business recovery.
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Data released by the Census Bureau at the end of last month <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/here-are-the-fastest-growing-and-fastest-shrinking-counties-in-america" target="_blank" rel="noopener">demonstrate</a> that counties home to major cities in California, Illinois, and New York witnessed the nation’s most stark numeric population decline last year, while those home to major cities in Arizona, Texas, and Florida saw the largest numeric population growth. An analysis from the Economic Innovation Group noted that domestic outmigration from large urban counties <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/two-million-people-bolted-from-americas-major-cities-since-the-lockdowns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">surpassed</a> two million residents in 2021 and 2022, a trend that contributed to a population increase in the suburbs and exurbs.

US-TOURISM-HAWAII

A $300,000 Salary Feels Like $100,000 In These Three Expensive Cities, Analysis Finds

A $300,000 Salary Feels Like $100,000 In These Expensive Cities

Economy

Inflation

Taxes

Millions of people left major cities in the United States between 2020 and 2022, years dominated by government <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/lockdowns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lockdown</a> policies and elevated <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/crime" target="_blank" rel="noopener">crime</a> rates, according to an <a href="https://eig.org/2022-county-population-trends/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">analysis</a> released last week by the Economic Innovation Group.
Domestic outmigration from large urban counties reached 1.2 million residents in 2021 and 861,000 residents in 2022, implying that more than two million people moved from large cities in recent years. The trend contributed to a population surge in the suburbs and exurbs, which saw 486,000 and 822,000 new residents, respectively, between 2020 and 2022.
Increased rates of immigration from outside of the United States, however, added 507,000 residents to large cities in 2022, an increase from 186,000 residents in 2021 as worldwide travel restrictions eased. “Though large urban counties have not yet rebounded from large population outflows experienced in 2020 and 2021, they did nearly halt overall population loss in 2022, buoyed by more normal rates of international migration,” the analysts summarized.
Individuals who took advantage of remote work policies appear to have accelerated the domestic migration phenomena even as constrained housing markets likely slowed the trends.
“We find work-from-home related fundamentals remained important drivers of population shifts in 2022 but less than they were in 2021. One reason may be that the shift to remote work early in the pandemic was a one-time shock and this led to a one-time, temporary change in migration patterns, which are now converging towards normal,” the analysts said. “Alternatively, remote work may have an impact on migration patterns that will take a longer time to unfold. In this case, the weaker relationship with work-from-home fundamentals may be due to housing supply becoming a more binding constraint to work-from-home-driven population shifts.”
Lockdown mandates caused low labor force participation and supply chain bottlenecks, worsening already lackluster levels of new construction for residential real estate. Median home sale prices increased from $322,600 in the second quarter of 2020 to $467,700 in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MSPUS" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Data released by the Census Bureau at the end of last month <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/here-are-the-fastest-growing-and-fastest-shrinking-counties-in-america" target="_blank" rel="noopener">demonstrate</a> that counties home to major cities in California, Illinois, and New York witnessed the nation’s most stark numeric population decline last year, while those home to major cities in Arizona, Texas, and Florida saw the largest numeric population growth. Los Angeles County, California, lost more residents than any other county in the United States as the population fell by 91,000 between July 2021 and July 2022. Cook County, Illinois, whose county seat is Chicago, saw its population decrease by 68,000 over the same time horizon.
Population trends correspond with the cities and states which enforced aggressive lockdown mandates. California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom only <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/gov-newsom-officially-ends-covid-state-of-emergency-after-three-years" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reversed</a> the state of emergency established amid the spread of COVID as late as February 2023, while Chicago Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chicago-mayor-lori-lightfoots-heavy-hand-vaccine-free-your-time-is-up" target="_blank" rel="noopener">informed</a> unvaccinated residents as late as December 2021 that their “time is up” and said her health mandates were “inconvenient by design.”
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Elevated violent crime and property crime rates in American cities have contributed to an exodus of businesses and residents. The phenomenon has continued into 2023: Walmart announced this week that the firm would <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/walmart-closes-four-stores-in-chicago-amid-elevated-crime-rates" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shutter</a> four stores in Chicago, while Whole Foods unveiled the forthcoming <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/san-franciscos-flagship-whole-foods-closes-after-only-one-year-due-to-high-crime-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">closure</a> of the organic grocer’s flagship location in San Francisco.

Oakland, California

Two Million People Bolted From America’s Major Cities Since The Lockdowns

Millions Of People Bolted From America's Large Cities Between 2020 And 2022

Crime

Lockdowns

Counties home to major cities in California, Illinois, and New York witnessed the nation’s most stark numeric <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/population" target="_blank" rel="noopener">population</a> decline last year, while those home to major cities in Arizona, Texas, and Florida saw the largest numeric population growth.
Los Angeles County, California, lost more residents than any other county in the United States as the population fell by 90,704 between July 2021 and July 2022, according to <a href="https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2023/population-estimates-counties.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> released on Thursday by the <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/census-bureau" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Census Bureau</a>. Cook County, Illinois, whose county seat is Chicago, saw its population decrease by 68,315 over the same time horizon.
Dr. Christine Hartley, the assistant division chief for estimates and projections in the population division at the Census Bureau, noted in a press release that “migration and growth patterns” for the nation’s counties approached levels previously witnessed before the lockdown-induced recession. Some urban counties saw “domestic outmigration at a slower pace,” while counties with large universities saw their populations “fully rebound this year” as the schools returned to conventional instruction rather than online courses.
Queens County, Kings County, and Bronx County, New York, which constitute the New York City boroughs of Queens, Brooklyn, and the Bronx, followed the counties dominated by Los Angeles and Chicago, which are the overall largest in the nation, with respect to numeric decline.
The largest counties for numeric population growth, on the other hand, were Maricopa County, Arizona, whose county seat is Phoenix, which gained 56,831 residents between 2021 and 2022. Harris County, Texas, whose county seat is Houston, gained 45,626 residents.
Collin County and Denton County, Texas, which are home to the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, followed the counties dominated by Phoenix and Houston as the most robust in the nation with respect to numeric growth. Polk County, Florida, which is near the Orlando and Tampa metropolitan areas, and Lee County, Florida, which is home to Cape Coral and Fort Myers, likewise followed the counties in Arizona and Texas.
Census Bureau officials noted that domestic migration patterns shifted considerably between 2021 and 2022, especially with respect to the number of Americans moving between different counties. Some 60% of counties witnessed positive domestic migration last year.
“During the height of the pandemic, many small counties experienced higher levels of domestic migration, while many large counties saw lower levels of domestic migration,” the agency noted. “This pattern has reversed between 2021 and 2022, where many of the small counties that experienced increases in domestic migration saw that pattern slow down. In the meantime, many large counties, particularly in the South and West, observed an uptick in domestic migration.”
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Natural decrease, on the other hand, outpaced natural increase in more than 74% of counties; in other words, the majority of counties in the United States witnessed more deaths than births. “The incidence of natural decrease remains historically high,” the agency added. “Natural decrease counties are found nationwide but are especially prevalent in some states.”
The Census Bureau previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/in-2021-americas-population-grew-at-slowest-rate-since-founding-of-the-nation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> that the population of the United States expanded at the slowest pace since the American Revolution in 2021. Officials cited “decreasing fertility” and “increasing mortality due to an aging population” as two of the factors behind the phenomenon.

Phoenix, Arizona Downtown Skyline

Here Are The Fastest-Growing And Fastest-Shrinking Counties In America

The Fastest-Growing And Fastest-Shrinking Counties In America

Arizona

California

Florida

Illinois

New York

Texas

Nearly three-quarters of a million people have left California in a two-year period, new census data reveals. 
According to the most recent <a href="https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/popest/2020s-state-total.html">census data</a>, California’s population has dropped by more than 500,000 between April 2020 and July 2022, with nearly 700,000 residents leaving the state. Nearly half the state&#8217;s population loss is attributed to Los Angeles, one of California&#8217;s largest cities.
“There is a fast, clear and sharp spike during the pandemic,” said Paul Ong, director of the Center for Neighborhood Knowledge at UCLA, of the net population loss in Los Angeles.  
Ong attributed the exodus from Los Angeles to a number of reasons, including increased housing prices and working remotely. He also said that because of the pandemic, people moved “away from the denser urban core, where COVID-19 risk was perceived as being higher.&#8221;
According to the state Department of Finance, California lost about 211,000 people from July 2021 to July 2022, with nearly half — 113,048 — from Los Angeles County. Records show Los Angeles lost around 160,000 people the previous year.
This trend follows a pattern of population decline in California over several years, with the COVID pandemic exacerbating the situation. The decline in population in California is second only to that of New York, which lost approximately 15,000 more people. However, net migration out of California is higher than any other state, with New York being the second highest.
Experts attribute the exodus to the state’s high cost of living, especially when it comes to housing, as well as long commutes and overcrowding in urban areas. Pollution, crime, and overcrowding have also been listed as reasons why people are leaving the state. In addition, homeless encampments in Los Angeles have become increasingly burdensome on residents. In December 2022, newly elected Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass officially declared a state of emergency over the city&#8217;s homeless crisis. 
The data shows that while California’s population shrinks, other states have seen population growth. States such as Utah have cautioned Californians about moving to their state. Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah said last week that Californians should “stay in California.”
Texas and Florida experienced the highest surge in population between April 2020 and July 2022, with approximately 884,000 and 707,000 people joining the respective states.
“While salaries in other regions and states are lower, the cost of housing is even lower,” Ong said. “This means that they have a higher standard of living because of more disposable income and/or high chance of owning.”

Homeless in Skid Row

New Census Data Reveals 700,000 Have Abandoned California In 2 Years

Los Angeles

Red States

The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/population" target="_blank" rel="noopener">population</a> of <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/china" target="_blank" rel="noopener">China</a> witnessed a year-over-year decline for the first time in six decades.
The Chinese National Bureau of Statistics revealed on Tuesday that the country’s population dropped to 1.412 billion in 2022 from 1.413 billion in 2021, according to a <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-population-declined-in-2022-for-first-time-in-decades-11673921036" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from the Wall Street Journal, marking the first decline since the nation was devastated by famine in the early 1960s under the leadership of Chinese Communist Party founder Mao Zedong.
The number of births fell to 9.56 million from 10.62 million over the same period, while birth rates dropped to 6.77 per thousand people from 7.52 per thousand people.
The news follows a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/world-population-surpasses-8-billion-people-india-to-overtake-china-next-year" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> by the United Nations forecasting that India would pass China this year as the world’s most populous nation. India presently has a fertility rate of 2.2 children per woman. In comparison, China has a fertility rate of 1.7 children per woman, according to <a href="https://data.oecd.org/pop/fertility-rates.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
China had spent decades championing the infamous one-child policy, under which couples were only permitted to bear a single child out of fear that the nation would not have sufficient resources to support a growing population. Even as couples are now <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/china-now-says-it-will-allow-families-to-have-three-children-amid-fears-of-population-crash" target="_blank" rel="noopener">permitted</a> to have up to three children, the cultural value of having small families might now be <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/civilization-is-going-to-crumble-musk-on-chinas-plummeting-birth-rate-and-the-need-to-repopulate-the-planet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">embedded</a> into Chinese society after decades under the one-child policy, despite efforts from officials to increase fertility.
The Chinese government has therefore sanctioned several industries to create markets that promote affordability for larger families. Before a ban on private tutoring was introduced two years ago, China <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/china-cracks-down-on-120-billion-private-tutoring-industry" target="_blank" rel="noopener">maintained</a> a supplementary education sector worth $120 billion, with roughly 70% of parents in Beijing and Shanghai paying for their children to receive additional instruction. Officials also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/china-cracks-down-on-real-estate-industry-so-that-families-can-afford-housing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">prohibited speculation</a> in residential real estate to decrease property prices.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who recently began his unprecedented third term as head of state, told Chinese Communist Party officials <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/xi-jinping-vows-to-grow-chinas-middle-class-at-key-communist-party-meeting" target="_blank" rel="noopener">assembled</a> last year that he desires to move more residents out of poverty.
“We will ensure more pay for more work and encourage people to achieve prosperity through hard work,” he said. “We will promote equality of opportunity, increase the income of low income earners and expand the size of the middle income group. We will keep income distribution and the means of accumulating wealth well regulated.”
China is among several world powers facing a demographic crisis marked by a higher number of elderly citizens relative to younger residents who are still economically productive. Western European countries, as well as Japan and the United States, are among the major economies witnessing a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/huge-problem-for-society-new-study-finds-sperm-concentration-has-halved-worldwide-problem-accelerating" target="_blank" rel="noopener">collapse</a> in birth rates, exerting pressure on government pension programs.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is among the most vocal opponents of conventional wisdom, which posits that global population expansion is harmful to the climate. He often <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/elon-musk-predicts-chinese-population-collapse" target="_blank" rel="noopener">asserts</a> that the world is facing a demographic crisis, noting last year that China would lose some 40% of its population every generation under current birth rate conditions.
“I think one of the biggest risks to civilization is the low birthrate and the rapidly declining birthrate,” Musk <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/elon-musk-warns-civilization-will-crumble-without-people-having-more-kids" target="_blank" rel="noopener">explained</a> at the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit two years ago. “And yet, so many people, including smart people, think that there are too many people in the world and think that the population is growing out of control. It’s completely the opposite.”

Opening Ceremony Of The 20th National Congress Of The Communist Party Of China

China Announces Its Population Has Dropped For The First Time In Six Decades

China Says Population Has Dropped For First Time Since Mao

Communist China

United Nations

World

A report from The <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/united-nations" target="_blank" rel="noopener">United Nations</a> encouraged policymakers around the world to plan for older <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/population" target="_blank" rel="noopener">populations</a> with fewer younger workers.
Developed countries with a greater share of older people and developing countries with more young people will experience the “irreversible global trend” of population aging, according to a <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/dspd/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2023/01/2023wsr-fullreport.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from the organization. The number of people over 65 years old is expected to more than double over the next three decades, from around 760 million to over 1.6 billion, while the number of people over 80 years old is increasing at an even faster rate.
“This pattern began on a global scale around the middle of the twentieth century and is expected to intensify in the decades ahead,” the analysis explained. “Most of the more developed countries have experienced population ageing over several decades and are already in advanced stages of this process. By contrast, many developing countries face rapid transitions towards ageing societies.”
While nations in Europe and North America currently have the highest number of older people, nations in Africa and Western Asia are “expected to experience the fastest growth in the number of older people” over the next three decades. Dependency ratios, which chart the number of older people and children relative to the working-age populations upon which they depend, are projected to increase over the same horizon.
The UN therefore called upon governments to increase retirement ages and expand pension coverage while making investments in healthcare and education that permit older people to be more self-reliant and economically productive.
“Based on current global trends, future cohorts of working-age and older persons are likely to be healthier and better educated, and therefore more productive, compared to earlier cohorts,” the report continued. “Eliminating age-related discrimination and barriers to formal employment are other critical measures for older persons to make continued contributions.”
Several developed nations are facing overburdened pension systems as more individuals enter retirement age. Medicare Hospital Insurance in the United States is projected to be insolvent by 2028, while Social Security’s Old-Age and Survivors Insurance trust fund will deplete reserves by 2034, according to an <a href="https://www.crfb.org/press-releases/social-security-and-medicare-are-approaching-insolvency" target="_blank" rel="noopener">analysis</a> from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
The UN <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/india-will-surpass-japan-and-germany-as-the-worlds-third-largest-economy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">forecasts</a> that the human race will have 8.5 billion people by 2030 and 9.7 billion people by 2050 even as worldwide fertility rates reach their lowest levels since 1950. India will soon surpass China as the world’s most populous nation; the former maintains a fertility rate of 2.2 children per woman, while the latter has a fertility rate of 1.7 children per woman, according to <a href="https://data.oecd.org/pop/fertility-rates.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Some commentators have rejected the conventional wisdom that the global population is expanding at an unsustainable rate. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/elon-musk-warns-civilization-will-crumble-without-people-having-more-kids" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called</a> low birth rates “one of the biggest risks to civilization” and encouraged people to build families.
“So many people, including smart people, think that there are too many people in the world and think that the population is growing out of control,” he said. “It’s completely the opposite. Please look at the numbers. If people don’t have more children, civilization is going to crumble.”

UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY UNGA 77 TUESDAY

United Nations Alerts Policymakers To Brace For An Aging Population

Brace For An Aging Population, United Nations Tells World Governments

Social Security

Last week, Pope Benedict XVI died at the age of 95, nearly a decade after stepping down as head of the Catholic Church. His life was marked by adherence to a belief in an eternal truth above all. As he stated in a 2008 meeting with Catholic educators at the Catholic University of America, “Truth means more than knowledge: knowing the truth leads us to discover the good….[W]e observe, with distress, the notion of freedom being distorted. Freedom is not an opting out. It is an opting in – a participation in Being itself. Hence authentic freedom can never be attained by turning away from God.”
There is a truth; that truth must be pursued; the only substitute for truth is falsehood. Human beings have sussed out eternal truths over the course of millenia, and to discard those truths in favor of subjectivism is crippling. Those eternal truths are rooted in the belief that God made us in His image; that He granted us roles and responsibilities; and that true freedom lies in making choices within the boundaries of those roles and responsibilities.
What happens when we discard those truths?
Disaster strikes.
First we lose belief in something Higher; then we lose belief in ourselves.
We are seeing the consequences of this two-step process before us in real time.
In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt spelled out what happens when we turn our gaze inwards rather than outward. Generation Z, he said, has been sucked into a vortex of narcissism and jealousy and isolation. According to Haidt, there has “never been a generation this depressed, anxious and fragile.” For girls, particularly, replacement of roles with constant self-assessment has been a pathway to hell: “You post your perfect life, and then you flip through the photos of other girls who have a more perfect life, and you feel depressed.” The new cultural ideology “valorizes victimhood. …You’re not going to take chances, you’re going to ask for accommodations, you’re going to play it safe, you’re not going to swing for the fences, you’re not going to start your own company.”
Civilizationally, the loss of inherited wisdom and traditional values has resulted in new, ersatz gods to worship. The most obvious god is the pantheistic god of nature, revenging itself on us for our capitalist excesses. Why else would “60 Minutes” feature widely-discredited false green Paul Ehrlich, author of “The Population Bomb”? Ehrlich famously stated in 1968 that billions would die of starvation in the 1970s and 1980s; now, half a century later, he explains, “Humanity is not sustainable. To maintain our lifestyle (yours and mine, basically) for the entire planet, you’d need five more Earths. Not clear where they’re gonna come from.”
Never mind that Ehrlich is wrong. The real question is why he is still respected. The answer, of course, is that every religion requires its prophets, and the neo-paganism of environmental catastrophism is no exception.
As the West loses its links with traditional wisdom, it breaks loose of its philosophical moorings. The consequences will be dire, unless those moorings are reinforced. And they can only be reinforced by those who have the courage to defend eternal truths – not merely hide behind the tolerance of pluralism, a repository for the cowardice of conservatives who correctly stand with free speech but incorrectly think that stance sufficient to win the day.
In the end, either the truth will win out, or it will be destroyed. As Pope Benedict XVI told the Bishops of the United States in 2012, “The Church in the United States is called, in season and out of season, to proclaim a Gospel which not only proposes unchanging moral truths but proposes them precisely as the key to human happiness and social prospering.” Defenders of traditional values of all stripes are called to the same quest.

Ben Shapiro 7

The Death Of Eternal Truths And The New Paganism

60 Minutes

Environmentalism

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