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4:22
Elon Musk urges people to have children, so the world doesn't collapse
South African businessman, who has 6 children says follow his example
The most millionaire man on the planet, and founder of the companies Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk, during an event organized by The Wall Street Journal this week, said that to prevent civilization from collapsing, people must have children.
Although it seems obvious, Musk's message contradicts many others who are focused on pointing out that if the growth of the world birth rate increases too much, the resources will not be enough for everyone.
Although it is worth noting that what was stated by the South African businessman who has 6 children did not refer directly to birth control, but rather to issues that have to do with the functioning of the economy, he stressed that he tries to lead by example.
The CEO of Testla explained that "the basis of the economy is work : capital is only distilled labor", while revealing that the greatest limitations are precisely work, and there is not the number of people required.
In this sense, he regretted that in the world there is a drop in the birth rate, and it is accelerating more and more, so in his opinion it is one of the greatest risks facing civilization in the coming years if this does not change.
He revealed that there are many intelligent people who believe that there are too many people in the world, which is causing an uncontrolled growth of the world population, but in his opinion, what is happening is the opposite. So he said the phrase: "look at the numbers: if people do not have more children, civilization will collapse", and added: "remember my words."
Will the world population decrease?
According to data from the United Nations, there are 7.7 billion people in the world, however, this number could perhaps be decreased, since according to a report by the National Center for Health Statistics of the Control and Health Centers Disease Prevention of the United States, published in May, reveals a fall in the birth rate in the North American country.
Likewise, China also saw its births in decline, since in 2020 there were 8.5 births for every thousand people, and according to analysts there is no indication that those numbers will change in the near future.
Perhaps for this reason, the Chinese government made a change in its laws, allowing families to have two children and not one, as they had established.
For its part, the World Bank reports that the birth rate in the world has been down since 1963, when the highest peak of births in history was recorded, in that year for every thousand people, 36.06 were born, and in 2019 the figure was 17.89 per thousand.
To have or not to have children?
In the current era, the crises that nations are experiencing in the world have caused many people, especially the youngest, to be reluctant to have children, in fact, the arguments in developed countries is the issue of climate change.
According to various arguments, the most viable way to stop the effects of climate change is to control human reproduction, and According to people who think this way, that is the only way to achieve sustainable development, proposed by the United Nations.
But this debate is not new, since at the end of the 18th century, the British economist Thomas Malthus conducted studies in which he concluded that population growth was faster than the very means that would guarantee the subsistence of humanity.
He claimed that this accelerated population growth would increase hunger, and would result in an increase in poverty worldwide.
Although hunger and poverty in the world have increased in recent years, it cannot be said for sure that this is due to population growth, since history has also revealed to us that issues such as corruption are about White people or little attention to health issues, which cause diseases and viruses such as Covid-19, have strongly affected the development of economies, as well as the two great political models that the world faces: capitalism and socialism.
On the other hand, there are those who point out that using the issue of birth control as a measure to curb the crisis caused by climate change, will confront societies with an important issue such as respect for the sexual and reproductive rights of women.
This would pose a risk of ignoring the autonomy of women, a method implemented in Peru by the government of Alberto Fujimori between 1999 and 2000, which forcedly sterilized more than 250,000 women, most of whom were poor, and they resided in rural areas or on the marginal side of urban parts. According to this Fujimori measure, it seeks to reduce poverty.
