Capitalism to save the planet

Wealth kills the drive to reproduce. Capitalism delivered the wealth and the population collapsed.

China undertook a census of its population in 1982. In 1982, China announced its population to be 1,008,175,288. The country represented a quarter (25%) of the world’s population at the time. Recently the global population crossed 8 Billion. China represents 1.4 billion of them. China represents 17.5% of the global population. 

You should see the direction this is headed.

According to data released by China's National Bureau of Statistics, there were 850,000 fewer people in 2022 than there were in 2021, to reach 1.14118 billion. It reflects a decline in the country's birth rate, which has been falling over the past six years to reach a record low of 6.77 births per 1,000 people.

The change has been met with both alarm and optimism – including concerns about what this means for the global economy, and the hope that continued prosperity might not be as dependent on having a growing population as has historically been assumed. The charity Population Matters has suggested that China's stabilising numbers should be celebrated for their potential environmental benefits and the welfare of the country's citizens.

Source: BBC

The one-child policy that was put in place for 3 decades significantly slowed population growth in the country. Since the standard of living has improved in the last 20 years, China faces the same challenges that western economies face. Having a child is far too expensive and therefore people chose not to. The government policy change, as well as, incentives have produced little to no change in the trajectory.

Bernard Arnault is the richest man in the world thanks to China. Fashion and luxury sales were stagnating a decade ago, especially in the aftermath of 2008. China was the saviour that all of the luxury brands found. 

Source: Bain

Apple is able to deliver 40% margins because of the gross exploitation of Chinese workers. 

A lot of western wealth is a result of Neo-imperialism in China. It is also the reason each time China has turned away from Capitalism or behaved in that manner, western economies have been appalled. 

Now they are faced with not a policy crisis but a population crisis. This is going to mean, fewer young workers to exploit. It is going to mean, hitting a pinnacle in terms of sales in China. 

The way the west looks at the world - 

(North America - Mexico) + Western Europe = Money, Land of the righteous, Most erudite, Most liberal

Eastern Europe = Labour for Western Europe.

Russia = Bad

China = Place we make shit and sell shit

South America = Batteries

Africa = Free Mines for everything! If a country does not cooperate call the ruler a dictator and/or corrupt and manufacture a coup.

Middle East = Oil (wish they reproduced more)

India = Outsourcing

South East Asia = Useful countries for screwing with China. 

Australia and New Zealand = Other White people

The problem is that the US, Canada and Western Europe are seeing the most precipitate decline in population in the world. Without exception, all of the countries have fertility rates lower than 1.7. 

To replace the population you need to have a fertility rate of 2.1. A nation with a fertility rate of 2.1 will have a constant population.

In the case of the US, Canada and every western European nation, population growth is being delivered by immigration alone over the past few decades. 

The population of Germany grew by 1.1 million in 2022 compared with the end of 2021, the office said.

Net immigration was more than four times higher than in the previous year, and stood at the highest level since records began in 1950.

The new figures show that "external migration is important for population development in Germany", Sebastian Kluesener, research director at the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB), told Xinhua.

Destatis underlined that "without net immigration, the population would already have been shrinking since 1972, as more people have died than were born every year since".

Source: Economic Times

Without Immigration Germany would have been on the decline since 1972. The truth is that as much as the conservatives in the Western Economies hate immigration, they have no idea how thin the ice is. Their economic superiority can collapse overnight if the immigrants stop coming in.

All of the western nations will start to see a decline in population sooner or later.

In the meantime, France is having its own issues with an ageing population.

Last Tuesday, French prime minister Élisabeth Borne presented President Emmanuel Macron’s long-anticipated “pension reform” to the National Assembly. The controversial measure promises to raise France’s full retirement age to sixty-four by 2030 (it currently stands at sixty-two), while also requiring forty-three years of employee contributions for a complete pension.

The reform isn’t yet law: it still has to face the Council of Ministers on January 23, to determine its constitutionality, and then a parliamentary debate next month. Macron, who lacks a parliamentary majority, can draw on the near-unqualified support of Les Républicains (LR), the mainstream right-wing party he’s governed in tacit agreement with. Yet, the rest of the parliamentary opposition has come out against the project to varying degrees.

Importantly, the major trade unions have also shown uncommon coordination — calling for a united mobilization against raising the retirement age on January 19. It is the first such joint mobilization in twelve years.

Source: Jacobin

France is a socialist country and therefore provides pensions to workers. The trouble is that the number of retirees is outstripping the number of people on the job. This is creating an imbalance in resource availability. The solution that the French government came up with was to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.

So a person who was going to retire in 2023 and start drawing a pension would now have to work till 2025. The workers are not having it! They feel they have done their time and deserve their dues. 

Capitalism prays at the altar of growth. With the demographic collapse that is around the corner, the version of capitalism that we have been following for the last 100 years finds its days numbered.

That would imply the days of polluting the hell out of this planet are also numbered.

You live by the sword, you die by the sword. ~ Matthew 26:52

Capitalism encourages amassing wealth and that wealth is the reason they do not want to have children.