Why is Elon Musk so concerned with population decline?

Question

find it difficult to understand why every time Elon Musk is asked about what he is most concerned about - he says population decline - just today he tweeted about population collapse vis-a-vis china - finding it difficult to resolve total end game this way - how do we get to the point there are so few people on earth we are stuck? -- Especially given technology like maternal spindle transfer & CRISPR --

smt88 · Accepted Answer

It is concerning because society is a Ponzi scheme where the young pay for the care of the old.
As long as the population is growing, it's a bearable burden on the young. But if you aren't replacing retiring workers with new ones, you can't keep funding the same quality of life in your society that you have grown accustomed to.
I don't know why Elon cares a lot about it. It's possible that he fears high tax rates more than most people. It's also possible he's completely out of touch with immediate problems.

pbw · Answer

We don't have to have "so few people on earth we are stuck". As the BBC article[1] says China could go from having 100 workers supporting 20 elderly people to 100 workers supporting 120 elderly people. So workers have to support 6x as many old people. It's this inversion that I think he's worried about, more than running out of people whole sale.[1] - https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220531-why-chinas-popul...

akagusu · Answer

In our economic system, economic growth happens through population growth.You cannot keep the actual rate of consumerism if population decline and corporations live in a fantasy world of unlimited growth, so they cannot keep growing if less and less people consume.

encryptluks2 · Answer

He's worried about running out of fresh low wage workers that will work 80 hours a week.

horsetrader · Answer

He is worried that he will be left with a stable full of horses and no one to give it to.