Elon Musk, the brilliant founder of Tesla, SpaceX, and a host of other revolutionary companies, announced what he believes is the greatest threat to humanity.
No, it’s not nuclear weapons or a deadly virus. The greatest risk, Musk says, is declining birth rates.
“I think one of the biggest risks to civilization is the low birth rate and the rapidly declining birthrate,” Musk told the Wall Street Journal’s annual CEO Council.
“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,” Musk continued.
“It’s completely the opposite. Please look at the numbers — if people don’t have more children, civilization is going to crumble, mark my words.”
Analysts have attributed declining birth rates to people’s fears about climate change.
The “movement to not have children owing to fears over climate change is growing and impacting fertility rates quicker than any preceding trend in the field of fertility decline,” Morgan Stanley analysts said.
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15 Responses
This is nice, but the article seems selective and counter-logic; Elon is “the brilliant founder of Tesla, SpaceX, and a host of other revolutionary companies” when it comes to declining birth rates (something he’s wholly unqualified to speak about). But when Elon says the biggest threat is an asteroid impact on earth and therefore we have to become a multi-planetary species (his more common refrain and the basis for SpaceX), we tend to ignore him as some disillusioned person.
UH! AZA CHACHAM!!
Wow that is literally what I thought when I saw the headline. Genius, right?
Gershy, you don’t understand Musk. He’s a modern day Einstein or Isaac Newton. He has more than just knowledge. He has wisdom. He’s one the rare chachmei umos. I believe he is qualified to give advice on many things.
That said, Hashem runs His world. But the threat of aging populations is very real
You could probably make a bracha when seeing him
Are you relying on Rav Shternbuch’s heter against לא תחנם if you’re praising a non-Jews intelligence? If not, I’m surprised by the use of the word “brilliant” on a frum website.
He isn’t a Yid but is more redpilled than the average person!
I recall “birth control” being part of the 2008 “stimulus” bills. I think the politician’s logic is, birthrates don’t matter, you can import people from across borders.
You could write volumes about how insane that is.
@refoelzeev don’t be foolish. There’s no isur in saying a goy is a chacham. I didn’t say he’s someone to admire or emulate. I said he’s a wise person
As always, well said Elon!
refoelzeev – which heter are you relying on to be online?
As to Elon Musk being brilliant, well I think that is pretty obvious. Not sure why you need a heter for that. What exact prohibition is there in the first place?
The CIA lists 95 countries as having greater than replacement birth rates. There is no problem.
Well, maybe there is for some countries. But if they are willing to accept immigrants from high birthrate countries there is still no problem. Most of the high birthrate countries are in Africa. The biggest threat may be racism and nativist bigotry. Some countries just seem to want to shrink their populations.
We have one billionaire Bill Gates saying the biggest problem is overpopulation – he’s been working actively for years to reduce the population. And now this guy saying the opposite. Maybe Gates is seeing success so Musk is warning us that when it happens it’s not a good thing.
Why do we need EM to tell us this. It’s common sense! if people don’t have children society will collapse- that’s literally how society works!
Look at China. They have a policy of only two children per couple (it used to be one child). It got changed because the one-child leaves China to pursue a career in another country. Then China gets stuck taking care of its aging parents