It is not just rich places that are becoming less fertile
https://www.economist.com/leaders/2026/06/04/indias-surprise-baby-bust-is-a-warning-to-the-world
Title tells all that needs to be said. You know the rest of the story.
Why is declining population always depicted as a cataclysmic event when it is obvious that peak population is denuding the planet?
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https://th3core.com/chat/index.php?topic=13804.msg87419#msg87419
>Why?
I honestly think because it forces capitalism to make adjustments. Labor and consumption are always assumed to be ever increasing. A shrinking population turns that on it's head. This doesn't hurt people, but it breaks the idea that the economy has to always be expanding. It is bad for corporate earnings.
What LM said.
I'll add that the idea of aging in a world with no young people is also a worry.
I write this from my BIL's house where I on mom duty while they travel.
If every couple has one child or less, as is the norm in many countries now, the first generation has no siblings. The next generation has no cousins, no aunts and uncles. The third generation has no second cousins, no great aunts and great uncles. Four grandparents, one grandchild.
By the fourth generation it is unlikely people would know any extended family at all.
Our social security systems can't support that ratio and our informal elder care is mostly family-based.