Fewer births, fewer workers, fewer old people

 

In today's NY Times:

To the Editor:

Re “Ominous Sign: Deaths Exceed Births in China” (front page, Jan. 18):

Could we stop seeing population reductions as disasters and instead as blessings for the fate of our overburdened planet?

Yes, there could be difficult times when smaller groups of working-age people will need to support economies with large groups of elderly people. 

Allowing immigration from countries with more able-bodied workers than jobs is an obvious mitigation. And of course machines and artificial intelligence are coming to take many jobs.

Fewer births will ultimately mean fewer elderly people. Countries (including ours) will need to get better at sharing societal wealth to properly and humanely support all lives. And when there are many fewer on this earth, it will be a major win for our very distressed environment.

Marsha Cohen

San Francisco