Author Sergey Solodovnik
It came from Maxim Oreshkin, a significant position: Deputy Head of the Administration of the Head of the Russian State:
"What is happening in the world is, in fact, a real demographic catastrophe."
The justification given is that the planet's population will continue to grow for some time. At the same time, the Earth's population as a whole will be aging.
How can one not recall the old Malthus here? His prediction of catastrophe was based on a simple extrapolation of population growth, specifically in England, during the Industrial Revolution.
Malthus saw catastrophe in the fact that the populace breeds in geometric progression, according to the formula x cubed. While food production only grows arithmetically, described as x squared.
The conclusion was alarming: soon there would be nothing to eat in Britain!
Before criticizing Malthus, one must recall several periods of severe famine in Ireland, then a colony under London. With terrible population loss, cannibalism, and mass migration for the lucky ones.
Simply put, the Irish case is better documented than, for example, the Bengal famine during the rule of the British East India Company. And so on around the globe.
But Malthus's recommendations should not be forgotten either: he repeatedly stated that it is necessary to reduce birth rates in the plebeian, uneducated, and poor strata of the population by any means.
Today this bears the politically correct name "social engineering". Several decades ago, it was called ordinary Nazism.
Now we have the opposite extreme in our forecasts. Alarmism.
There is an open question. What should the population do about robotization based on AI? Specifically, what about tomorrow's millions of unemployed?
Will we remember Malthus here? Or are we waiting for adequate recommendations from Maxim Oreshkin?
This topic will be sharper.
Author on Telegram, MAX
#Russia, #Maxim_Oreshkin, #demographics