zlacker

>>Simon_+(OP)
The whole world is going this way: Japan is just an early adopter. It’ll be good for the planet to have fewer people: our challenge is to run a flourishing society that isn’t based on continual growth.

>>michae+p6
I agree. I’m not sure what people’s preoccupation with increased population growth is. And how more people is inherently a good thing.

Sure, the Earth has resources that if distributed more efficiently, could support more people (some say by a magnitude). But are governments and companies incentivized to extract and distribute things more efficiently? Will they ever be? What is the cost to other species and the biodiversity of the planet? We’re already in the midst of a mass extinction event, and it’s sobering to realize that future children will only think of some animal species barely hanging on today as “dodos”.

>>aaron4+Xb
> "Our nation is on the cusp of whether it can maintain its societal functions"

Because they are headed for societal collapse, perhaps? Unless you think their prime minister is lying.