Tech mogul Elon Musk and Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, are facing criticism for advising people to have more children, which experts believe is a misguided pronatalist approach that will only help rich people accumulate more wealth.
Emily Klancher Merchant and Win Brown, educators at the UC Davis and the University of Washington, respectively, stated that controlling fertility rates is never a way to address economic, social and environmental issues, and all these problems can be addressed more effectively through legislation and “redistribution.”
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Some experts have also indicated that people claiming a larger population will result in better economic growth are always misguided. These experts argue that even if we increase the population, only a handful of people who are already rich will end up accumulating more money, and the average human being will continue to suffer.
According to Brown and Merchant, pronatalism is nothing more than a “Ponzi scheme” as it will force new people to work for the capitalists who will eventually get more money. But socialists would say that…
The educators further noted that women are the most vulnerable segment of society during any pronatalism movement as they have to give birth to more children and then spend time raising them, often without the availability of necessary medical facilities.
Some also argue that pronatalist policies are not effective in increasing the childbirth rate. For instance, Italy’s population growth remained the same despite the introduction of the Family Act which tried to subsidize childcare while also increasing paternity leaves and mothers’ salaries.
Low birth rates are also a big concern in the United States, where the government is pressured to reduce social security perks for the older generations as fewer young people have children, meaning they can no longer continue to fund such socialist programs.
However, Brown and Merchant believe that social security can still remain sustainable even with a smaller population. The government can introduce pro-immigration legislation to welcome more foreigners, who can eventually increase the number of working individuals in the country, which will also fund social security.
Having said that, Brown and Merchant noted that the government can still encourage people to have more children, but they should only do it to help people and not to promote pronatalism.
Meanwhile, Musk accused these experts as “deeply misanthropic” on his social media outlet, X.
Musk has historically been a firm critic of population control measures and has repeatedly labeled the declining population as one of the greatest threats to humanity.
During his visit to Italy last year, Musk downplayed population control measures and asked Italians to have more kids, adding that Italy is a good place to invest, but investors always ask if there will be enough people to work for their companies.
Vance is also a big advocate of increasing birth rates and has previously claimed that Americans do not have enough children to replace themselves.
