On a farm, a child is an investment—an extra pair of hands to milk the cow, or shoulders to work the fields. But in a city a child is a liability, just another mouth to feed. Darrell Bricker & John Ibbitson, Empty Planet: The Shock of Global Population Decline (2019), Robinson Population decline is one of the many, new threats facing humankind. The notion that the problem was overpopulation which would lead to a lack of resources, famine and war has been replaced fairly recently by the idea that the problem is exactly the opposite, I.e. Population decline. This is to say, fertility rates have halved since the 1960s and by 2070 it is expected that there will be more people above the age of 65 than people aged 18 or younger. Population decline is a real problem in Japan, South Korea, Russia, Germany and China. But it's expanding in many other countries at an alarming rate. A shrinking population often leads to a smaller workforce, which can slow eco...