Elon Musk raises low population issue again; calls himself 'rare exception' as a parent

Elon Musk, who has staunchly supported the declining world population theory, has raised the issue yet again. In his latest tweet, he shared how the fertility rate in the US has seen a drop below the replacement level of 2.1 and has remained so for the last 50 years. Musk posted a chart of birth rate levels from an article by The Wall Street Journal which showed that the total fertility rate has now reached close to 1.5 in the US. The fertility rate provides an estimate of the number of children a woman will have and the number 2.1 is required to replace an older generation.

In another tweet, Musk even addressed the common notion that the richer a person gets, the fewer children he or she produces. The richest man in the world called himself a "rare exception" in that case since he himself has eight children. "Contrary to what many think, the richer someone is, the fewer kids they have. I am a rare exception. Most people I know have zero or one kid," Musk said in his tweet. 

As mentioned above, the Tesla CEO is a firm believer that the Earth is heading towards a population collapse as many countries have witnessed a drop in fertility rates. Recently, data released by the Japanese government revealed that its country's population has dropped for the 41st year in a row to a historic low. Besides, the Chinese regime also changed its one-child policy to revive the declining population.

Is the world really heading toward population collapse?

Earlier in January this year, Musk had reiterated that the world is heading toward a population collapse and had rubbished the projections of the United Nations (UN) stating otherwise. Besides, during an event organised in Shanghai in 2019 and hosted by China's billionaire entrepreneur Jack Ma, Musk had said that a population collapse is highly likely in this century. Besides, a report by BBC published in 2020 warned that about 23 countries, the majority of them in Europe, will see their population drop to half the current number by 2100.

Last December, a study published in The Lancet predicted that the current 7.8 billion global population will peak at 9.7 billion in 2064 before declining to 8.8 billion by 2100. Musk is worried about the potential population collapse as he believes that if there are not enough people on Earth, there won't be enough people to travel to Mars.