Declining birthrates, automation of the work force and a shrinking population

The world is a very different place to what it was a generation ago, it is unrecognisable to generations before. I wanted to focus today on automation and declining birthing rates as something that has been noticed across Western nations is that our population is getting smaller. Not brought on by migration but by people having smaller families.

The dangers of decreasing family size is far and wide, in China we're starting to see the emergence of an economic collapse brought on by their one child per family rule. Whereby now we are seeing an entire aging population and not enough workers or youth to support the economy and cover the costs of age care.

This is not a new phenomenon and it is something humans addressed on their own in the past. Prior to industrialisation and our current world many people had large families not because they wanted to but because they had too.

It's hard to go plough acres of fields and plant thousands of crops on your own, it's hard to prepare the evenings meal on your own. It's hard to wrestle a pig around the yard as you get older and your body weakens.

To undertake all these tasks just to survive cost not alot of money but alot of man power. From time to time you'd hire some help but there wasn't many workers about because they were all about tending to their own crops and homes.

As industrialisation began to emerge money was on offer to anyone who would go to work in a factory. Something that wasn't in an abundance and you'd spend weeks putting together crops to sell at marker. All the men who would typically spend their entire days working on the farm did so in a factory. What they'd make in a month they now made in a week.

I haven't done any research but I think that if you did, that the decline of birth rates would correlate with the rise of industrialisation.

The other impact that I believe may have occured is the distribution of wealth. The rise of industrialisation created or spurred on capitalism which in its early adaptation worked well. There were a blend of farms and families and the rise of factories. Low workers so wages needed to be higher.

Infact with the people that I have spoken to in their 60s and above talk about a time when they were young where they could walk upto any factory and there would he a job. No need for resumes, experience or skills. You'd be put to work and be paid that week.

The issue they believe is the offshore of factories to overseas nations. But through my anecdotal evidence from talking with older populations I believe it to be only part of the issue.

Many farms moved further out to regional areas and they too in the current generation gave gotten smaller. Many of us in our 30s would have come from big families and no doubt speaking to our own families many probably worked on farms or the construction industry.

Farming and construction have been the biggest employers of people throughout history they are also the two main industries that have undergone the biggest automation through stealth. Now I use the word stealth lightly because much of it is out of plain sight. How often are you on a farm these days to see the changes?

My mother inlaw used to pick fruit $2.50 a crate, that was good money in those days. If you did well you'd only need to work 6 months of the year and meet all your bills.

The pay has stayed the same but less workers, once fields were covered in hundreds of workers, now a farmer just buys a million dollar tractor that the banks take the profit of in the form of interest.

Similar with construction where 800 men would dig holes and build buildings now with automation you're lucky to have 100 on site. But the silence has been deafening.

It's only when people can visually see something that they begin to become distressed. Like this robot in my local supermarket that's caused an uproar that it's taking jobs. No doubt it will, it's a cleaning bot and also measures stock levels of shelves. Jobs that youth once did but it does it cheaper and more efficiently.

Instead of hiring 5 - 10 workers all you need is a robot.

Much of the automation has been out of plain sight but now it is advancing and people gave a daily visual of it.

It also correlates with wages, wages are at an all time low and corporate profits at an all time high.

How do we progress from here? Well, that is upto the people to decide. But it's never an easy decision or one without debate.

What are your thoughts, how do we progress?

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