May 31, 2022
Read NPG’s Response to Musk’s Recent Tweets on Population
Not too long ago, NPG wrote about Elon Musk and his pro-population growth comments, which he posted on social media. Musk, who regularly uses Twitter to express his opinions, posted a tweet, sharing: “We should be much more worried about population collapse,” in January 2022. That his words garnered attention was no surprise. Indeed, even NPG had something to say.
One week ago, NPG caught wind of Musk once again speaking on the population issue at the All-In Summit, hosted in Miami, FL, May 15-17, 2022. The summit’s mission was to tackle the question: “What problem do you most want to solve right now?” 15+ professionals in leadership roles at multiple corporate organizations spoke, and Musk, at his 5/16 2 PM “Fireside Chat” once again asserted his stance as a pro-population growth advocate.
Newsweek and Business Insider wrote about Musk’s talk at the Summit. Both included quotes such as:
“We’re currently headed towards a population decline. And that’s everywhere in the world.”
“Some people think that having fewer kids is better for the environment. It’s total nonsense. The environment is going to be fine; the environment is going to be fine even if we doubled the size of the humans.”
“At least maintain our numbers. We don’t necessarily need to grow dramatically, but at least let’s not gradually dwindle away until civilization ends with all of us in adult diapers, in a whimper.”
Each Musk quote shines a light on his all-in stance on pro-population. Musk is on a tear to encourage population growth, as evident by the talking points he uses at his various speaking engagements. On May 24th, Musk once again used the platform to share his opinion on population growth, including a one-minute twenty-two-second clip of an on-stage conversation between himself, Jack Ha, and the audience. The video, in summary, is of Musk and Ha agreeing that population decline is imminent and will destroy the world as we know it. He (Musk) shared this clip from the 2019 event and shared: “Population collapse is the biggest threat to civilization” to his 95 million followers. The tweet has garnered 20.2K comments, 20.9K retweets, and 131.1K likes. The video clip has been watched 5.9 million times.
It is no easy task to go up against a stance lauded by a person like Musk – with substantial wealth and influence. But, NPG was founded to educate all Americans regarding the need for policies designed to slow, halt, and eventually reverse population growth to allow our nation to slowly, over the course of several generations, shrink to a smaller, truly sustainable size. NPG promotes concepts such as “the two-child family,” reduced rates of immigration into the United States, and the development of conceptual systems such as the steady state economy. Part of our work is to speak out against policies and mentalities that are clearly against our objectives, including when well-known people share their take on the subject. Although Musk is speaking via social media and his words do not currently reflect any proposed legislation, NPG has been compelled (once again) to share that: We respectfully disagree with Mr. Musk when he states that we should be worried about population collapse. With more than 800 million people lacking safe drinking water and nearly 10% of the world’s people living in extreme poverty, we should be worried about the exact opposite!
Soon, NPG members will receive a copy of a new Forum paper by Nathanial Gronewold, discussing how one country is excelling with no sign of slowing down in the face of its declining population. So, keep an eye on your inbox (and mailbox!) to catch this next read as soon as it becomes available!
Nick Brienza
Thank you for your steadfastness to NPG
Gary Whittenberger
Musk wants to double the population, while I want to cut it in half. Who has the better idea? I do. Life on the Earth would be so much better if we stabilized population at about 3.5 billion people. We can do this by cutting birth rates all over the world and encouraging one-child families.
Jerre McManus
If we don’t continue to overpopulate the planet and use up resources at an unsustainable pace, then we won’t really need to inhabit Mars…
A trease
What an idiot. Every day on earth there are more people than have ever existed before and at the same time less open space, nature, wild creatures, clean water, fish in the ocean, more pollution, plastic waste and on and on. I guess if you can afford your own island you don’t have to worry about packed beaches and parks. He just proves once again that having a lot of money doesn’t mean you’re smart. If you can walk the streets of a place like Mexico City with 20 million people and air that is the equivalent of smoking a pack or two of cigarettes a day when the whole country only had 25 million people in the mid 20th century and think they (or we) are headed in the right direction you have screw loose.