In other groups I am in. It goes one or two steps further. To US it feels like those in power are actively setting us up for either WWIII or a MASSIVE 40% population Decline through Poverty/Starvation/Depravation.

Just consider 2-3 months of no Hormuz Access.
The USA does not have enough SPR oil to keep selling it. (We should STOP selling our SPR, at these prices, we need to refill it).

I think after 90 days, Refineries will have to start being shut down. They are not designed to run on low-volume. Turning these things off, will take FOREVER to turn all of the moving parts back on, and get them fully up to speed (as I understand it).

Worse, the timing. Fertilizer is not available. This is the spring planting season. Australia can't find the diesel they need to run the big farm equipment. Less food will be planted. (Any chance Trump made the EO order protecting Monsanto because he knew Fertilizers would be hard to find?).

But this process of shutting down 20% of cude, in a world where oil was tight, and growing tighter... Means the price will move wildly upward. We could easily hit $300/bbl, and possibly $600/bbl. At which point, the price of food will skyrocket MERELY because shipping costs. BUT also, we will be suffering shortages.

Nobody. Not even China. Has 180 days of SPR. And the govt is manipulating the price of Crude lower to hide the impact of the Iran Issue.

Apparently, someone knows something is coming. A Comet, or something.
All the richest people are building Bunkers. So, I assume it will be a relatively short term thing.
Then, everyone is pushing Tech and robots.

Maybe they know that most of the population will be wiped out.
Maybe they WANT this, and figure robots are better than slaves you have to feed and pander to.

Finally, the modern woman has become so toxic it's insane. I saw a woman who did her makeup just like a Sex Doll... And then complained about men being normal men. At least she didn't mention feeling objectified, but I suppose that would have been too spot on.

If I was a young man today, I'd be thinking... The doll only cost more in the short term, and eventually they will make a robot version, and add a GPT AI to it so I can have an actual conversation, and IMAGINE how much nicer your GPT talks to you than the modern woman does.

So, the stage is set. The Bingo Card is LOADED UP with crazy stuff...
- Another Trump Assassination Attempt
- Government bans CATS forcing "some" to rethink their relationship attitudes
- 30% of men below 30 have never had sex
- Divorce is down... By almost 50% of the amount marriages are down! (LOL)
- Women Protesting Automatic Paternity Testing, done behind the scenes > 30% are not the fathers
- Less Food, Less Fertilizer, Less Fuel... AIs thriving, Suicide Rates Higher

What do the "End Times" and Recessions have in Common?

We can only REALLY determine when they started AFTER the fact!

I agree, way to many people... I just do not think that allowing a tech oligarch make the decision on who has children and who does is a bad idea. Same vain on who lives and dies...

In a word YES. It in a way is already happening with online "romance" where the participants never meet IRL.

Devaluing the US debt based currency has kept women from having children due to not having enough to support a family. The lower the value of money the more crime and killing too. That plus all the other manipulations are reducing the population. Hopefully not a long term trend.

Half the population are already robots in a way. lol Imagine if the same programming and propaganda is instituted in actual robots. For now AI is their brain. Better hope Grok and other companies creating AI make Asimov required reading about the three laws of Robotics and its implications.

If machines are going to do all of the work, we had better have some population reduction, elst we'll all end up as unemployable salesmen.
Look up the "Shoe Event Horizon" economic theory that Douglas Adams described in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".

I agree 10,000% !!!! We DO NOT need more people.

Exactly!

Then we need to update the “systems”. No need to rely on expanding population to have increased standards of living. None.

How long should the Homo Sapiens race last?

When we arrived on Earth around 500,000 years ago, we joined our fellows Homo Erectus, Neanderthals, Nelardi, Denisovan, Heidlbergis, and more. The longest survived species, Erectus, lasted maybe 1.1 million years.

They are all now extinct save for us. Maybe we are on an evolutionary path to extinction.

I think its all by design, if you knew that automation was coming and its was going to displace the first world population, would you want to keep them around. The first world population takes action and expects more while the third world is grateful you didn’t shit on them today. A population dependent on UNI that accepts third world status is much easier to control.

COVID vaccines – population control, multiple sources but the quite part out loud was spoken by Bill Gates.
Fentanyl – Family decline – you can’t have health children if your high all of the time
Schools – indoctrination – I personally have lost two of my four daughters to the redrick being drilled into their heads. They think our society deserves to die, they don’t want children in this world.
Dollar collapse – seems to be accelerating, impossible to have families

I could go on but why?

I think the people in the know, know and they think we don’t see it. All of the craziness are intentional decisions, not accidents.

“Why is negative population growth a bad thing?” – Well, we need a larger younger population to assume the responsibilities of the older generation; all of our systems are built to account for growth. So your argument is that automation will fill in the gaps with abundance, I can see that on the face argument but you and me know damn well that human nature doesn’t work that way. As soon as they roll out UBI, they will be looking for ways to reduce the expenditures, cull the heard as you may call it. Population decline due to a lack of resources is called a famine but a population decline because of a conscious decision is called a genocide.

Agree completely. 👍
Except for the arguable issue of our population eventually being overrun by the 3rd world over-populated
shit-hole invaders, reducing the US population is not a problem, its an improvement.
(No, don't kill anyone, just make the 135,000,000 invaders and their progeny leave.)
This assumes that the robots doing the work have to pay double or triple (or whatever is necessary) to
support those over 55 (who paid in all their working lives and) who were promised that social security
would provide enough to live above poverty in retirement after 66 years old.
For everyone under 55, pay their 'contributions' into a "Trump retirement account" and hire the best
available to invest it for them to provide for their "golden years."

That would have been sometime in the mid-60's if my brief research is right. And I agree, things seemed to be much more pleasant.

Had an interesting discussion with a health care provider a couple months back: How different life would be if everyone asked "What would Andy Griffith Do?" I know life was not perfect in those days, but it seems there was not the animosity that runs rampant now.

It's one of the reasons I like driving on the small-town sections of Route 66. People are helpful, friendly and polite.

What population is declining? It seems to me "first world" is declining while third world is increasing, especially third world living within the first world territories. First world robotics may be assisting first world decline while also assisting third world increase. It just seems first world is nurturing third world with a flood of free stuff while turning a blind eye to its own people. Just thinking out loud here with only demographic observations of Europe, North America, and Australia.

Thank you for saying what I’m thinking. Why is negative population growth a bad thing? Automation requires less workers. More folks can live in better first world conditions. I think the third world problems will continue until they expel the corruption, dictatorships and embrace open markets and capitalism. Africa has a huge amount of human capital but the above has prevented any significant change in their lives and economic growth.

As long as the robots have to pay into social security and medicare. ;^)
US was a much more pleasant place when the population was less than 200 million.