Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, has raised concerns about Italy, South Korea, and Hong Kong amid the threat of population collapse.
The billionaire entrepreneur's remarks come as he steps up his commenting and acting on matters of global concern. For the past few weeks, Musk has been warning international leaders about the continued decline of populations in several wealthy countries due to their collapsing birth rates.
The Threat of Falling Birth Rate
In a statement on Twitter, Musk said, "At risk of stating the obvious, unless something changes to cause the birth rate to exceed the death rate, Japan will eventually cease to exist." He called the situation a "great loss" for the world.
The comments come as the headquarters country of Sony (SNE), and Toyota (TM) recently said that the population in the country in 2021 declined by 644,000 compared to a year earlier. The total number of people went down to 125.5 million, making 2021 the 11th consecutive year of declining population, as per The Street.
Musk said that declining populations are among the biggest threats to humanity's long-term survival and noted that Italy has one of the lowest birth rates in the world. The billionaire CEO expanded on his point in response to a Twitter comment from cybersecurity researcher Andrew Stroppa.
Stroppa tweeted a chart from the Italian National Institute of Statistics that showed birth rates in the nation have steadily been falling since the 1960s. Musk said that Italy would have no people left if the trends continued.
According to the New York Post, the tech CEO also shared a Wall Street Journal chart that showed a "fertility slump" within the United States. It allegedly revealed data that showed the nation has remained below a "replacement level" by total fertility rate since the 1970s.
Elon Musk's Comments
In a Twitter post, Musk said that the U.S. birth rate has been below the minimum sustainable levels for the last five decades. He added that contrary to what many people think, the richer a person is, the fewer kids they have. He said he himself was a rare exception because others he knew had zero or only one child.
The Tesla CEO sounded his alarms as recently as March when an interviewer asked him to reveal his "biggest fear," where he said that the falling birth rate was one that has troubled him for many years. Musk said he spent a lot of time talking about the issue with Axel Springer CEO Mathia Dopfner.
The situation comes as the billionaire entrepreneur has also urged for "tight" background checks for all gun purchases while expressing his support for firearm ownership as a "safeguard" against political tyranny. Musk's comments came a day after a lone gunman killed at least 19 children and two adults at an elementary school in south Texas.
Musk blamed the media for giving murderers the attention that he believes is the thing they crave that motivates them to conduct mass shootings. He said that the shooters were obviously doing the crimes to generate the most amount of attention possible, CNBC reported.