Motivation, French Riots, Population Collapse, and more!

This week, Earthvox and I delve deep into the latest stories, covering a lot of ground as usual.

Motivation

Our first topic revolves around motivation. As listeners may know, I am an individual who is incredibly busy at the best of times. So, it was nice to explore the types of motivations we both use to continue our endeavors. We also discuss what we like to do when we aren’t working and podcasting. If you’re reading this now, I hope it makes your downtime worth it. We really appreciate your support.

The June Riots Across France

Over the last few days, I have been observing the French population attack their own cities and institutions in the name of Nahel Merzouk. On the podcast, we break down the facts as they stand, the controversial police actions, and the parallels between the responses you would find in the UK. The damage has been significant to France, both in terms of perceived public relations damage to the police and the physical damage done to the local areas. I will be following the fallout. We did not touch much on the response or the current damage, as it is still an ongoing story.

Population Crisis, But Not How You Think

There’s a prevailing sentiment across nations that a reduction in human population would be a good thing. Elon Musk recently spoke on the issue with a well-worded counter-argument (source). Even before the turn of the millennium, birth rates in the Western world have been extremely low, leading to a rapidly approaching aging population. In my country, the percentage of the population over 65 (retirement age) now stands at 18.3% (source). This presents a horrifying problem to economists and legislators, as they have to come to terms with the fact that the economy may not be able to grow due to the decreasing labor force.

This situation creates a lot of downward pressure on citizens still in the labor force, as they are being taxed and overworked to support the aging population. Last year, the triple lock pension scheme gave pensioners a 10% increase, and this year it will be another 8.7% increase. These numbers are well above the wage growth for this year. This situation is both terrifying and unfair, considering that most retirement-age individuals already receive discounts, have fewer expenses like children, and own considerable assets in the UK.

I’m not saying it’s wrong for them to be in the position they are in; they are more than welcome to retire and enjoy everything they have worked hard for. However, burdening the rest of the population with yearly pension increases in line with inflation, while the rest of the workforce’s wage growth is nowhere near that, is unfair. This issue wouldn’t be as significant if the population wasn’t aging as fast as it is. If a large majority of the population relies on a smaller and smaller portion of the workforce, this situation will likely end with most young people being forced to wait until their parents or grandparents pass away to afford anything of real value, such as a house or starting a family.

The government must reinforce the working population and not backstop a large portion of the population that contributes very little to the GDP of the country. This is the only way to motivate young people like me to actually want to start a family and grow their careers to a point that contributes significantly to the economy. It was great to talk to Earthvox about this, and I am sure it will come up again as governments flounder and kick the grey, ageing can down the road.

Lying Flat

It’s the phenomenon sweeping the Far East. Young people are seemingly so discontented with the modern living situation they find themselves in that they would rather work hard enough to survive and hang around at their parents’ house.

We discuss this phenomenon in a little bit of detail and how younger people across the Western world and Asia feel like life is more of an effort in futility. This follows our conversation around the looming population crisis and how this could be the most terrifying threat to humanity yet.