Katherine Boyle

You could have robots do a lot of these jobs.

But I think it is a very dangerous thing to say we're going to depend on automation and robotics to make up for the fact that humans are disappearing.

So now they just have... Extremely short-sighted.

And, yeah, I think the bulk... We're always talking about how dangerous China is, how China is growing in power and importance.

The most short-sighted thing they have ever done to their society that will eventually catch up with them is the demographic collapse that they are going to feel because of one child.

They're trying everything now, too.

They're trying to end divorce, right?

So there's now a policy, at least that I read about in China, where you have to have a 90-day cool-down period so that you don't divorce.

They're trying to encourage young women to have children.

Young women don't want to have children.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But they recognize it's a massive problem.

And probably recognized it before even we did.

I think in some ways the conversation sort of hopped from the social conservative sort of church-going movement of, gosh, this is a huge problem, to sort of the, I would say, the sort of techno-optimist Elon Musk talking about the birth rate as a big deal.

It's now become sort of, I think, an issue that's

okay for polite society and sort of liberal, you know, New York Times to be talking about.

Like, this is actually a real, real issue.

So, first step is acknowledging it, but it is, you know, 1.6 is a long way to come back from, especially with a millennial generation that, you know,

waited way too long to have children.