The COVID Pandemic Uncovers the More Threatening Problem of Population Decline

The COVID pandemic has highlighted a more threatening problem and one that is easily ignored: population decline around the world. Long before the pandemic scientists were aware that birth rates were collapsing, and that more and more nations were burying more people than they birthed. This trend first started in Japan.

The Japanese are obsessed with success. I explain that in terms of their religious nature. That takes us back to the end of the Japanese Empire and our dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan soon after sued for surrender. What many fail to realize is that the Japanese worshipped their emperor, and his failure not only was a failure of a political nature but one of a religious nature. His defeat left a huge void in the hearts of the Japanese people.

General Douglas MacArthur, the Governor-General of Japan after the war made a singular request to American churches. He encouraged them to send missionaries, at least 5,000 at once if they ever hoped to win the Japanese people to Christianity. They failed to do so, and so the Japanese filled the void with what they perceived to be the American god: commercialism. They have been devoted to it ever since.

In Japanese society, many women are driven to climb the corporate ladder. Success in the world drives them to the point that they refuse to take time off to have children, They are afraid that they cannot recover the lost time in their careers. Hence the falling birthrate and decline in population threatens the Japanese social structure and raises questions as to how they will fund education and retirement.

South Korea, another vassal state who took its lead from the US is in the same straits. In China, the decline is so steep, the emergence of “ghost cities,” a trend recently noted in the New York Times, has government officials troubled as the population rate, long before COVID was in decline.

In Europe, similar issues are common. Germany attempted to pay women a full salary with benefits to stay home and have children. No takers. Germany has recently bulldozed some large unneeded housing complexes to make room for parks and leisure. The only population growth in Europe is immigrants from Africa. They are radically changing the landscape, as it is not more likely in many European cities to see a Muslim minaret, than a Christian church. Religious demographics are but one significant change developing in Europe.

In America, our population is nowhere near the numbers of countries like India or China. While they have 1 billion-plus, our latest figures are roughly 333 million (Current census). Percentage-wise, our loss of 500,000 people to COVID is much more statistically relevant than say a half-million in those larger countries. The truth is that we were also already in population decline before the pandemic. It was hidden by the large number of illegal immigrants whose birth rates are higher than the regular population. So, the people we are trying to get rid of are the source of our growth.

In watching the global warming debate and the tendency of so many Americans to deny its existence and bury their heads in the sand, one wonders what hope we have of convincing Americans of the grave dangers that population decline will have on the future. This problem alone will reshape civilization and culture. It will affect families, the structure of cities, and so many aspects of how we live.

Between pandemics and global warming, population decline the deniers of science still continue to influence government policies and our leaders are still so tied to the past. It is tantamount to trying to drive a car, looking through the rearview mirror!

Damien Cave, Emma Bubola, and Choe Sung-Hun. “World is Facing First Long Slide In Its Population,” The New York Times. (Sunday, May 23, 2021).

The U. S. Census (2021)