Elon Musk Wants You to Have a Baby

We each cognize that Elon Musk likes procreation. He has 11 kids, aft all. The tech billionaire presently has twins with an enforcement astatine Neuralink, 2 children with his on-again-off-again woman Grimes, and a gaggle of children with his ex-wife, Justine Wilson. The billionaire was besides accused of asking a erstwhile SpaceX worker if she would “have his babies.” The feline is beauteous wide with his sperm, to accidental the least.

But Musk isn’t conscionable acrophobic astir his ain breeding habits. He besides wants the remainder of the satellite to deliberation astir however they tin up their household headcount, too. He proved this, erstwhile again, during a conversation with the Cato Institute connected Wednesday, the salient libertarian deliberation vessel founded by Charles Koch. The conversation, which was meant to sermon “liberty” (the libertarian codeword for “free markets”) successful Argentina, dovetailed, astatine 1 point, into a speech astir plummeting planetary birthrates and wherefore the current “baby bust” could awesome a catastrophic result for the quality contention writ large.

“I bash interest astir definite existential risks, similar the debased commencement rate, which is accelerating successful astir countries,” Musk said. “This is 1 of those things that I deliberation is underrated arsenic an issue—which is that if there’s nary humans, there’s nary humanity. You person to marque them somehow. I deliberation we should beryllium precise acrophobic astir the accelerating implosion of the birthrate.”

Musk continued: “This is simply a ace large deal. Basically, thing other matters if determination are nary humans. As an archetypal premise, you indispensable archetypal person humans for determination to beryllium civilization—unless we’re going to permission it each to the robots...I don’t person a large solution to it but it indispensable beryllium solved someway oregon humanity volition dwindle to nothing.”

During his pro-procreation diatribe, Musk besides took the accidental to instrumentality a swipe astatine the environmentalist movement, which is an admittedly weird determination for a feline who runs an electrical car company.

“I bash deliberation that 1 benignant of atrocious happening astir the environmentalist question is that—in the utmost signifier of the environmentalist movement—people commencement to presumption humans arsenic a plague connected the aboveground of the Earth, arsenic a fundamentally atrocious thing, with the accusation that if each humans vanish someway Earth would beryllium amended off,” Musk said. “This is the Extinctionist movement. I deliberation you tin really, astatine a cardinal level, deliberation of things arsenic a combat betwixt the Expansionist and Extinctionist philosophies. And that’s what truly matters.”

“If humans spell extinct oregon civilization collapses, immoderate policies we whitethorn person are irrelevant,” helium continued. “So, archetypal and foremost, we indispensable person an Expansionist doctrine for civilization and for consciousness. We indispensable question to spell beyond what we’ve done successful the past to summation the fig of humans.”

“So the last connection is spell distant and procreate,” the Cato Institute interviewer said.

“Yes,” Musk said, grinning.

Musk isn’t wholly incorrect that dropping birthrates is simply a morganatic interest for galore countries, though commentators person mostly disagreed astir the severity of the occupation arsenic good arsenic what to bash astir it. The assemblage is besides inactive retired connected what precisely is causing droves of young radical each implicit the satellite to opt retired of household life. Some radical person blamed feminism, the maturation of “anti-family” cultures, and the “radical” “Left.” Others, similar Musk, blame a pervasive, pessimistic worldview that dissuades radical from having kids.

It could besides beryllium that, owed to years of runaway costs for things similar housing, education, and childcare, it’s go prohibitively costly for astir middle-class radical to really person children. An article in Vogue past twelvemonth asked if having kids had go a “luxury item,” 1 that lone upper-income brackets could comfortably afford. Given that one study clocks the full outgo of raising a kid from diapers to a high-school diploma to beryllium astir $300,000 successful the U.S. (this is not adjacent to notation the increasingly costly 4-year assemblage grade that has go a necessity for white-collar jobs), you tin spot wherefore the median American mightiness beryllium somewhat priced retired of thing similar that. That said, it’s typically lower-income communities that person the highest commencement rates. So the concern is complicated.