Elon Musk: Kids Aren’t a Burden—Without Them, Civilization Will Dwindle to Nothing

Elon Musk: Sometimes kids are viewed as an imposition on the world. I don't think that's the case at all.

“People sometimes think there are too many people in the world. That's certainly not the case. You can fit all the humans on Earth on one floor in the city of New York. You fly from LA to New York, there are vast areas of land with no one at all.

We want to just generally have it be socially encouraged to have kids. Companies need to support employees that have kids. There should be some tax breaks for having kids or make it financially not burdensome to have children.

And it's always worth bearing in mind, autonomy aside, if someone doesn't have kids, what you're actually asking is that someone else's kids take care of you when you're old. And that doesn't seem quite right. Because that's what they'll be forced to do, absent automation, is that someone else's kids will have to take care of you when you're old.

One way or another, we need to solve this birth rate issue or civilization will dwindle to nothing.”

WSJ, May 23, 2023