How are people reacting to declining birth rates? Jim Penman answers

Look, some people are happy with it. Some people want to see the end of a society. They think it's better if we all die out. I mean, I can't argue with that. That's their emotional point of view. I think more and more people are starting to panic. People are starting to worry now, I think just over the past few years, the collapse in birth rate in so many countries and it's not just getting the Z population growth, it's going down way below it in a lot of countries. It's basically about half the level. You need 2.1 children per woman to maintain population approximately. Some people not have children. We're now down to a lot of countries, down to 1.2, 1.1. South Korea, like 0.7, 0.8. So there is starting to be a sense of panic about this thing in certain quarters. And I believe with time this is not going to reverse. This is going to get worse, it's not going to improve. You're going to have birth rates slipping more and more and people will start to worry more and more.