Agree, and to further cloud this discussion, we are racing as fast as we can to an AI and robotic workforce...in all fields. At it's current exponential pace, both the rapid development of robotics and AI will consume the human workforce as we know it. Will there be other opportunities for human employment...robotics repair? Likely, but my sense is that this will be temporary.@Neonatal RRT
If we move towards an extinction event for humanity due to anti-natalism, you'd expect two intermediate stages:
1. Cultures/societies that are pro-natal will start to replace the ones that have chosen "cultural alt-F4"
2. If (1) doesn't kick in quickly enough, and the population keeps shrinking (say at a global TFR of 1.0) the infrastructure will gradually fall apart, and the remnants will enter a classic SciFi "post-apocalyptic scenario" as that happens
(1) is still possible, because there are still cultures that haven't been subverted. But that may not be true in 10 years.
(2) will necessarily profoundly influence the cultural/societal devolution towards universal anti-natalism. Societal anti-natalism is a luxury behavior, which cannot continue far into (2), so it there will probably be a "reversion to the mean" /lol.
With the usual over-correction that humanity (at any scale) appears unable to avert.
It would be entertaining to watch ... but not to participate in
There's another view though:
What seems to be happening is that many more women choose not to have children, but those that do have more-or-less the same number of children as in the not-too distant past (so adjusted down for higher survival rates, but otherwise typical).
If that continues, and either that behavior continues down the generations, or "lessons are learned", the TFR flatten out, then go back up past 2.1.
In that case, there would be a gap of perhaps two generations where there was a shortage of workers, biased towards the low-end of the labor market. The usual example is low-end care workers.
But fortunately from both an economic and infrastructure maintenance perspective, there are plenty of "spare" people who, with training, could be slotted into the roles that would otherwise be unfilled.
Given that most "economically inefficient" people are, on aggregate, just as smart as everyone else but less well-educated, and contributing little economic benefit per capita to an "under-developed but developing" economy, there's an obvious bridging solution.
It's also going to be wildly amusing watching that discussion.
Is the US capable of dealing with the insanity of its highly polarized, irrational, inherently contradictory political debate? It's managed such turnarounds before, so I think it's possible.
My part of Europe could do it, though unevenly: most countries will mess it up at first.
But that's still only about 10% of the world population. You'd hope the intermediate cases could do the same thing using their own populations.
An interesting side effect of such a scenario: it could be used to achieve a really large reduction in poverty over a couple of generations.
Sure, the GDP of nearly every industrialized nation will 10X, if not more. Sure, the costs of production will drop precipitously, and sure, everything will become significantly less expensive. Which then begs the question, "Well, if humans do not have jobs and have a steady income, then who is going to purchase goods and services?" If people cannot purchase anything because they have no money, then all of this 10X GDP goes out the window...none of it will happen. It's my sense that we, the world, will have to consider a universal basic income. Which then begs the question, "Who is going to pay the taxes to support that program if there aren't people working?" Ultimately, I think that will come from a corporate tax...because there is no other sources to tap at that point. Basically, we are looking at a complete overhaul of our current economic system.
Furthermore, with all of this in the background, how does this effect the human condition? A lot of people get up in the morning with a purpose in life, something to do, a career...and their personal identity is tied to that career, myself included. What happens to an entire population of bored people? Will this open up more time to focus upon family? Will there be enough income to travel? Will people live in poverty? Will nobody live in poverty? What about education? Much of our education is in preparation for basic job skills. Will our educational system change significantly?
All of this will hit the world like a tsunami wave very, very soon...a complete disruption in all that we know. Be prepared to quickly adapt and overcome. That train has already left the station and is rolling down the tracks at high speed.