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Comment by morelandjs | Hacker News Reader

I don’t believe this kind of statement in general. It’s a whitewashed way to say “I’ve tied up my self worth in money. I like keeping score and reminding myself of where I stand relative to other people “. In short, it’s ego.

But no one wants to say that so they make up stuff about “providing for their family”.

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With a decreasing birth rate and labor participation rate, is it not reasonable to predict competition for labor to be higher in future years? And competition for resources in general, such as fuel, water, food, and desirable land to be higher in future years?

Wouldn't competition for those things be lower, if there are fewer people?

After the population pyramid stabilizes and ratio of workers to non workers goes up again (labor participation rate).

But while the labor participation rate declines, the non workers still have demand for labor/resources. This would push prices up, when compared to times that labor participation rate is higher.

I guess this will push up the prices of labor-intensive things, and might reduce the prices of commodities that are capital- but not labor- intensive to extract. So robotically-mined open-pit coal will be cheap, and so will Midwestern wheat, and probably even vacation properties in scarce mountain or beach locations (making allowances for global warming). But if you want a barista to make your latte, that'll set you back $40, and if you want somebody to put a new roof on your house, God help you.

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