World population to reach 8B on 15 November 2022

Yes, and people fixate on the pyramid when they should be focusing on the talent pool (probably because of Zeihan), in which case PRC is only starting to exploit the largest educated / skilled worker demographics divident in human history. Basically what drove JP,SKR,TW to double/triple their GDP while their TFR crashed.

>single number

That single number of 1.4B relative to PRC geography is difficult to ecologically sustain. Roughly 600M are excess people, too old and uneducated to be properly integrated in modern economy. They're the first to age/die out, which will incrementally increase PRC strategic autonomy.

>attempts at population control

PRC family planning prevented estimated 200-300M of births, which would only add to net drain. Yeah present pyramid will make transitioning from 1.4B to 1B over next century painful, though not that painful given PRC high savings rate. There's both cause for concern and celebration. But the general trend points to PRC having some of the best demographics in recorded history for improving national power which =/= human flourishing.

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/101A2/production...

https://www.nippon.com/en/ncommon/contents/in-depth/364451/3...

> looks like a lot less than 8bn

seems like looking at the single total population count for sustainability is ridiculously simplistic since some subsets of this total count consume a helluva lot more than others.

If all those things exist, then you can work on making it so there's still strong government, but the city has checks and balances that on some issues makes it more powerful to enact laws than the state, and the state, is the same to the federal.

States would be more like EU members, Fed would be like NATO and IMF - i.e. protection, foreign affairs, and military protection should be it's major concern, and policing that every state has a way to guarantee the rights previously mentioned.

For this to work, I think we also need to stop giving subsidies to corps, instead give them to work-owned co-ops and unions of co-ops that give back to customers/employees and help pay for the healthcare and housing (or UBi benefits), or we lean on the idea that land is a public resource and apply a land value tax, so mostly the rich and corporations pay for the needs of the rest of us by the value they get out of the land.

As for controlling population, I don't think we should but we should figure out a better system for managing populations, pollution, waste, and possibly settlements in space if feasible (if we can get gravity to work for bone/muscle issues). A solar punk future looks way more pleasing though than a cyberpunk one. If you can merge left-liberarianism, socialism, capitalism (via co-ops and still a free market just with more worker-ownership similar maybe to how everyone used to have pensions and stick with a company a lot longer), and georgism with universal basic income/healthcare, then we might be able to live in a better world.

Every child on earth should have equal access to education and be encouraged to go into the sciences unless they are super artistic or have other talents but we can't go wrong if we have 8 billion and 75% of the adults are scientists or engineers, or stay-at-home parents (as that's important for quality of life too), in the 50s it was normal a family could afford to keep one parent home, not anymore. GBI gives more opportunity to pursue things like doctorates, artistic endeavors, and entrepreneurial activities.