The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway Vox Media Podcast Network

Scott is brilliant. His perspective, wisdom, empathy, and foul-mouthed sense of humor have opened intellectual horizons for me I never knew I would find so captivating. He actually makes Econ (never Elon) sexy, as Galloway is quite possibly the ultimate sapiosexual 🐉

That being said…can somebody grab a time traveling mechanism and send the boy from Backstrom into the future? I mean, dial him forward even 10 years to try Socrates with his teenage children. Staying together and not breaking up is his advice for ideal marriage modeling for one’s kids? Mmmmm I met my partner of 35 years when I was 20 and we have cycled thru many moments that might make Plato blush or cringe. Maybe I’ll catch up with the young father from Texas and see how that strategy is working out for him once he has rounded a couple more corners of life.
Yeah I’m old in the scheme of things and while not bitter - I prefer the term seasoned - and thankfully, not quite “rode hard and put up wet” as they say in the Deep South - but yeah, I’m kinda hoping Scott’s Scorpio-ness will eventually emerge in this episode, ya know, just to hear the youngsters response. Is that mean?

Don’t listen to the haters of your sexual jokes, Scott. They always make me laugh.

Scott is funny, honest, real, and highly intelligent about what he talks about. I also love that when a specific topic is not in his realm of extensive knowledge, he admits it. I enjoy listening to every single podcast. They truthfully make my days better. 🩵🩵🩵

Once Prof G’s biggest fan, I’m not alone in finding his new economic ideology to ‘make more babies’ silly. Breeding our way to some imagined level of future prosperity has quickly become Scott’s hobby horse to the point of spreading misinformation – I could not have seen this coming and now have doubts about his objectivity in other areas.

The need for positive population growth for perceived future success is simply not supported by evidence and is unusually half-baked for Prof G. Some economists had been crying wolf for decades about falling birth rates and pointing to China, with its draconian birth policy, as the example of what happens without net population growth. But as China gets older, its economy and living standard continue to boom all while being a net exporter of labor.

Scott says that carbon emissions are driven by lifestyle and not population but the truth is that the population level of a country remains a much stronger predictor of carbon emissions than living standard. For most of us who don’t own airplanes or yachts, emissions reduction from having one less child dwarfs all other lifestyle choices (no disrespect to Scott who’s discovered the fulfillment of parenting as though the rest of us have been in the dark all this time). Even in the US with its high living standard, most emissions involve burning fossil fuels for electricity, heat, and transportation.

So is innovation tied to birth rate and the number of young people? Ask India and African countries how this is going. Among developed and developing countries there isn’t even a weak relationship between median age and technological performance. China, with its declining birth rates (not to mention the dictatorship and freedoms thing) is in the top ten technologically advanced countries. Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, all have aging populations and all are in the top five for technology and in the top 20 for living standard. By Scott’s math, India, now the most populous country, should be pulling ahead on all fronts but is the bottom third for living standard, the bottom half for tech innovation, and in the top ten carbon emitters.

While we really need to question the more-is-better paradigm of classic economics, let’s assume for a moment that a continually expanding workforce is needed for economic well-being. Switzerland, a country of high median age, low birth rate, and in the top ten countries for tech innovation, living standard, and retirement benefits, has been importing labor for decades in response to demand, while remaining frugal about citizenship and giving improved living conditions to immigrants. Switzerland is far from the only country that does not feel constrained by boundaries and who’s policy is adaptive to changing workforce demands. Means testing, tech development and AI, and other solutions far more sophisticated and agile than breeding are already in effect in numerous countries and having their intended effects.

Can we feed a forever-increasing population? No, Scott, we can’t. The earth’s resources are finite. But for now, issues of increasing population levels are mostly about commodities other than food including water, precious metals, and other resources involving considerable environmental impacts by their extraction or transport. To “go green” and phase out fossil fuels, even at current population levels, would require a 1000% increase in mining – clearly Scott has not thought this through.

In sum there's no evidence that Americans need to increase birth rates even for purely economic reasons; in fact, the balance of evidence points in the other direction and that governments should not be further incentivizing reproduction.

So it is with Scott’s odd new preoccupation with ‘making babies’ that I sadly bow out of Prof G podcasts (of course the humble bragging and self-righteousness probably don’t help either), but it was great while it lasted!