So the world of shrinking population will be a world with precisely the opposite of the dynamism

that characterized the period of rapid human population growth. It's a rather desolate prospect.

I'm Bethany McLean. Did you ever have a moment of doubt about capitalism and whether greed's a good idea?

And I'm Luigi Zengalis.

We have socialism for the very rich, rugged individualism for the poor.

And this is Capital Isn't, a podcast about what is working in capitalism.

First of all, tell me, is there some society you know that doesn't run on greed?

And most importantly, what is it?

We ought to do better by the people that get left behind.

I don't think we shouldn't kill the capital system in the process.

So, Bethany, if an economist and an historian, a general and a politician and

environmentalist, a futurologist and a journalist entering to a bar.

What do you think they talk about?

Is this your attempt at a joke? It sounds like a pretty terrible one, if you ask me.

Yeah, it is a dead joke, but they talk about fertility.

This is one of the rare topics that interests all of them.

There's been a dramatic shift, one that I think is not fully appreciated by most people,

from politicians to regular people.

The worry for years has been overpopulation.

Now, the worry, at least in some circles, is underpopulation.

And the recent numbers are stunning.

The fertility rate is the average number of children that are born to a woman over her lifetime. In the U.S.,. The fertility rate is the average number of children that are

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