New Delhi: Elon Musk is busy campaigning for his BFF and Republican Party candidate Donald Trump in the run-up to the voting on November 5. What started out as a simple endorsement soon became a larger-than-life campaign situation where Musk now seems to be speaking the language of the person whom he supports. Or is it vice-versa? Look at the latest campaign speeches of the billionaire and tell us you have heard those words (or at least the sentiment) before. For example, when Musk spoke of declining birth rates and how we must all desperately keep up with it if we don’t want a population collapse… heard that one before?
Republican designate Donald Trump had the exact same sentiment, and might we add wordings, to share during the Michigan Rally held earlier this week. Not the one to mince his words, Trump roared that his government will come up with policies that will help families have more children. What’s more he was willing to pay for it as well!
“Your government will pay for or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for all costs associated with IVF treatment,” Trump stated while also mentioning how his administration would push for new parents to deduct “major newborn expenses” from their taxes. All of this because, “We want more babies,” he added.
Is this purely just an election push by both public figures or is there something more to their sudden push for more babies diktat?
Personal choice or serious advice?
This is not the first time that Musk, who oversees work at his six companies, has spoken about his anxiety that the world is not reproducing enough. He has come out strongly against the declining graph of our young population and said it could very seriously challenge economies. It is true that both fertility rate as well as sperm count has been on a downward spiral and it’s a global trend. Not long ago we had also reported how both London as well as Wales reported lowest birth rate since the 1930s. True, it is a big headache for countries to balance this with an aging population and Musk is right to a certain extent when he says this could be a factor that would cripple the economy.
But people have also blamed both Musk and Trump for their regressive policies and for having a skewed idea of population control via their “biased diatribe”. In various interviews, the billionaire has shared his concern that it is this steep population collapse due to low birth rates that is a greater risk to civilisation than global warming. He also believes that record low birth rates are leading to population collapse in Europe and Asia and the same trend is also being witnessed in the US where the rate has been below minimum sustainable levels for about 50 years. On his part, Musk says he is doing everything possible to advocate for “more babies”, including having more babies himself. He has three wives and 11 children at present and even a compound to fit them all in.
Speak about walking the talk!
On the other hand, according to Melanie Trump, her husband had always wanted more children after they had welcomed their son, Barron, in 2006. But it was she who backed off since she was “perfectly fine” with just the one. In an interview to Fox TV, Melanie had reiterated how Trump was very keen to have more kids but it was due to his busy schedule that Melanie opted out of that discussion. “I was always perfectly fine with one. And Donald was encouraging [us] to have more…” she told the host Ainsley Earhardt in the interview, while also mentioning the reason for the same. “And I said, like, ‘I’m completely fine with one because it’s [a] very busy life.”
The IVF factor and Trump’s embarrassment
Both Trump and Musk have been vocal supporters of in vitro fertilisation, as they believe that’s the way to increase the world’s population. Musk has even offered his own sperm to friends and acquaintances, including the former independent vice-presidential candidate Nicole Shanahan, according to sources in the know.
With Trump also advocating IVF and suggesting policies to make this a less cumbersome and more meaningful way in which couples can conceive, it is clear that both are gravely invested in the idea to boost the global population, starting with that of the US. Why the worry? Demographers say it is exaggerated because the birth rate decline in the US is not going to hit their economy any time soon. People call this just another political gimmick by Trump and his celebrity campaigner-billionaire. Critics who have been following Trump’s statements (and convictions) on the abortion and the IVF issue in the US say it is only just a desperate move by Trump to woo female voters. The Republican party really has no objective to fulfil their promises on this fertility treatment.
Some have even gone on to mock the President designate for his lack of knowledge on the procedure. During one of the recent debates with Democrat candidate Kamala Harris, he said he was the “leader of IVF.” But people weren’t convinced that the former President knew anything more about the subject. Here’s what one journalist of repute wrote for a daily: “been a leader on IVF, which is fertilization”. (Moderators didn’t put him on the spot and ask if he knew what the IV stood for.)”
So if Trump and his party are not serious about protecting the right to IVF, and Musk is only here to make strong claims, is there anyone who is seriously thinking of the declining birth rate? That’s another problem for another day, perhaps.
