An economy that doesn’t rely on consumption and is based on needs instead can easily function with a decreasing population. A decreasing population isn’t a bad thing at all if a society properly and sustainably shifts towards increased automation but we can already see that that will not happen in any capitalist country. Automation has and will allow the world to function without population increases for the first time but of course capitalist nations will only realize that true shifts to automation is necessary far, far too late, if ever. Instead they will stupidly promote having more children to increase consumption as the only solution.