If we look at the modern world,
The global labour market
And the relentless forward march of technology.

The fundamental growing economic problem
Appears to be
An increasing ‘oversupply’ of humans.

Here’s what I mean;
The trend of ‘human obsolescence’ seems to show
That less and less of us are ‘necessary’
From an economic perspective.

But, as we know,
There are more and more humans
More every year, in fact.

The question is, really,
Barring people making the conscious decision to ‘breed less’
(…which seems doubtful on aggregate)
What shall we do with this growing ‘oversupply’ of humans?

I don’t have answers
Though it would seem like
Some massive, mandatory redistribution of wealth would be required
From the few who are still ‘economically relevant’
To the many who are not.

And if not,
What becomes of the ‘have nots’?

Of course,
And all of this
Is to say nothing of
The resources we continue to use up
The damage we do to the world
And all the spaces
That we swallow with concrete.

And it all goes without saying,
Quite obviously
That there’s far more to life
Than being ‘economically useful’.