Elon Musk no longer sees himself solely as the chief executive of Tesla (TSLA).
The manufacturer of high-end electric vehicles is no longer enough for him. Nor is his involvement in three other companies -- SpaceX, Neuralink and Boring Co. -- enough to contain his global ambitions.
Musk, the richest man in the world, sees himself as the greatest visionary of our time and wants to lead the debate on the problems facing our world. Musk sees himself as a global CEO.
From this premise he never hesitates to opine on geopolitics. He did so after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. Musk notably called on the NATO countries not to let Russian President Vladimir Putin win.
Musk Tweets Russia Ramping up Cyber Attacks on Starlink
"We cannot let Putin take over Ukraine. This is crazy," the tech tycoon told Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent, Axel Springer, during an interview in March.
"I think I can be helpful in conflicts," the billionaire said. "I do whatever I think is most likely to ensure that the future is good for humanity. Those are the actions that I will take."
Musk Worries About Population Decline in Venice
Doing what he thinks is good for humanity also means sounding the alarm on worrying subjects such as the decline of the Japanese population.
In early May, Musk warned that if Japan's population continued to decline at the current rate, the headquarters country of Toyota (TOYOF) and Sony (SNE) would soon cease to exist.
"At risk of stating the obvious, unless something changes to cause the birth rate to exceed the death rate, Japan will eventually cease to exist," Musk posted on Twitter on May 7. "This would be a great loss for the world."
In 2021, Japan's population declined by 644,000 from a year earlier to 125.5 million, according to official figures. And 2021 marked the 11th consecutive year of decline.
Musk is now worried about a city that has held a special place in the Western imagination for centuries For some, it epitomizes romanticism. It's Venice.
In a recent thread on Twitter, an account posted a message highlighting the sculpture "The Angel of Death" in Venice, the Eternal City.
"The Angel of Death, sculpture of a funeral gondola, Venice," the History Defined account posted on May 9. "Photo by Paolo Monti, 1951."
Instead of commenting on the beauty of this sculpture and the talent of the artist, Musk chose the post to alert millions of tourists who visit Venice annually to an often overlooked issue.
"Not be a buzzkill on this issue, but Venice itself is slowly dying due to very low birth rates," the serial entrepreneur, who has more than 92.1 million followers on Twitter, commented.
A Quarter of Venice Population Is Over Age 64
Considering some comments following his tweet, it's safe to say that Musk touched on a sensitive issue.
"All of Europe is dying because of low birth rates!" commented one Twitter user.
The same user then accompanied his first comment with a second, rather a graph, showing the decline of the European population to support his point.
In the 15th century Venice's historic center had 200,000 inhabitants, but official figures showed this figure dropped to around 160,000 in 1930. Since the great flood of 1966, the city that once ruled an empire has seen a sharp decline in its full-time residents. In 2009, it had 62,027 inhabitants. In 2020, the number dropped to 52,200.
The latest council estimate is that the rate of decline will increase, so Venice will be about empty by around 2046. A quarter of the population is over age 64. Overall, Italy is among the European countries with an aging population, a fact that worries demographers.
One of the reasons demographers often put forward is that tourism pushes Venetians to desert their city. But this alone cannot explain the population decline.
That's because the Community of Municipalities of Venice, an administrative organization, which includes Venice's historic center, Mestre, Marghera and the islands, is experiencing a general population decline. The population has decreased to 258,325 permanent residents in 2022 from 365,748 in 1966, according to World Population Review.
