If the global baby boom lead to all the technological and lifestyle improvements of the twentieth century, I’m getting a little nervous for them twenty first…
That's a big if. The largest technological improvements (electrification, internal combustion, antibiotics, plumbing) mostly arrived before the post-1950 population explosion, and productivity growth slowed right as population growth peaked in the late 60s. What drove tech innovation was research and R&D spending, much of it funded by governments as part of war efforts.
