Elon Musk Has A Plan To Keep Civilization From Collapsing. There’s 1 Little Problem…

It’s easy to say from inside a mansion filled with nannies. It’s easy to tell people to repopulate the world when you’ve never had to decide between medication and milk. But Musk’s version of “save civilization” sounds a lot like “keep producing children so the labor force stays full,” without making a single change to support the people actually doing the raising.

We’re raising kids in a world where survival costs more than it ever did. And some of us are trying to avoid dialysis while waiting for a kidney transplant; so no, we’re not lining up to have baby number three just because a billionaire thinks it’s our civic duty.

But Musk’s fantasy doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It echoes throughout Washington, D.C., where conservatives are gutting the very programs that kept my daughter and me alive.

Republicans just passed their so-called Big Beautiful Bill, which cut hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid and SNAP programs that millions of Americans, myself included, rely on to survive.

Now that it’s passed, I could lose my eligibility for a kidney transplant. Without Medicaid to supplement my Medicare, I can’t afford the out-of-pocket costs for necessary care and medications. I’ve already had to delay seeing my nephrologist because one safety net was ripped out from under me with only a month’s notice. I can’t imagine what will happen if the rest disappears.

And it’s not just me. This will devastate seniors, babies, children, disabled folks, working families, and the communities that already carry too much. Hunger will increase. Local aid programs will definitely be overwhelmed. Hospitals will close. People will die. And what are Republicans getting in exchange? More Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. More billionaires with bigger bank accounts. More cruelty disguised as fiscal responsibility.

But let’s be honest, these lawmakers are not building a stronger economy. They’re gutting the weak to appease the rich. They’re treating human beings like budget line items. If you don’t contribute enough to their campaign coffers, they don’t care if you live or die.

This is not a broken system; it’s a functioning machine of economic violence, operated by people who only punch down and call it policy.

So no, Elon and Republicans, we don’t need more lectures about fertility. We need leadership that values and cares for the people already here! 

If you really cared about families, you’d be fighting for universal child care, health care, housing and food security, not stripping them away. You’d be making sure parents had one less thing to fear, not 10 more.

Until then? Spare us the speeches. And keep your bootstraps. We can’t even afford the damn boots.

J. Nova lives in Colorado, where she’s spent decades navigating single parenthood, disability, and systems designed to fail. With a sharp sense of satire, she’s finally putting her lived experience into words. This is her first published piece, but she’s just getting started.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost in July 2025.