The Chinese Billionaire Paying People to Have Kids | $50B Founder James Liang
Can We Buy Our Way Out of Demographic Collapse?
James Liang is a Chinese billionaire who pays his employees 50K for every baby they make, who is launching a 1 Billion fund to pay PHD students to have children, here’s why…
James is the cofounder of trip.com worth $50B, he was also a prodigy academic who started college at 15, got a PHD at Stanford and then became a professor at China’s top university PKU. He straddles not just the active and the contemplative life but elite circles across US and China.
Sitting at this unique intersection helped him articulate his most important idea: that demography is one of the most overlooked factors that impact innovation. The problem with an aging population is not just the financial strain on pensions but a cultural, technological stagnation that will suffocate any creative act. Gerontocracies (rule by the old) result in sterile, hierarchical, and unimaginative futures. If humanity is going to continue innovating, humanity needs to stay young. James believes offering money alone can significantly fix the problem and is putting his money where his mouth is.
In this interview, you will learn about the coming population collapse from one of the world’s foremost demography experts and what to do about it from one of the world’s most resourceful entrepreneurs.
This interview is part of our Cosmos series on philosophy, AI, and entrepreneurship. At Cosmos, we deliver educational programs, fund research, invest in AI startups, and believe that philosophy is critical to building better technology. If you want to join our ecosystem of philosopher-builders, you can find roles we are hiring for, events we are hosting, and other ways to get involved on Johnathanbi.com/cosmos.
Topics We Cover:
2:02 Paying Employees to Have Babies
3:09 Low Fertility Kills Innovation
11:05 The Young Want Merit. The Old Want Hierarchy
15:42 Small Population = Little Innovation
33:50 Why a CEO Left for Academia
48:33 Humanity Craves Novelty
55:14 True Innovation Creates Heritage
1:16:32 AI Won’t Lead Innovation