What If Your City's Population Grew 10 Times Bigger

oh monday morning the alarm is ringing cheerfully and you vaguely remember you've already hit the snooze button maybe not even once you force your eyes open into narrow slits and look through the haze at the clock 5 30 5 30. you leap out of bed sleep driven from your brain with an electric jolt work starts at nine and you'll definitely be late already but you may yet make it before lunch if you hurry the kids are still asleep of course all six of them rushing through the house but trying to be as quiet as possible you put on the first clothes you take out of the wardrobe and walk out of the apartment on the elevator landing there's already a crowd of sleepy people even eight cabins aren't nearly enough to accommodate everyone in the morning you take your place at the end of the line and wait two elevators arrive half full already taking in about a quarter of the people on the landing it takes another 10 minutes or so for you to finally cram into a cabin and start moving down from the 42nd floor you feel bad for those living below they have to wait even longer it's 6 a.m when you leave the apartment building and join the rushing crowd outside as usual for this time of day there's a huge traffic jam on the road nearby the crowd of pedestrians is too big so you have to walk slowly in about an hour you get to the subway and stand in line to get inside it'll take another 40 minutes or so [Music] still faster than walking all the way to the office or driving underground you have to wait for your turn to hop inside the train they come every five minutes but there are so many people that even cramming doesn't help you only manage to get on after another 20 minutes the doors catching the hem of your jacket you stand flat against the doors pushed into them by the press of the people at the next stop you have to get off the train to let others out but when you try to get back you're pushed by the crowd waiting to hop on and miss your place come on the doors close and you wait another five minutes press from all sides by anxious commuters when the train arrives you work your elbows urgently to get inside got it you prepare for a long ride ahead there's a similar ordeal awaiting at the next four stops when you finally get to your station you're already exhausted it's 9 20 you're late as expected and there's still some way to go a crowd of late runners like you is even larger in the city center so you take a deep breath and dive in people are going different ways so you have to push through which makes the going painfully slow if the streets were not so busy it would take you no more than 15 minutes to get to the place but in this mess you spend an entire hour brawling your way at last at 10 30 you're at the entrance of your building demos inc despite it being one of the biggest office buildings in the city there's a line to use the six elevators as well you roll your eyes and set to wait another half hour just to get to your floor already wow you're in the cabin what a relief you press the button with number 33 on it and wait again [Music] it's 1103 am you've been awake for almost six hours and yet you've only just arrived at your workplace your colleagues are zooming around the floor like ants and you carefully make your way to your cubicle at least it's near a window and you have a great view over the town you look outside and see the familiar picture rose upon neat rows of skyscrapers most of them apartment buildings combined with offices it's been over 50 years since the anomaly happened [Music] no one knows where it started exactly but people began having quadruplets and even quintuplets much more often than usual and strangely it seemed to only affect this city and its suburbs in the first decade some decided it was something in the air or water of the town and moved to other places but it turned out everyone who was born here was affected already even those who moved to other countries later reported to have up to jaw-dropping 10 children all at once and not everyone wanted or even was able to leave town so something had to be done that's how demos incorporated appeared its mission was to both help the city adapt to the new circumstances and investigate the cause of such a birth anomaly and the measures taken were drastic but efficient first of all the corporation invested into real estate development bigger families needed more space to live comfortably so new apartment blocks were built with more rooms and more spacious interiors overall people were offered to sell their old apartments and houses in favor of newer places to live and most of them gladly agreed there was a downside too though those who didn't want to move soon found themselves surrounded by huge construction sites eventually they couldn't stand the noise and dust and agreed to sell their dwellings the whole city started transforming old buildings got demolished to make way for new taller and bigger ones roads were broadened for transport to move more freely new businesses were open to give jobs and services to thousands of new citizens but that wasn't enough population growth was more rapid than city development thousands left but millions stayed the initiative to restrict birth was met with a massive civil protest and discarded as a result even with hundreds of skyscrapers the city is terribly overpopulated its area has grown massively since the anomaly began and now it's the largest city in the world not only by population but by area too working conditions have deteriorated as well more and more people look for jobs that can be carried out from home because of incredible traffic jams others have found work in their own or neighboring apartment buildings [Music] yet others still like you are not so lucky they have to wake up early in the morning just to get to work on time it's not uncommon to have an alarm set for 4 am at this time it's relatively crowdless in the streets naturally though nursing and tutoring have been booming all this time since every parent now has at least four kids to raise they accept any help they can get single people earn good money babysitting for their neighbors and tutoring their kids of school age schools by the way have been built at an astonishing pace yet still there aren't nearly enough of them to accommodate all the children parents register years ahead of time for their offspring to get elementary education entertainment has been hit hard as well numerous new restaurants cinemas theme parks have been open within and beyond the city limits but ordering a table or buying a ticket is a game of incredible chance with the city population grown tenfold you must plan your weekend at least two weeks ahead and even going to the countryside for a picnic is an adventure in itself first you have to leave the city then find a spot where there won't be crowds of nature-goers like you and after you're done it's a trip back home normally people prepare for at least a two-day stay in the country because it takes three hours just to leave the town and another three to get back lost in thoughts about all this you don't notice your colleague approaching you and start when she touches your shoulder she smiles and apologizes and you notice a folder in her hand she traces your gaze and puts the folder on your table opening it inside you see some documents but don't understand what they're about your colleague points to several paragraphs and you have to read them three times before realization dawns on you like a hammer it's a set of reports from several cities across the country there are lots of numbers you can barely understand but all of the papers have one thing in common they end with a request for demos inc to open a branch in their respective towns you count the reports 17 17 new cities have just experienced the same baby boom you've been trying to cope with for half a century

Channel: BRIGHT SIDE

Views: 267,589

Rating: 4.8644643 out of 5

Keywords: best what if questions, population growth, overpopulation problem, overpopulation a growing problem, craziest what if questions, human overpopulation, strange what if questions, overpopulated countries, bright side, what would happen if, cause of population growth, overpopulation documentary, hypothetical questions, overpopulation solutions, overpopulated cities, brightside, bright side what if, funny what if questions

Id: aEslZxu0Mr0

Length: 9min 28sec (568 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 08 2020