Didn't the aristocracy want us to be poor and stupid and thus controllable, something akin to the peasants of ye olden times or the proles of Pan Oceania? Maybe to get there there would need to be a collapse?

P.S.: Might it be that endless reproduction (at the minimum of 2.1 kids per couple) would allow us to expand beyond Earth and the Solar system and thus avoid having all the eggs in the same basket ? ;)