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Another stupid article assuming that a population reduction is a bad thing.
No, no, of course, just keep increasing the human population until it crashes. Then it'll be an actual problem.
The numbers look bad because increasing population increases the GDP, and GDP has become the archetypal example of what happens when you turn a metric into a goal.
It's not just about GDP, if your retired population starts to outnumber your working population by a large amount, who will support all those old people? Nowadays children can't care for their parents because they have to go to their 9-5 every day, so we rely on other people to do that job for us, and if they disappear then what? The problem isn't the deflating population per se, it's the inverted demographic pyramid and our work culture
Kurzgesagt had an nice video about this, it has a huge imact on culture too. With old people not able to transmit their knowledge and crafts.
The problem is made up. We're more productive than ever and should have plenty of leisure time and plenty of safety nets for old age....but that wealth has all been siphoned off by a very few. The solution to this is tax the wealthy.
"The problem that historians, economics, geographers and other researchers have studied for decades is made up. Trust me bro"
Don't forget that immigrants are bad.
/s
You can't complain about a birthrate crisis when the world is full of immigrants and there is a domestic cost of living crisis unless you are a eugenicist on some level.
Throwing rocks from the glass house that is the US I know
I remember living it in Mexico like a free soul as a kid. We had poor people but I think I never really saw homeless people. Even the poorest person I knew had a little house where he lived with a few donkeys. We called him Toño La Muerte because his eyes were deep into his very thin looking skull eye sockets. He also lived right outside of the city pantheon. His little house burnt down once and besides the time my father died I can't remember having such a sinking feeling. Anyway his house was promptly rebuilt With community help. We didn't just let Toñito die out in despair having nothing. Anyway, now things are bleak for all kids out there. How can they ever dream of owning a place to live? And so if you can only focus on that problem, there's no room for the having kids problem. Its simple, you got no place to live so bring no kids until you do. Okay so let's say 50 year old men can finally afford a house so they start courting 20 year old women. That's a big gap. Maybe their sperm is not great. But then it also means that they are easily outcompeting young men for women who can have kids. Ofcourse for women this all means that they can't have a future of their own. They live so they can make bsbies with 50 year old men shooting blanks. Some of this might be true. My wife and I are similar age and married close to our 40's. We knew we had to make some babies asap or we would miss that chance. 5 years and you're done. Once women hit 40, its very hard to be pregnant. Having kids within 5 years is a lot of pressure.
Thanks for sharing your unique perspective on the matter, I agree with much of what you said.
Japan is super racist despite the polite facade. It also doesn’t help that they have a “work and drink yourself to death at the expense of having a life” culture.
America certainly does similar things, but we don’t bother polishing the turd with politeness.
It also doesn’t help that they have a “work and drink yourself to death at the expense of having a life” culture.
Americans, on average, work more hours per year than Japanese people (1765 vs 1691). Per capita alcohol consumption is also higher in the US than it is in Japan.
It was different in the 80s, but that's now it is now.
i think the niceness is for tourist sake, and not for everything else.
Anyone obsessed with birthrates is an asshole until proven otherwise.
We went straight from 'there's too many people!' to 'there's not enough people!' on a dime. Even rates drastically below replacement aren't Children Of Men. There's just fewer kids and more old farts. So... Florida?
Oh god, maybe we should be worried.
Florida! Clothing optional restaurants! Yey!
But everyone is 75.
You clearly don't understand the situation. 125 million down to ... 60 million, less, in half a century, maybe less... How to manage that is a serious question. Infrastructure is a huge question.
This new generation of child-free people better be damn well aware that when they get old they are absolutely fucked. The state isn't going to be there for them and IF they have a SO great but even then shit happens.
The future is going to be bleak.
japan like china, and korea are pretty hostile to immigration policies. at least for china its pretty hard, plus you have to denounce your citizenships before living there permanently. might be different for RICH people though.
Less power, less traffic, less consumption... what part of infrastructure isn't suddenly overengineered? For a value of "suddenly" that means in fifty years.
And as others note, this isn't because the Japanese are suddenly averse to fucking. They're overworked to the point of self-parody. This trend is eminently reversible, if the people addicted to the wiggly line can look further into the future than next quarter.
i think south korea has a worst rate than japan, they are declining faster.
Why do you assume it's worse?
All the MBAs and politicians throwing their hands up about birth rates because the real answer is the unthinkable "number might go down"
Let me make it simple.
You can't raise a fucking family if all you're doing is barely surviving.
Yes you can. People do it all over the world.
"People do it all over the world." False it should be "Uneducated people do it all over the world" Look into geography and sociology and let me know why it is that uneducated poor people usually get more children :D
Lol uneducated does not mean dumb.
I stand by what I said.
The future lies in those "uneducated" people.
Everything about this whole thread screams privileged white people who haven't known an ounce of struggle in their lives and all of a sudden things get a little tight that they can't buy butter instead of margarine and holy hell the sky is falling!
This is why all my friends now are immigrants lol.
Cool. Should they?
Yes.
I was watching a YouTube video yesterday with Jimmy Carr and I think he summarized it perfectly.
As humans we are amazing at quantifying all the negatives around having kids (costs, time constraints, behaviour changes) but we struggle at quantifying the positives (purpose, accountability, pride, humility).
My regret is having kids later in life and not in my early 20's. The little secret we all know is you're never ready for kids. You either dive in or you don't. After that? In for a penny, in for a pound.
Cool. I disagree. You want to subject your kids to climate change then go ahead.
And we are allowed to disagree. That doesn't however make your opinion any more valid. You can't hold hands when you make fists.
Climate change is going to be the least of the next generation's worries.
At least they won't freeze to death outside in winter when likely none of them will have houses, jobs or access to healthcare (aside from the ones with inheritance of course).
Climate change alone is an absurd reason to advocate for antinatalism.