GullahGullahIslander
58929
1735
10
Dec 17, 2024 4:59 PM
GullahGullahIslander
58929
1735
10
DukePhelan
This isn't a hard problem to 'fix' if we wanted too. People want more free time and more financial security before they are willing to think about starting a family. Until you solve those two issues nothing else is going to work. Stop punishing career women (and men) for taking time with their families or even maybe allow a family to survive on a single income instead of young people needing 3 jobs to survive first.
MioTaalas
They're doing illegal amounts of overwork even now, this will not change anything.
Companies don't give a damn.
WolfandPals
WANC News: British government follows in Japans footsteps to increase birthrate but instead of a shortened work week, they just left a few packs of coke in a club bathroom
Zeplin
I'm sorry, but this is blatantly untrue. Source: I'm there. This is not a thing.
ImHereToGetDownvotes
The 4 day work week isn't really the problem, it's the work / life balance and cost. Sure, a 4 day work week is nice compared to a 5 or 6 day one, but Japanese work culture is still a low paying, long day nightmare.
TacoFox
It just gives the Hikikomori an extra day to goon...
usernametakenisthestoryofmylife
Less work = more baby-makin' time.
DontTazeMeBrah
US: Best I can do is.. heres 6th work day
meowingintensifies
and on-call on the 7th
SirAroun
O look they finally admitting its their toxic work culture that is to blame
zylokun
Lol good luck forcing that.
TheLastGreatAudit
You want to boost birth rates just cut the power at night. There's a reason grandma had 9 kids and it's cause there wasn't anything else to do.
Rapturesfall
I also don't know if she had much of a choice in sex or no sex if her husband wanted it..
YeastInfectedWhiskerBiscuit
Now we really can't afford to raise kids.
RigoryMorty
That's not gonna work. They'll just pick up another side job.
mycatpoopedinmyshoe
All it takes…lower cost of living. This 👆won’t do shit
Layinginbed
Thousands of foster kids in the US. Maybe Japan could adopt some
[deleted]
[deleted]
rooik14
I do think it's a silly solution but how would it "spoil" Japan to have people adopt kids?
BrdCdn
Those kids aren't Japanese though. Japan like alot of Asian countries is still pretty fucking racist. It's incredibly difficult to get Japanese citizenship if you are not ethnically Japanese.
ChelChehalem
Cool! So they're decreasing the social pressure so people are expected to work only 60 hours a week now?
carrotsonfire
You're joking if you think Japan's working culture is going to change just because they went down to 4 days a week. They'll just make the working hours 18 hours or something crazy like that to make up the difference. That or they'll work 4 days and 1 day 'overtime' which is unpaid.
Zeplin
My Japanese girlfriend works 6 days a week, roughly 16 hours per day.
carrotsonfire
'kin 'ell... That should be reduced down to 40, or ideally 37 hours per week.
Idonotbelievewehavecompany
I am already working 4 day weeks and still refuse to bring a child into this god forsaken timeline. Do my best to support my step-kiddos after split from wife, but new ones? FUCK THAT
randomguy365
"if y'all could work 6 days a week, with no overtime pay, no guaranteed vacation time, and no healthcare, but still have at least 6 kids, that would be great" -U.S. Oligarchs
fractalsphere
But only for like government employees - not the entire country. Still a great idea, tho. https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/06/asia/tokyo-government-4-day-workweek-intl-hnk/index.html
TwoSpeedTony
DocFunkenstein
Making having kids and living a comfortable life affordable would go much, much further towards that goal.
SPQAAE
No one wants kids if they can't even afford to take care of themselves.
ssjalhazred
Yeah, but then rich people would have less money. Better to just complain about the problem since any possible solution would have to factor that in.
DocFunkenstein
Especially since the reason they want people having babies is to expand the workforce they can effectively enslave.
InfographicProject
Good luck using law to change a toxic work culture. Somehow I doubt all the mandatory unpaid overtime, black companies, and apologies for quitting will go away.
Littledirtybirdyfeet
They should seek to bring immigrants in. Have a clear path to citizenship and integration
VastMajorityRule
LookAtYouHackerPantingAndSweatingAsYouRunThroughMyCorridors
As someone living in Japan , I would say it does have a path for citizenship and integration that isn't very hard. you need to live in Japan for 5 years, be older than 20, and pass a document review (additionally you can have native Japanese to character witnesses for you). The issue is that Japan does not issue a lot of visas to people without university degrees, or specific skilled labour based on their immigration points system.
OneMoreLime
That is pretty much the last thing they want
abcdefg912
Yeah, it's pretty much inevitable at this stage, though. Birthrate issues can only go unaddressed for so long before massive problems are locked in. They're traditionally an incredibly insular and homogeneous people, so their country and culture is going to be seeing some pretty radical changes over the next few decades after they're forced to mass import immigrants.
ShadeMeadowsArt
But... why would we want more babies?
Isn't overpopulation a big problem nowdays?
arrogantengineer
Overpopulation was only a "maybe someday" problem, at least in the developed world, before fertility rates collapsed.
WellAckchually
The big problem for a number of countries, Japan included, is the rate at which population growth declined. They're going to hit a point soon where the anticipated output of their working age population just won't be enough to support their retired population. Then those older and sicker people will die off and things will get better again, but it'll be real harsh for a few decades
corylusavellana
Ya but those people are forriners (is the quiet second part)
ssjalhazred
Nope, the whole world is experiencing demographic collapse. China and Russia are speedrunning it, especially China, although this is why Russia invaded Ukraine when they did, their usual tactic of "throw bodies at problem until problem goes away" means they won't have enough military aged men very soon (you may have noticed a recent front page post about how they new recruits in their 50s-60s.)
ssjalhazred
Incidentally, all of this gives you a good red flag for conspiracy theory nonsense. If someone starts talking about plans for population control like vaccines or 5G or something being schemes to kill us all off, you can immediately dismiss them as idiots who have absolutely no idea how anything works. The elites who control everything are *harmed* by this. It's costing them money. If they could somehow enact magical population control, they would be *increasing* it, not decreasing it.
ssjalhazred
In China, the one-child policy worked a little too well, and they recently admitted their census had been over counting and roughly ten million people on it (most of whom would have been women born during one-child) don't exist. They're going to have serious problems in the near future as they face a severe shortage of both workers and consumers, and they already have a huge gender imbalance so it's unlikely to be fixed before it causes severe social problems.
ssjalhazred
This is also why some states in the US are rolling back child labor laws. The baby boomers started retiring and dying in 2022. There are less workers so employers have less power to say "if you won't do it for low wages, someone else will." They're desperate for things to go back to normal, they don't understand, or don't want to understand that this IS things going back to normal.
InfocalypseRising
Wild for a country with a notoriously brutal work culture
DanFendi
It's funny, this is happening because their racism is stronger...all of the population growth in Japan right now is from immigrants coming in to do shit jobs no one else wants to do. Japan is trying to figure out how to get their native population growth up to stem the tide of immigrants coming in to take unfilled jobs.
SwagicalYololord
They’re finally down to a 48 hour work week!
Stefnos
did you remember to account for 10+ "honor overtime hours" xD
SoGrosslyIncandescent
I wonder if it would actually be acceptable to use the day off, or if it would just end up like the "closing time" in offices where it's unacceptable to actually leave at the posted closing time
unluckyandbored
I had the same thought. "Yes, it's a 4-day week, but Boss is coming in on Friday, and he'll expect us to be there even though we don't have to, and Boss will be staying late, so we'll have to stay late too..."
pip1
Hmmmmmmmm I seem to remember that falling asleep at work is not only acceptable in Japan, but seen as a sign of dedication and hard work.
gaggedandgooped
Hence the declining birthrates
ucandcantunc
Hence why changing the work week will not do a thing. People will still be expected to get the 7 day work week done.....most Japanese overwork because of social norms there.
This will just make more people work off the books for favored appearances.
gaggedandgooped
Well shit, why doesn’t the gov of Japan hire you to fix this, since you have all the answers?
Bondsmith10
Weird to get defensive when someone points out a correct flaw in something
gaggedandgooped
Bro it’s sarcasm. Chill. I don’t care.
Fruc
I fear the issue is more deeply rooted than just “people not having sex”
TooRexyForMyShirt
Not just high-speed rails, but very fast trains, too!
DaveSamsonite
The bullet trains are very expensive, unfortunately. I've bought week long Japan Rail passes (which sell at a huge discount if purchased OUTSIDE of Japan) as a US visitor and daily tickets when I was living in ASIA (purchased in Japan) and was surprised the cost to the locals was the same as an airplane ticket.
Thejr mass transportation system is awesome overall tho.
cousteau
How fast do those go anyway? The high speed train from Madrid to Barcelona reaches 300 km/h (not the fastest in the world but quite fast) and isn't too expensive - sometimes you get tickets for under 20 bucks.
DaveSamsonite
Roughly 5x as fast as any legal highway speed. The faster the train and the fewer stations it stops at, the more $$ the ticket. There are several speed classes: Nozomi/ Tohoku is 320 kph; Sanyo is 300 kph; Hikaru/Kodoma is 285 kph amd Joetsu is 275 kph.
You can get from Tokyo to Kyoto in 1.5 hrs on Nozomi vs 6 hours on a highway bus. You can get from Tokyo to Hiroshima in four hrs and that's 816 km. It's an 11-12 hr drive depending on where in Toyko you are driving from.
Frodomann1
TinyRavenFeathers
goboltz
Something . . Something . . Run a Train . . .
fformulaa
unannouncedguest
This gif is even better as still image... Don't even need to "padumtssss" just looking at the drums is enough for everyone to hear it
potentiallyunsafe
bingle19
Deedle deedle dee
potentiallyunsafe
kenny2999
So they are well trained and well railed
obesz
Beautiful
Madderrs
Sundresses optional.
jimmythehat1
FluffyMcBunBun
besuited
Actually, the rails don't move at all.
okkilby
Yeah, it doesn't have to be high speed any more they have a full day for it!
airwoman
High speed for a long time equals big distance
TooRexyForMyShirt
AsianLeprechaun
Heyo!
WhiskyBravo
well done!
MightyUrto
You want people to have more babies? Incentivize it. Pay enough that people can have singling earner households again. Give Tax credits for each kid AND for moms. Have day care free for people to use. Have health care, at least for children and mothers, free. If a government isn't willing to do this do they really want more kids or "traditional" families?
[deleted]
[deleted]
TI99Kitty
What does Roe v Wade have to do with Japan?
SaintSleepyWeasel
I mean... It seems real simple when you realize the largest reason they are not having kids is because they are too expensive... It's not rocket science.
CptRobotNinja
TLDR: Make it so having a baby isnt a terrible decision for the majority of your population.
nycterelis
Afaik, it's not a money thing. It's a lifestyle thing. It's so ingrained in "salaryman" culture to work 12 hour days, don't take vacation, and so on. It might also be a money thing, but it's largely the corporate culture of Japan.
Kommadore
Then drink yourself stupid and pass out on a sidewalk on the way home!
ThrowAwayAcct0000
Also, Japan needs young people to take care of the old people. Without them, Japan's old people are gonna rot in nursing homes or starve because there aren't enough workers to take care of them.
corylusavellana
Of all places you would expect if that care could be automated, they would have already. There are so many countries with an average age of <20, immigration is fine for now, and easier than encouraging people to have more kids.
Rhythmaster
Japan doesn't really encourage immigration... kinda the opposite, actually.. and to be fair, it is already very densely populated for such a small island
undrh2o
Sounds expensive. Best we can do is birth control illegal. /s
daftpumpkin
FREE DAY CARE
InkyBlinkyPinkyAndClyde
Not every family has a parent looking to give up a career and stay home. Many families only have one parent at all. So single-earner households only work for a small percentage of total families. What would work much better is full-time pay for fewer hours. A 25-hr work week would give all parents the chance to continue working, while also spending time with their kids. Works for all types of families, and also nice for single people. Improves life for everyone.
Sallavar
But that would cost some corporate investor his profits ...
Callipygius
Free daycare that covers the entire workday plus time before and after work to actually pick up and drop off your kid, would be super effective. The other solution would be reducing work hours for everyone, men and women, parents and nonparents. If you just give lots of leave to moms, they know it will ruin their careers in the long term and don't want to do it.
Cashgrinder
Best I can do is "your body, the government's choice" - USA
xj4low
Show people a future exciting enough to want to bring a baby into the world and not a dystopian nightmare where women have no rights, die with easily preventable pregnancy by abortions, schools that don't make the news daily due shootings, working wage instead of the top 3% owning over 50% of the wealth and a populace built on empathy instead of selfishness.
BladeTurMoiL
The bar is really low, but this is all i want.
HoSpanky
Ehhh those are American issues for the most part. In Japan, apparently a big part of it is their young women having so much they want to do, AND also being acutely aware that once you have a kid, the chance you’ll get to do those things is about zero.
MrStealYourGiF
Yah for in theory being in favor of more babies, the right really seem to be against everything that would encourage it.
EternallyIgnorant
People like Elon view humans as livestock. he wants as many to be born and exist as possible, he doesnt care about their well being, but he knows that the more there are the more money he can make.
threepotatoesinatrenchcoat
Or just make it easier to emigrate
Pulsifer
Well... Norway has all those things and a birthrate of 1,41. Once standard of living goes up, expectations of self-realization does, too. And having a baby isn't how women want to self-realize anymore. Some choose careers, some choose travel or social life, some choose to not have spouses, some choose to not have children explicitly. It's not a problem with a solution, it's a changed paradigm and we're going to have to adapt.
InkyBlinkyPinkyAndClyde
Part of that, though, is that becoming a mom still hits the woman's career and free time harder, even in Norway. Women still do more unpaid work, and are more than twice as likely to work part-time than men. Being a mother is much more likely to put a successful career out of reach than being a father is. So women are deciding it's not worth it. If they could have both as easily as men can, maybe more would do so.
ThrowAwayAcct0000
Japan could open up more to foreigners (immigrants) and solve this problem pretty quickly, but the country is so xenophobic, I doubt that will happen.
ssjalhazred
Rich people would have less money if we did those things, though.
Fruc
Japan does this already. Moms get a year off of work. (Though the dads get basically nothing, so improvements can be made)
Callipygius
This is kind of counter productive if Dads don't take off the same amount of time, though, because then women lose their careers and can't get hired, so they refuse to have kids.
Fruc
I THINK there are protections for women to not lose their jobs due to having a kid like in the US. That being said, Japan is crazy male-dominated still. Like, US 1970s-80s level of sexism in the workplace.
Suffice to say, it’s not a lack of sex that is making people not have kids in Japan. It’s a ton of extremely conservative, out-dated expectations of workers that are pushing people to not want to raise kids in the Japanese environment.
Callipygius
Protections to not get fired aren't enough, though. They'll miss opportunities to progress in their career, miss out on experience and networking, and also are less likely to get hired in the first place
starkiller34
Fathers too. Or should single dads fuck off? The word you were looking for is parent/s. See them as that insyead of mother and father. Some kids have 2 dads.
Feralkyn
They're talking about mothers b/c Japan is historically very sexist. The expectations on mothers in particular are really harsh.
PantLord
Why do that when we can just ship in wage slaves from struggling populations around the world to do the work and pocket the difference? Then we get to pay peanuts AND demonise the foreigners in order to keep the locals angry enough to keep voting for us even though we are causing the very problem they are looking to us to fix?
Spudd86
Japan isn't doing that, there are very few non ethnically Japanese people living in Japan.
ThrowAwayAcct0000
That's what the US has been doing. Why give your people healthcare (or vaccines even) when they're just gonna die in the factories or construction sites or in shootouts anyway? When you have immigrants and good PR, you can just replace your declining population every few years, AND you get a permanent scapegoat underclass!
ElbowDeepInAPoliceState
None of which will affect the cultural shifts that have occurred w/regards to women being more than homemakers and childrearers
VitaminJay
America; 'thats illegal, now let me give billions to billionaires and wonder why people are shooting CEOs in the back...'.
ScottE
Alternatively, don't have so many kids. Wages and the quality of life go up as the supply of labor decreases, and the same resources are distributed among fewer people.
corylusavellana
I don't see why young people shouldn't be slightly optimistic about this. It happened after the plagues. It will suck for the older people, and we younguns will have to pay higher taxes to cover them as less of the population is working.
PatrickMcChunky
No. They want "alternative" families who do not breed, will toil away for corporate slavers, have no freetime to rebel, and have no aspirations to better their lives.
hewhosleftalone
Yeah, you're very close. Replace "mother" with "parent" please, parenting is not just a mother's job nor responsibility.
Kind regards,
Single father of four
gesel
You want people to have more babies? What the fuck is wrong with you, you dumb fucking morons? Stop dropping crotch goblins on the planet! Want to solve human problems? Bring back the heroine of the Russian republic but award women for reaching menopause or having a tubal ligation with an avoided carbon Heroine award of $1m. Why on earth would anyone encourage the most supremely selfish act any human can commit?
knotch2
The government can lick my balls because all their good for now is making sure the roads stay open.
J3lek
That last line. Yes! If you want people to have traditional families you need to give them a traditional quality of living.
gesel
If you want people to have traditional families, just follow basic demographic data: stop educating them, eliminate electricity, travel, transportation and all the comforts and distractions of modern, wealthy life and restore childhood diseases and end social safety nets for the elderly. Just follow the data, its easy.
Grudgebearingmidget
Well we've already stopped educating them in America.
gesel
A real life test of the Idiocricy hypothesis.
painstream
Yeah, with Japan, 4-day work week isn't enough. They need strong "day ends at 5pm" policies so people feel they have time to live a life.
Kommadore
Plus I think this 4 day work week is really just flex scheduling, they have to make up the hours.
Breidr
I have a friend that lives in Japan and he said something similar. As an American, he'll push back, but he mentioned something like "They'll just show up an extra two days to show devotion to the company."
He's called "forced" socialization with coworkers unpaid overtime. It's, uh... Fascinating.
JayDeeDubs
I'm pretty sure Japan is doing/has all of these things. What they've done very little to address are the cultural attitudes toward women, especially married women and mothers
bp920091
Japan has started to approach some of those things, but is nowhere close to actually covering the true costs of raising a child, and the lost opportunity costs of the mother not being in the workplace to do so. Not a single country has come close to it. It's around 72,000 a year (direct and indirect costs), and until that sort of cash is provided for people to start having children, making the best economic decision TO have a child, educated people just wont very often.
Boomplatinum7
Was stationed in Japan for 6+ years and met my wife there. There are a ton of incentives there, even for foreigners working there. The common attitude there, in the women we have talked to, is that they just don't have an interest in having children while they're young. And those that wait, feel like they're to old and uts to late by there 30s. Others opt to have pets and/or completely devoted to their interests. The younger women feel like it's still to expensive but typically just complain 1/2
Boomplatinum7
about having their 'free will' to do things such as party and have fun. My family utilized the benefits from the country (due to my wife) while we were there because we had our children there. They definitely put a good deal of effort into programs and benefits compared to USA inmho. The country is so great for children, I'm considering on going back. I guess when you're part of something you don't realize you may actually have it better than others (in this case).
MioTaalas
Ideal woman that Japanese want is willess, silent agreeable and like a doll tat bends to what the man wants...
Like basic anime waifus.
So yeah, all this other shit is bad for having children, bit this is the final hurdle.
Men are literally quitting dating real women because the feel like they can't (or will not try) to meet any standards nor accept a person with their own will and dreams and thoughts... "I don't have time for all that" say men...
spookyu
Honestly I think the hangup for Japan is centered around a few things - work culture there can actually be really bad (low pay, long hours, tons of social obligations) and even worse for women. It's also a country that's still fairly patriarchal in many ways, a lot of women don't want the obligation surrounding marriage now, so they opt-out. Pile on the need (and cultural obligation) to care for a massive elderly population and none of it is conducive to wanting to start a family.
Feralkyn
It might be but the issue is not by any means unique to Japan. It's problematic throughout Europe and Russia etc, too.
spookyu
I expect that's partly true, I'm American and lived in Japan for 6 years, my son is half and went to school there etc. and I definitely think some of the cultural aspects are more ingrained when it comes to the treatment of women. Like I don't want to generalize, most Japanese people are awesome and I adore the culture, but there's definitely *enough* Japanese men that barely see women as people to make it a pronounced issue. Not even diving into the sexual assault issues...
spookyu
Japan just gets put on a pedestal too often in terms of society, they do SO much right (most collectivist societies do), but there are still deeply flawed aspects of it that need to be addressed.
Feralkyn
Oh no, that's definitely true, I meant the demographics crisis reasoning. As in, the demographics crisis is not unique to Japan
CleverGroom
Right, and my suspicion is that even underneath that there's a crisis of existentialism waiting to be addressed. There's mounting evidence from Nordic countries in particular that all of these socioeconomic policies don't reverse declining birthrates. Why have kids? What's it for?
I understand that, on average, human connections make people happier and having children is a way to create those connections. But there are other ways--ways that do less to tax our planet's burning ecology...
AnyRandomBob
Yeah the real problem is capitalism requiring infinite growth. There is nothing wrong with a company getting smaller because they are selling less other than the gamblers den, uh I mean the stock market will freak out.
MissSiesta
This! Millennials have been told we're overpopulating the earth, but we can't decline in numbers because that ruins the profit margins of investors? Zero sustainability...
Goldensands
Birth rates are directly tied to quality of life. Higher quality of life = lower birthrate. As proven by a Swedish scientist Hans Rosling.
bp920091
higher cost of living = lower birthrate. When women are more educated, they can make better decisions for themselves. When having a child costs them around 72k/yr, and they're on the hook for all of that, they're going to just not have one.
Until any developed country offers an actually comparable economic benefit, the more educated a woman is, the more likely they are to actually make the rational best choice for themselves.
Goldensands
Look up hans rosling for me m8 he explains it better than either of us could achieve with a hundred imgur replies. Has free talks on YouTube. "Hans Rosling Overpopulation" should do it. Best to ya
Spudd86
Fun fact: we can absolutely support current populations sustainably. It just takes a few megacorps loosing out a bit in the short term, and paying to support building sustainable infrastructure both in our own countries and developing ones.
PenguinRiderKing
This isn't true. Recent estimates say around 2-3 billion is probably the max we can sustain in an ecological safe way. Overpopulation is a much bigger issue than capitalism or a few big corporations.
MightyUrto
gonna need to cite those sources
futuremarty
8 billion people cannot live to industrial modernity standards. Not even a billion can. We are in a predicament.
CleverGroom
But that won't happen, will it?
CleverGroom
...Speaking from my own lived experience, having children worked out pretty fucking badly for my parents and their kids. There's a billion tangible horror stories hidden just behind the statistics.
Ultimately I think this preoccupation with birthrates is incredibly conceited and pro-capital. Why should any of this be perpetuated in the first place? I'd need humans and the world we've made to be a lot fucking better than it actually is before I'd grant the argument that it's worth carrying on.
Feralkyn
Hmmm yes and no; you need a sustainable working-age population to actually keep the elderly in good hands etc. The issue with demographics crises as I understand them isn't that populations are declining so much as the birthrate declining means the population is skewed toward people of non-working age, which places a heavy burden on the entire economy of a given country.
Yes, economy is money and we feel that capitalism is bad and all, but there's still practicality behind the concern.
Feralkyn
I'm also not saying a country couldn't necessarily support the older generation but it IS a heavy burden and if an economy is already struggling, and you start to lose the working-age folks who'd be in production/exports etc... well, it mounts
SilentHowling
The idea of civilization is that we each have to do our part to make the world better for future generations. Plant trees you'll never live to rest in the shade of. At this juncture of history somehow we've lost the thread of hope and caring that makes the struggle worth it. The future is for the kids so focus on that is a stop-gap measure.
LumpPump
indeed & the greedy corpos& people they bribe are the ones that willfully & eagerly stomped that flame of hope out. i refuse to ever give those disgusting greedy bastards kids to chew up & spit out like they do everyone else & their kids. way i see it there is no future but as wage slave for the future of the kids, expect the lucky ones & the ones born into the right families. fuck humanity and its evil greedy ways, our species can rot into the horrible slime balls we really are inside
dmcdo8918
Yeah, but many people are showing they are tired of this form of civilization. Why spend your whole life suffering or miserable, just to give someone else the same chance in a few years/decades/generations? It's selfish at best, and cruel at worst to play the odds with another life.
cptjellyjiggeler
As one that decided against getting kids. Maybe its just not too bad to have less people on the planet? Like 80% of the Problems solving itself without a meatgrind war?
Breidr
Too much power is concentrated. I'm sure a lot of us understand what you wrote, but when you have literal trillionaires, you just can't fight it anymore.
There's either going to be a reset, or we go extinct. Either one is going to suck.
CleverGroom
I think that's a bedtime story the hoplite class told their well fed offspring after they retired from a lifetime of burning other men's cities and salting their fields.
The prosperity enjoyed by my forefathers was unsustainable and won by the sword. To follow in their footsteps, to carve a rich red legacy worth passing on to another generation, would be to perpetuate the cycle of violence.
As it is, I'm too poor for trees. I live in asphalt and beating sun, like most civilized humans.
ViolentlyJaded
Women don't want babies when they can have lives.
METROlD
wow
ProppaGanda
Some do.
ViolentlyJaded
And they can choose that, but society shouldn't decide it's all they can have.
Gruesslibaer
No one is deciding that.
FiftyShadesOfMascarpone
And we don't really need more than 8,194,534,252 people. I mean 8,194,534,285. Sorry, 8,194,534,307. The damn world population clock keeps counting up as I'm typing this. We should incentivize having *less* children instead, especially in the developed world where we use a majority of the resources and create most of the man-made greenhouse gases and pollution. One generation will have to make do without elderly care and instead wipe their own butts until the day they die.
[deleted]
[deleted]
ViolentlyJaded
There are plenty of people it's racism/nationalism that keeps people from simply accepting immigration. Many countries are facing "population crises." But that's just BS. There are people who would come to work and live in your country, you just don't want them.
FiftyShadesOfMascarpone
While that is a fair point, it ultimately also feeds into the infinite growth paradigm. Immigration from poorer countries means that we're outsourcing child production. The end result is the same. More global population growth, more consumerism, more revenue, more CO2 and methane emissions, more pollution until all oceans are covered in floating garbage islands.
ViolentlyJaded
Possibly or people from the developing world will get some of the benefits of tech instead of the pollution, climated change etc. with no benefits. I would like to see it as spreading new ideas as well. Some ideas don't survive confrontation with new ones, such as the use of birth control.
FiftyShadesOfMascarpone
I'd be happy to volunteer my own generation X. We were latchkey kids, so we're used to taking care of ourselves. And when we're no longer able to we'll jump off bridges or something. Anything to break the cycle and end this unsustainable paradigm of constant growth.
canadianreserve
I think technically people still need to have 2 kids each for the population to scale down in a non-chaotic way. Or you end up with retirees with no economy to keep them on pension
Kingdomonsterdeath
Sucks for them. Maybe they should have thought about that before they made everything secondary to profit. But, for a while there, they really made some lucky shareholders a lot of money. Too bad it is all digital and will disappear when the electrical grids go down.
canadianreserve
Well, I can only speak for my parents, but they worked in health care all their lives, and pretty hard to boot. Some of the boomers should get slingshoted into the sun, but not all of them.