The Birth-Rate Crisis Isn’t as Bad as You’ve Heard—It’s Worse

15 comments

1. Very few emerging or developed nations are having a replacement level let alone above one. Its the developing nations that are still increasing their population and that will shift pressure to the countries above them, with climate, war and economic refugees. Also in developed/emerging nations pressure on pensions will massively increase and worker places cant be filled. Crazy times ahead, i think we enter a hard era of rather dedevelopment imo

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3. Workers are more productive than they were in the past. Where did all that profit go?

   We could do something like uncap social security taxes. Maybe properly tax businesses and individuals racking in billions.

   For all the people they want to pump out kids we could try paying them a living wage and giving them healthcare and affordable housing. If broke people popped out a kid the same people complaining would call them irresponsible and advocate for removing SNAP benefits so their kids starve to death.

4. We found the answer to the Fermi paradox: any sufficiently intelligent species that develops technology to begin to move off planet, eventually births an Elon Musk type. Then the whole species looks at itself in horror and decides never to get that far. Solved!

5. This isn’t bad news, it’s great. A reduction in the human population is essential for sustainability and the health of our planet. Remember climate change? It was a big deal before jew-hating took over.

6. Why the hell would anyone want to have kids?

   A lot of people will point to the terrible living conditions. That’s a problem, but can be fixed with some changes to policy.

   One thing people don’t talk about is how much raising kids can suck. You’re giving up so much time to raise a kid. That time could be used to advance a career, travel, or enjoy more of life. Yes, raising a kid is rewarding in the long run, but we’re an instant gratification society. People will keep putting off having kids until they feel they want to settle down.

   There’s also the social stigma. There’s an expectation that you’re living for someone else and that your life is basically on hold to raise a kid. Parents are expected to sacrifice a lot and it can feel rough. Who wants to exhaust themselves like that while feeling like they’re on their own? I’m not saying we should put parents on a pedestal, but we should help parents to lessen the burden and keep them from burning out. We often hear how parents need a break, so why not set up systems to support that? Saying it was their choice just means people will see how parents are treated and opt out.

7. But AI’s productivity is going to make up for any economic losses. What’s the problem then? Wouldn’t we be able to feed, house, clothe everyone who’s left in a few decades? What is wrong with that???

8. There is exactly one real solution to this: pay workers (an absolutely fuckton) more.

   That’s it. That’s the only real solution.

   There are, of course, super dystopian solutions. Millions of test tube babies bred to be nothing but low income workers, slavery and forced pregnancy, etc. But I have to believe those aren’t REALLY options or else I’d just end it all now.

   That being said, I don’t think the powers that be will ever implement the only real solution, so I just expect this to become the massive, global problem everyone is predicting it will be.

   Thankfully, I’ll likely be dead by then. Or at least insanely old. So yeah. Oh well I guess. Humanity had a nice run while it lasted.

9. It wouldn’t surprise me whatsoever if the plummeting birth rates in Latin America are due to the absolute torrent of pesticides used in agriculture there that are banned elsewhere.

   We don’t need to grow continually to survive – that’s cancer logic. We need to change our paradigm profoundly, instead of looking at humans as labor to feed into the insatiable maw of capitalism.

10. Of course, it will be worse! We have no reason to do kids. I don’t know what will be in next two years. And IF it will be better, why in modern economy model I need mini me version? Really, back in times I need more mini me to do chores like crops, build something, watch for cattle, or, later on, manufacturing stuff early years.

    Now it’s a pure gambling! Maybe my kid will struggle to find even decent job. There is no good routes even if I invest in him enough. Now diploma is just another entry ticket to gamble on a job market.

    I am at risk to die without a pension. So why we should bring even more people to this world to suffer?

11. It took us until 1800 to reach 1 billion people on Earth. We have added 8 times that number in just a couple hundred years.

    Infinite compounding expansion isn’t sustainable.

12. The thing is that human population has quintupled within the last 100 years because of modern medicine. Basically we are way way way too many people on planet Earth, and birth levels are adjusting. I’m sorry, between climate change and fascism I’m hard pressed to see what the doom and gloom problem is? The only big looser here is going to be capitalism, which is unsustainably build on continuous growth

13. Oh now we tried making the situation worse by giving the rich more opportunities to rob the working class and the situation did not get better.

    I’m ever so shocked.

    When corporations and businesses get the opportunities to grow that should have been given to actual people then this is the result.

14. The birth rate drop is not a crisis and anyone who strongly it is should learn to ignore all this creepy propaganda from amoral special interest groups who are merely worried that Amazon won’t have enough wage slaves in the future.

15. I never understood why declining birthrates were a problem in the modern world.

    Maybe I am being a dumbass, but wouldn’t the improvement of automation mean we would need less people to maintain production of the same amount of ressources needed to sustain our population, which would decrease anyway with birthrates going down?

    Now I understand that the rich aren’t ever going to give more benefits to the poor regardless of population numbers (without at least a bit of forcing their hand) but the trend should stabilize towards a reduced, but richer population if birthrates go down, no?

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