19 comments

  • theoreticalmal 12 hours ago ago

    This seems like a really really bad path to head down. I believe anyone can achieve their dreams through hard work and perseverance. However, reality shows us that kids with highly-educated / affluent parents are more likely to end up highly-educated and affluent. It seems in most “western” countries, the people that are having lots of kids are not the highly-educated and affluent. Seems like another form of brain drain happening on a generational time scale

    • gsinclair 10 hours ago ago

      Yes, and it is society’s responsibility to, not individuals’ responsibility, to address it.

  • PeaceTed 17 hours ago ago

    This has been a growing trend for decades now. For many western nations the response has been to import more people primarily from the Asian continent. And while this has worked to keep the numbers high, it hasn't addressed the fundamental issues driving this.

    I do wonder that as other countries such India and the African nations start to face the same situation, will they end up limiting the amount of emigration? And if so how will that impact countries that have relied on this to prop up their economies.

    For instance here in Australia, we dipped below replacement fertility rate in 1975 but immigration has increasingly filled that gap. It has made the country wonderfully multicultural but it can also be seen as a band-aid solution. If the fire hose of people from overseas slows down, regardless of internal or external reasons, the economy goes with it. This is similar for large parts of the world.

    Interesting times ahead.

    • wiredpancake 16 hours ago ago

      [dead]

    • petre 16 hours ago ago

      Don't worry. Sillicon Valley will fix it with AI. /s

      We'll just have to give up perpetual growth and do more with less. The world population was always smaller than what it is now. What will happen is people from other, more crowded places, are going to move in and no amount of deportations is going to stop that.

      https://youtu.be/APo2p4-WXsc

    • constantcrying 15 hours ago ago

      [flagged]

    • slaw 15 hours ago ago

      Is debunked conspiracy theory, not debunked and not conspiracy anymore since replacement is a fact now?

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Replacement_conspiracy_t...

      • nitwit005 15 hours ago ago

        The conspiracy theory part is that it's the Jews, vaguely defined globalists, or some other group they don't like trying to exterminate white people for some unstated reason.

        They don't blame groups like business owners openly calling for cheap labor to be brought in.

        • slaw 6 hours ago ago

          Thank you for explanation, it really looks like business owners are doing white people replacement not some Jews.

      • imtringued 15 hours ago ago

        Great replacement implicitly assumes that people who don't have children are part of the conspiracy.

        You could now counter and say that these people are following the incentives of the system to not have children so they do not have to be aware of the conspiracy, but how is that exclusive to a specific race? The grandchildren of immigrants will be replaced as well.

        • slaw 15 hours ago ago

          I see. There are two parts.

          One is a fact, white people are replaced by mostly Muslims and second is a theory 'with the complicity or cooperation of "replacist" elites'

      • constantcrying 15 hours ago ago

        On German TV this continually alternates between official state policy and debunked conspiracy.

      • fleroviumna 15 hours ago ago

        Yep

  • metalman 13 hours ago ago

    .the economy is having fewer possitive effects on people.Having children is a choice that is not availible to them.

    • Libidinalecon 11 hours ago ago

      We are having less children because we are wealthy. Otherwise, you are making the argument that the birthrate in Africa is because of economic opportunity when in fact it is the lack of economic opportunity that causes higher birthrates. As intentionally child free, I even see this in myself. I am child free because I can think of all the opportunity I have that I don't want to give up. While if I had no opportunity, I would want to have a child who I could raise to do better economically than myself because I don't see any opportunity in my own lifetime.

  • mock-possum 16 hours ago ago

    Seems only fair, considering the economy transformed by choice to have fewer (no) kids.

    It’s not the only consideration, but at the same time, if I was independently wealthy… my partner and I would probably have a kid.

  • trolleski 14 hours ago ago

    Framing it as a choice is pretty rich.

  • perilunar 14 hours ago ago

    TFA frames it as an economic problem, but it’s much worse than that: it’s slow cultural suicide.

  • moktonar 12 hours ago ago

    Contrary to asexual reproduction, sexual reproduction permits population shrinkage. That is because we evolved with the need to be able to shrink the population when necessary. We are too many and population is going to shrink naturally on its own no matter what. If your income depends on the number of consumers, then I can see why you don’t want population to shrink.