this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2024
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Birthrates are plummeting worldwide. Can governments turn the tide? Nations are deploying baby bonuses, subsidised childcare and parental leave – largely to no avail. (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 2 months ago by Lugh@futurology.today to c/futurology@futurology.today
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[–] atro_city@fedia.io 31 points 2 months ago

Tax the fucking rich. People aren't having kids for two reasons: education and lack of money. Oh, make it 3 (as said in the article): no future.

The baby bonuses are hilariously low! Some of them are just 2-3k€ as a one time payment for having a kid. Kids can cost 100k€ until they leave the house. How is a one time payment going to finance that? And subsidised childcare, while nice, ain't going to pay for an apartment or house big enough to have the kids. Parental leave is also just a weeks or months tops. Those are just alibi measures to say "we did something", while not addressing shit.

And of course, stop poisoning the entire damn planet and vote for parties that don't want that. Who wants to bring a child on a dying planet? Tax the rich and invest in people, not corporations.

[–] Chuymatt 20 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Maybe there are reasons other than economic ones that the choice to not bring another life into this capitalist hellscape is made?

[–] Lugh@futurology.today 21 points 2 months ago

capitalist hellscape

It's hilarious seeing Elon Musk taking up the issue of plummeting birth rates, while simultaneously saying people who work for him who won't commit to giving their life to his companies and sleeping in the office are lazy losers.

[–] Endward23@futurology.today 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

capitalist hellscape

Doesn't exist. In fact, the people in the capitalist countries life far better lifes than those poor individuals in communistic ones. And additional, countries with large social-security-system like Germany or France has the same problem, even greater ones.

[–] apotheotic 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Respectfully, you are delusional.

[–] Endward23@futurology.today 1 points 2 months ago

Respectfully, you are delusional.

Sorry, but your are just, bold wrong. The so called "capitalist world" has by far the greates wealth and possibilities than any other area of the world. And perhaps that partly caused the drop of birthrates world wide.

The idea that bad conditions let birth rates drop is straight up false. The idea will be disproved by the fact that some of the most poor regions of the world have still high birth rates.

Maybe, the problem is far more sophisticated and all, but many things around there are wishful thinking.

[–] MaximilianKohler@futurology.today 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

largely to no avail

Great news. It's insane how few people seem to care about the damage occurring from overpopulation.

[–] sik0fewl@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 months ago

But the economy! It won't survive without neverending growth.

[–] chaosCruiser@futurology.today 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

My argument is that the shift from agrarian to industrial economy is the primary cause. It triggered all the things often cited in these articles, such as education and the cost of having babies. I would argue, that those are only secondary factors affecting birth rates, but not the initial trigger.

[–] WanderingVentra@lemm.ee 3 points 2 months ago

Oh cool. Forgot have a futurology.today instance.

[–] diskmaster23@lemmy.one 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Well I can tell you that none of those things are being deployed in the USA.

[–] cheers_queers@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

yeah our government shut down abortion rights and is trying to make contraception and divorce illegal. that's the way we're "fixing" it here.

[–] Endward23@futurology.today 1 points 2 months ago

Not true at all.

[–] hendrik@palaver.p3x.de 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Sabine Hossenfelder also did a video on that, today: https://youtube.com/watch?v=bm_BGGDurd0

[–] Endward23@futurology.today 1 points 2 months ago

Don't think so. Every country in this world wants to increase the rates again.