this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2023
495 points (97.0% liked)

News

23376 readers
1998 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

These countries tried everything from cash to patriotic calls to duty to reverse drastically declining birth rates. It didn’t work.

If history is any guide, none of this will work: No matter what governments do to convince them to procreate, people around the world are having fewer and fewer kids.

In the US, the birth rate has been falling since the Great Recession, dropping almost 23 percent between 2007 and 2022. Today, the average American woman has about 1.6 children, down from three in 1950, and significantly below the “replacement rate” of 2.1 children needed to sustain a stable population. In Italy, 12 people now die for every seven babies born. In South Korea, the birth rate is down to 0.81 children per woman. In China, after decades of a strictly enforced one-child policy, the population is shrinking for the first time since the 1960s. In Taiwan, the birth rate stands at 0.87.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] zepheriths@lemmy.world 77 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I assure you you can. The payment would have to cover all of the child's needs plus a bit more but you definitely can.

[–] PizzaMane@lemm.ee 34 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

But the cost of that would far exceed anything remotely reasonable. I say fuck it, let the birthrate drop for a few decades. The planet could use the break.

[–] zepheriths@lemmy.world 30 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's only catastrophically low in traditionally "western" countries. the world's population is still growing. It appears immigration is now a requirement to grow the economy. How interesting.

[–] PizzaMane@lemm.ee 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Conservatives/fascists are just gonna LOVE these next few decades. Climate change is set to destroy countless homes, displacing millions if not billions of people. If they think the "border crisis" is bad now, they're gonna lose it then.

[–] GraniteM@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's why they want to militarize the border and normalize the concept of the ethnostate now, so they can machine gun climate refugees in the near future.

[–] PizzaMane@lemm.ee 10 points 1 year ago

But don't you dare call them fascists.

[–] Kage520@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I think that's predicted to level off in 60 years then drop. Though I guess it was level before the industrial revolution, so a lot could still change.

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 21 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

This, it's not as though me and my partner don't want children, it's that we want children and we don't want to be the source of their suffering for failing to care for them as well as we should, due to financial hardship.

A lot of childless people feel real responsibility to non-existent children, and feel like the world keeps pushing them down, making life harder, and making it feel impossible to be one of the people to have their own children.

[–] zepheriths@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Of course. Me and my significant other will end up doing the same thing. Both of us are from heavily catholic families but due to many reasons.

[–] sailingbythelee@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes, and the total payment would have to be substantial. The cost of raising a child from infancy to age 18 (not including university, obviously) in Canada is $320,000.

https://www.moneysense.ca/columns/making-it/how-much-does-it-cost-to-raise-a-child-in-canada/

[–] zepheriths@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yep, it sounds weird but some politicians are floating the idea. It will never pass, but it's the thought that counts(?). Of all people, Trump wanted to give a family 5k per child. So the idea exists in the us with some strong political people. ( because of lemmygrad I am saying this I don't like Trump I am only using his statement to show how much the belief exists)

[–] Iamdanno@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

$5K one-time payment? No way!

$5K per month? Sign me up.

[–] Kage520@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Florida is giving $8k per year for private school costs, and apparently homeschool can count. As against that idea as I am, I do think that could have a positive impact on population growth.

I could definitely see someone fantasizing having 4-5 kids then "retiring" to homeschool them. For $8k per year each kid.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago

Indiana gives $6k, but even though my daughter is in online school, she doesn't get it because it's a state program (except it's run by Pearson). If she was in another online program, she'd get the $6k. Granted, we don't have to pay tuition, so we don't need the $6k, but it seems unfair to me.

[–] CancerMancer@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago

Don't live in fear of or apologize to the lemmygrad assholes, speak your piece.

[–] SCB@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago