COVID-19, Declining Birth Rates and International Migration Resulted in Historically Small Population Gains
How is the US going to achieve Matty Iglesias' one billion Americans moonshot like this? Shame on you guys.
Matt Iglesias wrote the One Billion Americans book, but the core thesis is less about population growth and more about how Matty's personal brand of YIMBY liberalism can save us all from the Chinese hordes.
That depends on whether or not you consider Matty an actual person or a living meme, because he actually wrote a book on that.
Ah yes the take that somehow bested “we need to end lockdown so I can go to church in person if you disagree you are a Nazi” from that libertarian asshole for worst take of 2019
It’s frankly amazing that the asshole neolib tech brain dialogue has reached the two extremes of “end birthrates for climate” and “we need a million people so one of them is smart enough to beat climate but also China”
one billion Americans
the best argument against veganism
2022 is the year we flip that to a negative. We can make it happen if we focus our energies hard enough!
Lol i was just thinking about this
Would they even tell us? I'm kinda skeptical of the whole .1% growth rate. Sounds to me like it was negative but they ofc won't say that because people and more importantly markets would freak out
yeah this is probably at most like a best guesstimate. population tracking is rly rly hard, esp in such a large country
yeah these mba fucks constantly stress worker productivity (aka do the job of five people) and now their chickens are coming home to roost bc the county is gonna disappear
I love my kids to death and I'm glad I have them, but yeah if you value having some free time kids basically eat up all that.
Not to mention the whole 🔥🌏🔥 thing.
I'm not bringing life into this world to leave it to roast on a dying planet.
Yeah, there was a lot of talk about stuff like that at the start of the pandemic
Idk might be cool to see my daughter drink the blood of her enemies and listen to the lamentations of their femboys. George floyd protests kinda made me want one. Coulda been my zoomer out there raising hell
why the fuck would I have kids when the price of food went up like 20% and is probably going up 20% more next year
I literally can’t afford it
Has it really?! Like I've wondered why I've gone hungry a lot recently and never have before lol
There's so much whining and anxiety over this, and yet the ruling class can't bring themselves to give us even the slightest break that would make having kids a little more feasible. Honestly this could be one where a lot of them are blinded by ideology. I've heard old people in my life complain about the birth rate but then saying people like us are lying about not wanting to have kids because of the $. Literally just a "stop buying so many avocados and iPhones and lattes" kind of thinking.
It’s really hard to understate how good white boomers had it and how much of that social infrastructure has crumbled behind them. But they’re still well off enough that they’re insulated from those changes so they don’t even have the experiences to realize their own good fortune, let alone that it’s gone.
Ngl 99% of it is the absurd cost of having children and the absolute 0 help the government provides for child care, etc etc.
But i feel like a non zero part of it is capitalism has been inventing all kinds of new treats like fancy coffee drinks, expensive bar "experiences", Cancun vacations, etc and these things are all impossible to afford if you have children for anyone outside the professional class or 1%.
I feel like having children wasn't as much of a sacrife before because what else was there to do with the money
I definitely think there is something to this. We've built these sophisticated skinner boxes (gaming, social media, endless on-demand entertainment) which all manipulate us into sinking as much time and money in them as humanly possible. The world sucks and there's easy escapism just a few clicks away.
Or you could have a kid, and deal with economic hardship and endless responsibility instead. Tough choice, really.
As the rate of profit falls, capitalists purse more aggressive ways to separate us from our money. Fancy coffee drinks and international travel - while not inherently "bad" - are much more expensive than what they replaced - regular coffee and driving places domestically for vacations.
It is literally the same Shit as right wing people saying we are lying about being empathetic towards others. They just can’t comprehend shit that goes against their stupid beleifs.
Not surprising considering economical conditions and quality-of-life. All the better for the environment.
