• boardbyboard [comrade/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Anyone have some kind of even handed analysis on hand that explains whether or not all this panic for decades about birth/fertility rates has legs? I only ever give it a passing glance and i accidentally clicked a video the other day and it was some rightwing guy talking about some retvrn shit

    I asked bc like the article states: the real problem is the price of housing. It seems to me that falling birth rates are a symptom of capitalism's decline. However, many article writers seem to dance around that

    • BeamBrain [he/him]
      ·
      1 year ago

      Highly developed capitalist countries tend to have low birth rates because people are alienated and atomized and having children is an untenable burden for workers who are already working themselves to exhaustion and barely getting by.

      • LeBron [none/use name]
        ·
        1 year ago

        I think some people underestimate how obscenely expensive raising a baby is, borderline impossible without a strong support system

      • boardbyboard [comrade/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        agree and i appreciate it, I think I was just getting too internet brained and thinking how often the issue is presented disingenuously in a vacuum or tied to a loss of 'cultural values' or w/e

    • iridaniotter [she/her]
      ·
      1 year ago

      Yes of course it is an issue. When TFR reaches 1 for example, the next generation becomes half the size as the last one. You can't have a healthy economy with that. There's also every indication that more and more countries are reaching low fertility levels, and there's no precedent that it will reverse. Social democratic childcare policies haven't succeeded. Personally I think only socialism can achieve sustainable population levels now.

      • tintory@lemm.ee
        hexagon
        ·
        1 year ago

        I disagree for the most part.

        I been reading these guys for a bit and they seem to be hostile toward austerity and NIMBYism so far

        • nat_turner_overdrive [he/him]
          ·
          1 year ago

          To be honest, I can't see anybody who isn't way too worried about phenotypes and skull shapes genuinely caring about birthrates, regardless of what else they write.

          • tintory@lemm.ee
            hexagon
            ·
            1 year ago

            Wait what?

            I read nothing in this site talking about that right wing nonsense

            Hell, they attack the Tories for cutting spending

            • nat_turner_overdrive [he/him]
              ·
              1 year ago

              I'm saying that anybody who thinks "declining birth rates" merits writing articles or making social media posts, they're likely also racists.

              • jack [he/him, comrade/them]M
                ·
                1 year ago

                There are pretty straightforward, non-racist, economic reasons you be concerned about it. It's an issue China is grappling with very directly, and not because they're neo-Nazis.

                • nat_turner_overdrive [he/him]
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  Aren't they increasing automation in response? China also allowed provinces with larger minority populations to have more children than predominantly Han provinces, didn't they? I think they get a pass.

              • tintory@lemm.ee
                hexagon
                ·
                1 year ago

                Maybe? I haven’t seen anything to say that he is racist, or even share any sympathy for traditional right wing policy

    • tintory@lemm.ee
      hexagon
      ·
      1 year ago

      I don’t know

      All I known are examples of Japan’s economic stagnation and the rise as France as the economic engine of Western Europe (highest TFR)

    • Twink
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      deleted by creator

    • tintory@lemm.ee
      hexagon
      ·
      1 year ago

      Makes sense, a lot of what’s written by the authors is hostility against austerity and they promote YIMBISM and more social spending

  • enkifish [any]
    ·
    1 year ago

    This should be a non-issue, or even an opportunity, but it's a complete crisis for capitalism. As a society we need rapidly decrease the carbon emissions from our buildings. This means electrification of utilities, but more importantly it means reducing the heating/cooling load of buildings. This would require a massive building campaign of new homes, depressing the price of existing homes across the board. Then once population demographics have shifted enough to begin depressing the price of homes on their own, begin systematically destroying the older housing stock.