pull down to refresh
172 sats \ 5 replies \ @86b4dc92cd 9h \ on: Birth rates are plummeting in many countries. 📉📊🚼 charts_and_numbers
It is not due to purchasing power - in fact, you could make a case that richer countries struggle with demographics more. The poorest countries in the world, like Sudan or Ethiopia, have very high birth rates. Eastern Europe had a higher birth rate 50 years ago, despite struggling with no money and communism.
The reasons are different and very complicated - wide availability of contraception, picking a career over children, coming into adulthood later due to long education, changes in culture and society (people don't find partners as often, and don't feel obligated to have children).
And honestly, I don't see any solution to this. There are so many countries in Europe in Asia trying different things - giving money for births, improving housing market, providing long maternity leaves, even government-created dating apps - and there are no results from all this. People just don't want to have children and are no longer expected to by society.
People just don't want to have children and are no longer expected to by society.
I think that part of the reason people don't want to have children is because they are no longer expected to, by society.
reply
For me, all of this is an orchestrated plan, and it is connected to the new progressive policies that want same-sex relationships to be accepted as normal. I don't trust any government plan or anything like that. Those who control the world's wealth and resources (GOVERNMENTS) know that there is not enough for everyone or for more and more people. And I sincerely believe that everything is connected. And of course, I believe that purchasing power has a lot to do with this equation. Many of the people who now do not want to have children do so because of the high cost of living and of maintaining and raising a child or children. And the rest who do not want to have children, for the most part, do so because their minds have been infected with new gender ideologies and similar things.
reply
Your argument makes a lot of sense, although shouldn't it be the other way around—that rich countries should have higher birth rates and poor countries lower ones? While you claim that culture and individual or societal decisions regarding having children influence this, do you think that will critically halt global population growth?
reply
do you think that will critically halt global population growth?
I don't think so. There are still many cultures where the norm is to multiply like rabbits, specifically Arab or Muslim cultures (cultures that are repopulating and editing) the entire culture of what were once the richest countries, especially European ones. And of course, this is not reflected in the cultures of poorer countries, because those who govern them are not interested in seeing a decrease in the number of followers or cannon fodder; more people means more taxes and more labor to exploit.
reply
I suppose people in rich countries have more choices - do they want to focus on a career? Do they want to spend a few more years in university? Do they want to save more money early on in life? All those decisions significantly delay the decision about having children, especially for women.
And women can't have children past a certain age - so even if they eventually decide on maternity, they might have fewer children. This can be clearly seen in statistics - the age of women getting married and having their first child is rising over the last years.
With high wealth also come higher standards - it's hard to imagine having a lot of children in a small apartment, or living in the middle of nowhere without a toilet and electricity. In rich countries children have to be educated, cannot be used as cheap labor, and parents deeply care about their well-being, which raises the standards even more.
The culture changes also might stem from wealth and technology. We have cheap and efficient contraception methods, social media that in many ways make finding a partner more difficult, and simply more knowledge about what it takes to raise children. I also think that with capitalism comes individualism - fewer people care about traditions, family bonds or religions.
Now the paradox is most of those things - freedom of choice, higher standards, more knowledge - are generally very positive. But they don't benefit the demographics, and with how our economics are built, this will end in disaster - especially in retirement pensions and healthcare.
reply