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Oh my goodness… this is pretty scary.
hard to plan for a future and a family if people can't afford things
Not sure this is the main reason. In the past people were mostly poor but had plenty of kids.
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147 sats \ 3 replies \ @kepford 6 Sep
Exactly. Today if you look at the poor nations they are the ones reproducing. Children are not a liability(long term). We are doing it wrong or at least viewing it wrong.
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In fact, poor breeding nations have low literacy rates and live below the poverty line. In Western countries, people are now struggling to make ends meet and often with two salaries in the family. I find it normal that before bringing a child into the world, a couple wonders whether they can support it.
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140 sats \ 1 reply \ @drlh 7 Sep
India, egypt, libya, latin america are poor, yet their birth rate is going down. Africa would probably start to shrink later too in the same way as Europe after 19th century. Children per fertile woman is going down, but antibiotics and vaccines saves most children so their population is rising for now.
Also if this trend continues we won't probably see china in a half century as a state anymore. They overcount people a little for like 200 million that also mostly were "born" in 80s (need verification), which also shrinks the working people. With 1.0 children per woman, in a century 1.3 Billion is halved towards 0.6 billion. With overcount it would reach this level much faster, and before reaching China would collapse through pension burden. They could refuse to pay pension, but spending would fall, so the GDP.
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It's a complex subject. It's true that birth rates are falling in the countries you listed, but it will take several years before they reach the levels of Western countries. Who knows if a solution will be found. Each country certainly faces different challenges.
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38 sats \ 0 replies \ @gmd OP 6 Sep
True that's a great point. Maybe it's a western cultural issue of not wanting to have children until you're "ready" and feel like you can fully provide for a family, buy a house etc.
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The older batches are doing it like it is 1999. Whilst the Millenials are tiptoeing their way to oblivion.
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Wow! 90's kids got really messed up somehow.
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At this point I don’t really see how western society recovers from this.
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130 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 6 Sep
It will be replaced. All societies fall. And by fall I mean others over-take them.
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31 sats \ 0 replies \ @gmd OP 6 Sep
Unfortunately our economics, entitlements etc are based on a bit of a ponzi scheme...
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Millennials were born between 1981 and 1995
The youngest cohort is 29 years. They still have time but I am not optimistic.
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i think this is most likely how the world ends. population collapse coupled with nuclear capable militaries = someone makes a big god damn mistake.
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those are legal marriage statistics. when people will discover that marriages can be private, the official numbers will plummet way down.
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