It's good the world's fertility rate is declining. amirite?

Honestly it's just the fact that we seem to be getting smarter. Not only knowing ways to prevent kids but also understanding not everyone is meant to have them despite the push to have them.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Definitely! There are no consequences if we have a lot of stupid people only having children. Also definitely no issues if the old generation are millenials and genz who never own a home and things of value which are traded in to pay for health care after they retire.

by These_Cauliflower 1 week ago

I do feel like the general population is getting dumber partially because smarter people have fewer kids. But thats not a good reason for people to have kids they don't want.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

You need to watch idiocracy

by Extension-Monk6661 1 week ago

It's got what people crave

by No-Boysenberry-4705 1 week ago

Or maybe you do, because you didn't pick up on pretty obvious sarcasm lol.

by tblick 1 week ago

For me it's just not wanting any. Why bring kids into my life if I know I'll just resent them for how much effort and money it costs me?

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I don't think it works that way for most people... Maybe you would, but it's very hard to resent your kids. Everyone I know who said they dont want or hate kids, that ends up getting pregnant is so happy afterwards and went on to become a loving parent. It's fighting hard wired biology to resent your kids.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

My coworkers tried telling me I should have kids because Bible said so, lol.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Tell you coworkers to pay for your kids

by Ok_Position 1 week ago

I'm sure the lord prefers less children to more starving ones.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

The bible also says you cant eat shellfish, get tattoos, and that women should not talk in the presence of their husband and have to wait till they get home. Also something about lusting for a donkey.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

What kind of donkey? Will it be a cute one?

by Anonymous 1 week ago

This right here, except for the fact that lower class and less intelligent people tend to have many more kids than their socioeconomic counterparts. This trend doesn't seem to be getting any better. All of the people I've met with 6+ children have been working class adults.

by CartoonistRemote 1 week ago

This would be true if it was the people who could support and educate their kids who were having them, but it's generally the opposite

by NetZealousideal7035 1 week ago

Precisely. There are too many people that aren't looking at the full picture.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

It's really, really bad from an economic standpoint. Basically, you will reach a point where there are more people retired than the rest of the population can support. Social security operates on the idea that you pay into it to support those who are currently retired, and the younger generation will do the same for you when you retire. That doesn't work if every succeeding generation gets smaller and smaller. This will result in higher taxes, or lower social security benefits, or higher retirement age, or all of the above. And that's just the social security part. There's still the whole conversation with shrinking labor force and productivity. Imagine a restaurant full of old timers and only one waitress running around trying to serve everyone because there aren't enough people to work. And when there's a labor shortage, there is usually an upward shift in gainful employment. Everyone gets better jobs because all of the oldies are retiring. All of the jobs that no one wants to do will go unfilled.

by Pale-Soil9973 1 week ago

So we just Logans run. What could go wrong?

by Nearby-Problem 1 week ago

No worries. There won't be any jobs left by the time all the major corporations replace their human workers with AI. This process is going on right now. In the future, there won't be enough work to go around, so the shrinking population will be a good thing.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

That's an even worse idea

by Zoey07 1 week ago

There's a hole in your logic. We won't retire

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Immigration.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Finally someone who actually understands the consequences.

by Equal-Imagination 1 week ago

Not very wholesome 420 chungus

by Impossible-Delay-542 1 week ago

Reality isn't wholesome.

by Equal-Imagination 1 week ago

It's not that people don't want children, it's that people can barely afford to take care of themselves let alone afford to have children

by Anonymous 1 week ago

This right here. Many feel like it isn't an option.

by ProfessionalTax 1 week ago

I think paying people a full wage salary is a viable solution. $60k or whatever the median income is per child per year until they are 18 to stay home. If having a child results in a net negative income, or doesn't allow for the luxuries that we expect, such as vacations people won't have them. But more realistically, i think we'll see the ban of things like abortion and birth control. If things get really bad, women will be further oppressed.

by Sammy36 1 week ago

In tribes, everyone cared of the children, not only the 2 parents like in nuclear families. This reduced the weight of responsability to parents. Reducing weight of responsability to people would give incentive to have more kids? Like large families in villages where everyone knows each other and everyone can take care of a group of kids, which are not necessarily their own. Like a few people can entertain a large group of kids that is not necessarily theirs, but it is less efficient to have a few people people entertain 1 kid that is theirs.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

One thing you can do is not spread misinformation that a declining birth rate is good for anyone involved. It doesn't matter what economic system is in place, a declining birth rate will kill a society.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

So have 2 kids?

by Anonymous 1 week ago

2.1 would be the perfect number

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Ted Kaczynski was absolutely right.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Everyone died in a short period of time with the plague. In todays circumstances there will be a lot of old people not working and fewer working age people in the work force. Not half the population died within a 3 year span.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Unless you're planning on killing off the retired population, the analogy doesn't work at all.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

You're right, it's not comparable, because we're not serfs living in an agrarian society. Sorry if that sounds pithy, it's just that the two situations can't be compared at all

by noegoldner 1 week ago

The land was plentiful, wages were high and serfdom had all but disappeared Oh come on. This was written by a Marxist revisionist historian and is not at all reflective of the mainstream historical view of 15th century Europe. "The effect of the bubonic plague may have been favorable" 😂😂

by oscar93 1 week ago

What people don't understand is that it's not about the raw number of people. It's how they are distributed demographically that is the problem. This is not a problem the world faced after the plague

by Sweet_Friendship 1 week ago

No, your labor isnt worth more just cause there's less workers. Your labor is worth what value it creates. With a declining population, there is less demand for goods, which is exasperated by the fact that a huge portion of that shrinking population is retired and consumes very little. Since demand is slashed, your labor is worth exponentially less, but goods will cost exponentially more because economies of scale disappear. Well, these days the world is flooded with people but even though the demand for goods is high the work is not paid what you would expect, plus costs are rising even though the demand for items is high. I theoretically want to believe you but the reality I have around tells me otherwise.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

No country has ever bounced back from this fertility death spiral. Countries ahead of us like Germany, China and Japan cannot find a way to increase fertility rates and it only gets worse as people's window to have kids becomes very difficult around 45, so if the average age of the population gets above 45, you cannot come back even if you want to.

by Jonesalycia 1 week ago

What do you mean by "no country", has there been a country that has completely dissolved due to this? Also how long has the rates been in a decline in the countries you mentioned?

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I see, I suppose I can see the concern then, so thanks for discussing and answering these questions for me! Definitely an interesting trend to look at

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Maybe if the economy all the sudden becomes very good, and some significant cultural changes happen that make people more likely to want children, like an increased stigma towards childless people

by Impossible-Delay-542 1 week ago

What do you propose as an alternative if there was a choice?

by Beulah80 1 week ago

tell that to Japan and see what they have to say about the effects of that

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Ask Japan the country or Japanese people? The country wants more babies sure, but Japanese people don't care.

by charitycole 1 week ago

They're gonna care once they're old and no one is going to pay their pensions

by Personal-Cicada8079 1 week ago

Japan could always swallow its pride and relax their immigration requirements if they're that worried about a declining population But so far they'd rather keep their requirements, which are some of the strictest in the world

by Independent-Cod2819 1 week ago

Ask Europe how well it's going with the migrant crisis. If immigrants dont integrate, they just rip apart the destination country and bring it down to the level of the country they were so desperate to get away from. There's a very clear middle ground, but since no one has managed to perfect the balance yet, Japan is probably better off to stick to their strict rules

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Europe's migrant crisis was one where they accepted lots of refugees, not because they needed labor. You can always accept those with proven records of being good members or society and turn down those who have not.

by bailey04 1 week ago

Gotta agree. In canada, we have the same issue. Our POS prime minister opened the immigration floodgates, and its been a disaster. So many people come into the country and flat out refuse to assimilate.

by Bergehunter 1 week ago

They could also give women equal working rights and make a more balanced work-life the standard... Not to mention raising taxes with the promise to "fund women, day cares, and child rearing" when actually using the extra taxes for the elderly.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Or south korea better yet

by Impossible-Delay-542 1 week ago

I think it's more specifically specific countries instead of the world Like South Korea and Japan could really use some higher birth rates But India should really slow down

by deonte96 1 week ago

India is slowing down though, they are below replacement now.

by ExcuseNo7002 1 week ago

The trains are doing their job shaving off the population

by dkoss 1 week ago

Wrong wrong wrong. We can sustain our population. It's consumerism and greed that's destroying us. Our population hasn't been spiraling out of control for decades now.

by Living-Category 1 week ago

We can't sustain our population, look at any scientific projection of what the future is going to look like at this rate

by Independent-Cod2819 1 week ago

OP listed a very common situation though.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

You do realize that the aging population will vastly outnumber the young working generation who will be forced to care and pay taxes for their care? It will be a huge burden to the younger generations while the older gens outnumber us. We will contribute less to the economy and will all suffer for it.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

So we just continue to shift the problem to the future?

by Tarynveum 1 week ago

Thats what we have been doing

by Impossible-Delay-542 1 week ago

It's already a huge burden, yet everyone thinks it's such an awesome thing to be celebrating grandma's 108th birthday

by OrangeBitter6792 1 week ago

Yeah that is an issue but what's the alternative? If population keeps increasing forever earth won't be able to handle that much people. And if the population doesn't keep increasing and stagnates or declines at some point then we'll be faced with the same problem you described. So, isn't it better to deal with the problem right now rather than later?

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Yeah that is an issue but what's the alternative? If population keeps increasing forever earth won't be able to handle that much people. And if the population doesn't keep increasing and stagnates or declines at some point then we'll be faced with the same problem you described How about the third option: just keeping fertility rates at the replacement rate? It's not depopulation vs overpopulation. There's the option of simply keeping the population stable, with approximately the same number of people being born and dying every year.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

We are 150 years away from the intersection of population and resource management.

by Character-Law 1 week ago

Ya it's ridiculous to think a labor shortage is a real problem. Our economy produces at least 100,000x more than it did 200 years ago and ai is likely to multiply that exponentially. If we can't figure it out, we're really doing something wrong.

by bailey04 1 week ago

The world isn't crowded. We just over consume. Our population is totally sustainable we just need to overcome our industrial greed.

by Living-Category 1 week ago

You're right. But we might need population collapse to overcome industrial greed.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Problem is more advanced and educated societies are declining in population while poor and undereducated are exploding in growth due to things like a lack of proper birth control and women's education this means as time passes there will not be enough educated workers to be to fill important positions such as doctors that are needed to care for an aging population this problem is compounded in xenophobic countries like Japan and Korea where there are few skilled foreign workers hired. We also have to think about the macroeconomics of the situation. If society becomes less productive total gdp will decline which means less jobs, a slower economy, and possibly a global recession.

by Fit-Painting 1 week ago

If by "World's Fertility" you mean EU nations and US, then yes, fertility is declining. While the rest of the world multiplies like rabbits.

by thomas88 1 week ago

Except if you look at who is breeding

by Practical_Bike5126 1 week ago

And South Korea

by Anonymous 1 week ago

And all of the reasons you just mentioned will continue to get worse when the working population decreases in relation to the retired

by Impossible-Delay-542 1 week ago

The problem is that the WORLD'S fertility is declining. Not just one country, not even just humanity. Even the animals are affected. It's not happening because all of a sudden everyone is passionate about sustainability. Everything is being chemically castrated as a result of phalthalate pollution. If people had a stable birthrate that is a little below replacement it would be great, but it's WAY below replacement level in many places and continuing to drop even faster. Fertility is quickly heading towards zero. It's about to be a much bigger problem than it seems right now.

by Many_Mountain_2928 1 week ago

You are a 100% right, how will more jobs than people lead to longer hours and less pay? That would be great for workers, it's basic economics

by Anonymous 1 week ago

But this isn't about feeling bad for the current generation of older people. There's already enough healthcare professionals to take care of them right now. This is a problem that will come around for us younger folks in 40-50 years. I don't want my generation to suffer in 2064 just because I'm mad at old people in 2024.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Ok Thanos

by Jonesalycia 1 week ago

Its bad when people dont have the choice. Fertility rates are dropping because people's health are in disrepair

by CauseSufficient 1 week ago

its a bit opposite. fertility rate keeps going up. the "western world" fertility rate is going down. so you in the end you might not really enjoy the end result.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

It's overall extremely bad. In the long run it will cause major labor shortages in infrastructure that demands a certain level of labor to be maintained. This isn't an unpopular opinion. It's just stupid.

by adrielrodriguez 1 week ago

Right now it seems like a good solution but in the future who is going to take care of the ageing population? It's gonna be a huge population level crisis!

by Anonymous 1 week ago

No aging populations are a much bigger problem than overpopulation. There's plenty of space left on the planet but there's not enough younger people to look after all the baby boomers who are starting to get to an age where they require care. It's already a massive problem in Japan and has been for decades where the birth rate is so low and it's the main reason why China got rid of their 1 child policy. It's starting to affect the West now and in the next decade when all the boomers are in care and Gen X start retiring it's gonna be an even bigger problem as we can see the blueprint for what's gonna happen in Japan as we speak.

by Kitchen_Objective 1 week ago

We're not truly overpopulated until we get to the point of being unable to sustain ourselves with the resources and environment we have

by Anonymous 1 week ago

It's only crowded in places where people think the world is crowded. There's so much space between the coasts. People that never leave metropolitan areas have a skewed view of available space.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Japanese officials took one look at Northern and Western Europe and said, "No thanks - we'll make do!"

by OrangeBitter6792 1 week ago

Taking in immigrants in mass is the quickest way for them to lose their county and the things that made in great. The same people who complain about cultural appropriation smile and cheer for the destruction of cultures.

by Equal-Imagination 1 week ago

No morons are still having kids meanwhile smart people are going without - this will just mean the population becomes dumber

by cummerataskyla 1 week ago

Idiocracy ??

by BackgroundBass5739 1 week ago

That's been happening for a while and it's gonna keep happening regardless We'll just have to work around it

by Independent-Cod2819 1 week ago

The world isn't overpopulated. You're actively advocating for the decline of your own species.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

The world is not crowded, some parts of it are And wouldn't you know, countries would rather forcefully import trillions of people from there then deal with the labor shortage constructively

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Unfortunately, it's just that intelligent people are not having kids. Poor and stupid still pop em out like pez dispensors though

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Yeah I agree like how is this a bad thing? 8 billion people is too much. If we cut it down to 6 billion that's great.

by Cheap-Lengthiness 1 week ago

Yeah, no, I dont want my country to be invaded by China or any country that make more babies than the West. We are gonna lose our beautiful culture.

by Kelliegrimes 1 week ago

My argument is that smart people are having less children. It's only countries like Japan, Korea, Singapore etc. in most less developed countries, they're having the same, if not more. Which, despite how bad it may sound, we don't need dumb people or kids that grow up in environments that aren't sustainable

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Less people who don't think like me? What's the issue?

by Slow-Camera3084 1 week ago

Lol you don't really understand what is going to happen 🤣

by darian75 1 week ago

Its the wrong people's populations that are declining though. Conquered without a single drop of blood

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Honestly I'm not sure I would have had kids in the early 2000s if I had known how things would be going now

by That-Butterscotch508 1 week ago

I think the issue is more with how it affects the age distribution among the population. Like more people will be getting older and retiring than joining the workforce. It puts even more pressure on the working population

by Anonymous 1 week ago

The problem is society is a Ponzi scheme, on some level. We're all only solvent if there are more people adding to the economy than are taking from it. When you have too large of a population that isn't working or otherwise producing, you are necessarily experiencing a net negative. An aging population is a ticking economic time bomb, in other words. If the world's fertility rate keeps dropping, we're in for bad times.

by Hackettrichmond 1 week ago

Except the world isn't crowded. Only the cities.

by Lueilwitzeveret 1 week ago

This is not only a very popular opinion it's also a very stupid and selfish opinion Because what's really going to happen when people keep pushing for less children and longer lifespans?

by Zoey07 1 week ago

Google population prymid.

by hymanbrekke 1 week ago

I swear like 10 years ago the conversation was all about world hunger, overpopulation, and resource depletion. The switch to "oh no, why is the fertility rate declining!?" is kind of sudden. I do understand that it is having some economic consequences, but that shouldn't be the only aspect being considered in my opinion.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Tell that to Japan

by Anonymous 1 week ago

as long as we kill of the old people…. oh and don't forget the world population is increasing because poor and developing areas are having more kids!

by Distinct-Ad-1371 1 week ago

more popular of an opinion then you'd think

by FewStrike4310 1 week ago

Can't afford kids change that and I'll make all the drones you want.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I don't think anyone takes that as unpopular opinion

by Fun_Cheesecake_6747 1 week ago

Pay me to have kids and work way less hours, then we got a deal

by Lmclaughlin 1 week ago

But what about no more cheap labor to exploit? /s

by Anonymous 1 week ago

OP this is bill gates, I would like to hire you

by Glittering_Echidna 1 week ago

Totally agree with OP. Well done!

by SouthernAd5171 1 week ago

It's rising in all the wrong places still though

by Osmitham 1 week ago