Live data from Hacker News

Global fertility has collapsed, with profound economic consequences

economist.com

11–20 of 273 posts

Re: Global fertility has collapsed, with profound economic consequences

#11
This is the angle here. Don't stop the AI bandwagon!

> With that in mind, recent advances in ai could not have come at a better time. An über-productive AI-infused economy might find it easy to support a greater number of retired people. Eventually ai may be able to generate ideas by itself, reducing the need for human intelligence.

Re: Global fertility has collapsed, with profound economic consequences

#12

The weirdest part is that I’m pretty sure women generally want a replacement rate (or more!) number of children when surveyed, but feel like they’re unable to support that number. Why can’t we address those? Edited to ask: some replies seemed skeptical so I went to find what I based this idea off of. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/13/upshot/american-fertility... https://ifstudies.org/blog/how-many-kids-do-women-want

lol citation needed.

Re: Global fertility has collapsed, with profound economic consequences

#14

The weirdest part is that I’m pretty sure women generally want a replacement rate (or more!) number of children when surveyed, but feel like they’re unable to support that number. Why can’t we address those? Edited to ask: some replies seemed skeptical so I went to find what I based this idea off of. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/13/upshot/american-fertility... https://ifstudies.org/blog/how-many-kids-do-women-want

I'm sure the American allergy to welfare/social safety has something to do with it.

Re: Global fertility has collapsed, with profound economic consequences

#15

The weirdest part is that I’m pretty sure women generally want a replacement rate (or more!) number of children when surveyed, but feel like they’re unable to support that number. Why can’t we address those? Edited to ask: some replies seemed skeptical so I went to find what I based this idea off of. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/13/upshot/american-fertility... https://ifstudies.org/blog/how-many-kids-do-women-want

I'm sure the American allergy to welfare/social safety has something to do with it.

The American allergy to welfare and social safety has caused _global_ fertility to collapse?

Re: Global fertility has collapsed, with profound economic consequences

#16
An economic system that depends on an ever-growing population is by definition not a sustainable economic system. Wether shortages happen this century or N centuries from now, at some point, like any population, a cap will be reached

If this is dire to the economy, we are better off thinking at once about changing the economic system, not the fertility rate.

Re: Global fertility has collapsed, with profound economic consequences

#17
post #6

Wouldn't birth rate be a better word instead of fertility? There is a difference between not wanting and not being able.

Man there's a lot of nuance here. Fertility as you are thinking of it is also greatly reduced, but confusingly "fertility rate" and "birth rate" are highly correlated measures which basically measure the thing the article is actually talking about. So, kinda, but not really?

Re: Global fertility has collapsed, with profound economic consequences

#18

Good. Most of our modern problems are due to too many people. House prices, inflation, traffic, pollution, climate change, food scarcity, water, etc...

> House prices, inflation, traffic…food scarcity

NIMBYism, combination of bad monetary policy and a supply shock, and bad urban planning. Tokyo has cheaper homes and less traffic than cities with a fraction of the population in America.

Re: Global fertility has collapsed, with profound economic consequences

#20

The weirdest part is that I’m pretty sure women generally want a replacement rate (or more!) number of children when surveyed, but feel like they’re unable to support that number. Why can’t we address those? Edited to ask: some replies seemed skeptical so I went to find what I based this idea off of. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/13/upshot/american-fertility... https://ifstudies.org/blog/how-many-kids-do-women-want

ah the widely cited "I'm pretty sure" statistic
Post reply on HN