Earlier quoted context omitted.
They won't have a choice at some stage. The population is declining so rapidly, and they're struggling so hard economically they are, whether they like it or not,importing more and more immigrants and the truth is, they can be as racist as they like but it only worked when they had the clout to get away with it. It's less and less viable for them to continue on this trajectory. People might never be "accepted" but th…
China will very soon have exactly the same "old and tired" problems. What are they going to do, beat each other with clutches while being accompanied by their drip lines? And why?
Forget about overpopulation, soon there will be too few humans
81–90 of 136 posts
Re: Forget about overpopulation, soon there will be too few humans
#82I've spent an awful lot of time in both Croatia and Japan, and the problem looks more or less the same in both places. Croatia has had sub-replacement fertility for decades -- plus the migration of young people to other EU countries that offer higher salaries, or to Zagreb if they can't find a job in Denmark or Germany. Japan has had sub-replacement fertility for decades -- plus the migration of young people from sma…
Re: Forget about overpopulation, soon there will be too few humans
#83Related ongoing thread: Selfish reasons to want more humans - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39497686 - Feb 2024 (214 comments)
Re: Forget about overpopulation, soon there will be too few humans
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
They won't have a choice at some stage. The population is declining so rapidly, and they're struggling so hard economically they are, whether they like it or not,importing more and more immigrants and the truth is, they can be as racist as they like but it only worked when they had the clout to get away with it. It's less and less viable for them to continue on this trajectory. People might never be "accepted" but th…
China will very soon have exactly the same "old and tired" problems. What are they going to do, beat each other with clutches while being accompanied by their drip lines? And why?
I still think China will have a much larger army and navy than Japan. They have 10x the population and probably a similar decline in their populating expected.
Re: Forget about overpopulation, soon there will be too few humans
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
Perhaps your argument is correct. And my use of afford is unjustified. However, if parents have a certain lifestyle they want to make possible for their children like: paying for daycare/aftercare so your spouse can keep their career, helping pay for college, having sufficient retirement to not burden them, etc the costs are clearly becoming untenable for middle class families.
I think that is fair. I don't know if it is "rational" (for some sense of that word): kids will excel if they are, simply, loved. Sure, going to great schools is nice. But having a supportive home is way more important than those expensive things.
Re: Forget about overpopulation, soon there will be too few humans
#86Ok I have to ask but why is HN flooded with pseudo scientific climate change/ population control far right bullshit today?
You clearly didn’t even look at the article, because it’s not at all about climate change
The entire premise of the article (as it seems to me) is to not worry about climate change and limited resources because adding more people will result in solutions to those problems. Unfortunately, there is no evidence given -- just intellectual babble.
The fact that food production has increased enough to allow most of us to survive so far does not imply that an increasing population can be indefinitely supported.
Re: Forget about overpopulation, soon there will be too few humans
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
Barring an apocalyptic scenario, Earth is never going to see populations dip back below 2 billion, and honestly probably never even below 5. It's not even declining now, it's just [growing YoY at 0.8% instead of 1.2%]( https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/world-populat... ). That's the "decline".
Why? Why do you assume that people ever start procreating, when they are below replacement most everywhere? When does it stop? Why do you assume it does?
Re: Forget about overpopulation, soon there will be too few humans
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think that is fair. I don't know if it is "rational" (for some sense of that word): kids will excel if they are, simply, loved. Sure, going to great schools is nice. But having a supportive home is way more important than those expensive things.
Are you going to send your kids to a less than great school?
But I went to subsidized Catholic schools through junior high. Then a public high school. Then a "state" university -- where we had "in-state" tuition that was reasonable.
My dad was an auto worker. My mom was a nurse that ended up with a career in administration as I got older. (He was also an alcoholic and may parents divorced -- but that's a longer story.)
We were fine. I did just fine.
Re: Forget about overpopulation, soon there will be too few humans
#89The article is heavy on criticism of population decline and light on an argument of why it is so bad. As a parent in the USA I also don’t buy the argument that it is all education and birth control driving these changes. Many of my acquaintances simply cannot afford the costs of multiple children. And for others climate anxiety makes them question the future.
The climate change anxiety is super real just most politicians are too old and out of touch to understand it. If we don't turn tide on our fight against climate change dramatically and like, yesterday, there is absolutely no chance my kids will be thinking about having kids. The world will just be a wreck by that point. Want to fix the birth rate? Make people economically and physically more secure.
Re: Forget about overpopulation, soon there will be too few humans
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you going to send your kids to a less than great school?
Don't have kids. Wasn't able to. But I went to subsidized Catholic schools through junior high. Then a public high school. Then a "state" university -- where we had "in-state" tuition that was reasonable. My dad was an auto worker. My mom was a nurse that ended up with a career in administration as I got older. (He was also an alcoholic and may parents divorced -- but that's a longer story.) We were fine. I did just…
That said, I think most people want better for their children; certainly my blue-collar parents cajoled me via all their means to go to school so that I wouldn't be forced into the jobs those with a poor education must subsist on. I will say that I just don't have it in me to put a child through what I was put through; the pressure was more than I was really able to withstand, but fundamentally I agree with their reasoning, especially as someone with some physical disability, careers that require a lot of physicality are closed to me. That said, it's not a cycle I have any desire to perpetuate.