I know that a government’s primary objective is to perpetuate itself and grow, but other than that, what is wrong with a declining population? Especially as young people concentrate in urban centres which remain dynamic. People often quote the need for workforce to maintain the extravagant lifestyles of the retirees, but they will not starve in any case, will they? And if everywhere has Japan’s birthbrate, you get to solve pollution emissions, housing crisis and other problems in one or two generations.
Tokyo's Government Is Building Its Own Dating App to Combat Falling Birthrates
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Re: Tokyo's Government Is Building Its Own Dating App to Combat Falling Birthrates
#22At which point does it make sense for the Japanese government to just start a baby production facility? Pay women to be artificially inseminated for the purpose of human generation. Feasible, yes, ethical and moral, questionable, but ..it might be scalable.
Re: Tokyo's Government Is Building Its Own Dating App to Combat Falling Birthrates
#23Maybe a public service dating app makes sense. The alignment of incentives are all wrong for private dating apps. They obviously lose when you find someone and pair up so they're incentivised not to find a match.
This is commonly repeated but I don’t think it has any basis in reality. Dating apps compete. the one your friends tell you they met their partner is the one you sign up for.
Re: Tokyo's Government Is Building Its Own Dating App to Combat Falling Birthrates
#24Give people 6 hour workday with mandatory no-overtime and the problem will fix itself. It’s not rocket science.
I think the crushing time commitment of Japanese professionals to their jobs is part of the problem. From my limited western understanding, after work, and socializing with your colleagues from work, there's very little time for Japanese couples to start a family.
Re: Tokyo's Government Is Building Its Own Dating App to Combat Falling Birthrates
#25Maybe a public service dating app makes sense. The alignment of incentives are all wrong for private dating apps. They obviously lose when you find someone and pair up so they're incentivised not to find a match.
This is commonly repeated but I don’t think it has any basis in reality. Dating apps compete. the one your friends tell you they met their partner is the one you sign up for.
>the one your friends tell you they met their partner is the one you sign up for
That's also survivorship bias. My friend met his GF at a sports-group. I've been going to that sports group for a year and didn't meet a GF. I met my ex-GF in a coffee shop. My friend has been going to that coffeeshop for a while and didn't meet a GF.
There's too much randomness in dating and variance between people, to draw conclusion that just because an app or social place/group worked for one person it will bring results to another.
There's no sure thing in dating apps, otherwise everyone would be on that one app and stop going out altogether if it were that easy to find a partner.
Re: Tokyo's Government Is Building Its Own Dating App to Combat Falling Birthrates
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are there dating apps that work like recruitment, eg. it's free but you pay a fee when you get married or something like that?
I like the concept, but it seems impossible in practice. How on earth would the billing system work? If it's self-reporting, no one will report. It's interesting how "honor system" can work for certain in-person businesses, but I don't think it could ever work for a dating app.
I've been thinking an escrow system could work. On signup, you pledge to donate to a charity when you leave. Candidates won't be able to get back their funds, they can only release them. Once they have a mate, their mate would make sure the money is released. The platform could take a cut to finance their operations.
The amount pledged and the charity could be public for extra virtue signaling.
Re: Tokyo's Government Is Building Its Own Dating App to Combat Falling Birthrates
#27I am genuinely curious of how they are going to design the matching system. Which features are going to be used to describe individuals?
I feel like the government has access to many more data than a private company, and the temptation to tap into PII for that might be high.
Re: Tokyo's Government Is Building Its Own Dating App to Combat Falling Birthrates
#28Maybe a public service dating app makes sense. The alignment of incentives are all wrong for private dating apps. They obviously lose when you find someone and pair up so they're incentivised not to find a match.
Are there dating apps that work like recruitment, eg. it's free but you pay a fee when you get married or something like that?
RumpelApp asks for your first-born child should you successfully match.
Re: Tokyo's Government Is Building Its Own Dating App to Combat Falling Birthrates
#29Why would anyone want to have kids today? Most couples in the western world can barely support themselves while getting into home ownership, let alone trying to support multiple kids and put them through college while saving for retirement. The amount of capacity left in life for good child rearing is minimal. Add to that the fact that it's looking increasingly unlikely that there'll be jobs for their children anyway…
If you think about it, there has never been a good time to have children. In 1920 I could’ve said why have kids, they might die from an infection. 1820s, famine or war etc.
Re: Tokyo's Government Is Building Its Own Dating App to Combat Falling Birthrates
#30Would that more governments set up app development companies with broader remits under a PSB model to act as a break on enshitification.