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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

#31

Post by mensetmanusman »

Dalewyn wrote: post #18
TOMDM wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are wealthier and healthier today than almost any other point in history. Better times than now are a blip in the grand scheme of things. We have a huge number of social ills that contribute towards peoples reasons for not wanting children, but wealth and physical health are not among them.

If anything, reality suggests the problem is in fact wealth. The poorest countries have the highest birth rates and throwing more money at this has produced quite literally zero success.

Wealthy countries pay women more to work and punish women financially if they have a baby due to the opportunity cost.

Re: Tokyo's Government Is Building Its Own Dating App to Combat Falling Birthrates

#32

Post by mensetmanusman »

foobarbecue wrote: post #20
FLT8 wrote: post #4

Why 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…

> Why would anyone want to have kids today? I'm gradually learning through experience and anecdotes that most women seem to have an innate biological drive to procreate, which is separate from sex drive. I think that's the main reason.

The drive to procreate is the sex drive, we only recently decided to decouple them in abstraction due to technology.

Re: Tokyo's Government Is Building Its Own Dating App to Combat Falling Birthrates

#33

Post by Tycho »

FLT8 wrote: post #4

Why 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…

Snap out of it. The standard of living has never been so high. It’s your attitude that’s toxic.

Re: Tokyo's Government Is Building Its Own Dating App to Combat Falling Birthrates

#34

Post by mensetmanusman »

LeanderK wrote: post #11
CalRobert wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Add to that our increasingly lonely lives and fraying communities mean much less of a support network. Parenting is also exhausting now that “go outside and play, come back for dinner” is impractical (for various reasons good or bad).

> “go outside and play, come back for dinner” why is this impractical? EDIT: I'm getting downvoted but I am seriously not sure. I don't have kids right now but its part of how I intend to raise them when I get them.

People who are misinformed by watching too much news will call the cops on kids without grownups near by. This is somewhat rare, but it feeds into a real culture of misinformation where parents think this happens enough to fear letting them roam.

The feedback loop self reinforces because of lack of education - many people don’t realize the more news they consume the less they know about the statistics on the ground.

Also, cars are more dangerous now than before for kids to get crushed by.

Re: Tokyo's Government Is Building Its Own Dating App to Combat Falling Birthrates

#35

Post by CJefferson »

TOMDM wrote: post #9
FLT8 wrote: post #4

Why 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…

People are wealthier and healthier today than almost any other point in history. Better times than now are a blip in the grand scheme of things. We have a huge number of social ills that contribute towards peoples reasons for not wanting children, but wealth and physical health are not among them.

If you are looking at "all of history", for most of history it was usual for one person in a couple to spend most of their time at home, which is very hard to do now while covering rent.

Re: Tokyo's Government Is Building Its Own Dating App to Combat Falling Birthrates

#36

Post by mensetmanusman »

admissionsguy wrote: post #21

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…

Nothing wrong with population decline. This is concern with the derivative of population decline.

We are about to live through an inverted black plague where the population goes down the rollercoaster, every industry is disrupted because of no labor force, BUT the vast majority of people left are old instead of young and fit (after the plague).

I’m surprised Hollywood hasn’t jumped at the opportunity to portray what’s about to happen.

Re: Tokyo's Government Is Building Its Own Dating App to Combat Falling Birthrates

#37

Post by GordonS »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #32
foobarbecue wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why would anyone want to have kids today? I'm gradually learning through experience and anecdotes that most women seem to have an innate biological drive to procreate, which is separate from sex drive. I think that's the main reason.

The drive to procreate is the sex drive, we only recently decided to decouple them in abstraction due to technology.

I'm not sure that's true; it's possible for a woman to desperately want a baby, but still have a low libido and have little interest in sex just for fun.

Re: Tokyo's Government Is Building Its Own Dating App to Combat Falling Birthrates

#38

Post by downWidOutaFite »

nox101 wrote: post #23
mvc wrote: post #10

Maybe 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 competition is an illusion, match.com bought up all the popular apps.

Re: Tokyo's Government Is Building Its Own Dating App to Combat Falling Birthrates

#39

Post by averageRoyalty »

CJefferson wrote: post #35
TOMDM wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are wealthier and healthier today than almost any other point in history. Better times than now are a blip in the grand scheme of things. We have a huge number of social ills that contribute towards peoples reasons for not wanting children, but wealth and physical health are not among them.

If you are looking at "all of history", for most of history it was usual for one person in a couple to spend most of their time at home, which is very hard to do now while covering rent.

Yes, circumstances change over generations. However we still are wealthier and healthier than ever. If your goal is to raise a family, it's fairly easy in most first world countries to move to a quiet area, have kids and get a non career job. If you wish to "have your cake and eat it too", life is going to be harder because you made that choice.

Re: Tokyo's Government Is Building Its Own Dating App to Combat Falling Birthrates

#40

Post by throwaway6734 »

FLT8 wrote: post #4

Why 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…

for a few reasons:children allow you to fulfill a whole new role in life, its a duty to pass on the gift of life, and family is important. people have lived through much worse
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