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Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees

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Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees

#311

Post by Ray20 »

missedthecue wrote: post #248
talldayo wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are already taxes subsidies for couples and children - that's plenty enough incentive for wealthy families that can support kids. Families that cannot afford to feed or house children should in no way be penalized for refusing to start a family in their present situation.

The reality is the public pensions and healthcare implode without much higher taxes or much higher birth rates. Like the Italian president told his people a few years, if we want things to stay the same, things are going to have to change.

The reality are that half of the planet already pays more then 50 percent in taxes, and with much higher taxation the whole country will implodes.

More then this - public pensions are one of the main reasons for low birth rate. You can't have both, if children's role as social insurance passes to public pensions - children became useless.

Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees

#312

Post by Ray20 »

WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #194
hiAndrewQuinn wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree philosophically, there was no "them" to consent prior to them existing, so no one was forced. I think this is gesturing at Benatar's antinatalist argument but as you'll recall it rests on a metaphysical asymmetry here I have just never found convincing. Appreciate you keeping the pushback civil, however.

> Disagree philosophically, there was no "them" to consent prior to them existing, so no one was forced. The point is that the obligation flows one way because one party was inserted into it without their consent. Does their lack of preexistence impact that equation in a meaningful way?

> The point is that the obligation flows one way because one party was inserted into it without their consent.

Well, philosophically it's not a big problem, because dissatisfied can very easily stop participating.

Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees

#314

Post by throwanapple »

Gareth321 wrote: post #298
bamboozled wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many young people I know see nothing being done about climate change and make their choice right there. These are also smart, educated well-off types. The level of suffering we can expect isn't something they want to introduce children into. I find it surprising this is somehow difficult for governments to grok.

I doubt it will make a difference but climate change isn't expected to cause great suffering. Compared to great filter events, climate change doesn't even register. Estimates are of a rise of [2-4 degrees centigrade by 2100.]( https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/climatechange/science#:~:text=Glob... .) This will likely result in an [ increase ]( https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/6/1/014... .) of arable land.…

Heat disproportionately kills young people:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/06/young-adults...

Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees

#315

Post by Rendello »

apt-apt-apt-apt wrote: post #303
Rendello wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair enough, I like having friends but have a hard time figuring out when to fit them into my schedule. In this case, I know my friend's friend talked about constant overtime and not having a life outside of the office. I sent Mai this video of the crazy day-in-the-life of a salaryman in Japan [1], and we both felt it was crazy, but she said "I actually think he likes it". Some people are cut out for overtime every d…

Good to know about the obviative case, that there's a name for these type of things. When writing docs in code recently, it struck me as a little odd that pronouns can be used as a shorthand when referring to a singular and a plural, but can't be if they have the same plurality. E.g. "When the name and errors exist, and it is non-empty and they are capitalized, ..."

Speaking of Japanese, I learned from that friend that they don't use 2nd or 3rd person pronouns that much at all, preferring to repeat the person's name. For third person it's strange to my ears, but it was very surprising to hear my name repeated in second person!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_pronouns

Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees

#316

Post by Ray20 »

yoyohello13 wrote: post #55
nkzd wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not sure about this one. In the past, quality of life was terrible compared to modern life but fertility was not an issue.

People didn’t have a choice back then. So the two options now are: “force people to have kids” or “make life better for people so they want kids”. I’d like to think we’ve evolved enough as a society to choose the later option.

There is no later option, actually. No matter how good life would be - people won't have more children. Prosperity in the context of fertility matters only in relative values, not in absolute values. People have a lot of children not when they are wealthy, but when they are wealthier than others, and so it always be minority, no matter how good life are.

Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees

#317

Post by WarOnPrivacy »

acuozzo wrote: post #255
WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The opportunity cost of having children has never been higher: you give up leisure, hobbies, rest, social life, and income. Those things are given up because parenting-time is up 20-fold from a few generations ago. From the 1960s back, kids needed parents a few hours a week. But we reduced kids' roaming area from many sq mi to just their own property . At the same time, we instituted 24/7 adulting. Most of those ho…

I let my kids roam free here in the US (Columbia, MD), but the reality is that they don't want to because there are no other kids outside to play with.

> I let my kids roam free here in the US (Columbia, MD), but the reality is that they don't want to because there are no other kids outside to play with.

I suspect there are no other kids outside because there are few/no desirable places for kids to congregate - places that are safe from moving cars, enforced property laws and adults with poor judgment.

Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees

#318

Post by dlmilli »

neycoda wrote: post #286
7thaccount wrote: post #2

That sounds....huge. I know many working couples where one would probably take that in a heartbeat. You lose some money, but gain more family time and sanity. Having Friday to finish chores and being able to enjoy the weekend unstressed is huge, not to mention clocking out early each day to be able to pick up your kid and not have to get back to work or whatever.

Too many people in the US are living paycheck to paycheck on hourly wages, many with two people in the household working full-time. This is becoming normal. A 4-day workweek will hurt them.

[dead]

Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees

#319

Post by vacuity »

halgir wrote: post #274
imetatroll wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I cannot put my finger on why I dislike this comment so deeply but I am a parent and I suspect you are not. To be specific I dislike your framing and use of the word "forced". I do agree though that parents should deeply love and support their kids which is what it sounds like you are trying to say. And in turn, your kids should do the same despite "generational differences".

> I cannot put my finger on why I dislike this comment so deeply but I am a parent and I suspect you are not. I am also a parent. > I do agree though that parents should deeply love and support their kids which is what it sounds like you are trying to say. Loving your kids is not a moral obligation, though most do (for the record, I love mine very much). Supporting your kids is a moral obligation, whether you love th…

> I disagree. Our kids will never be morally obligated towards us in any way. We can only hope to have loved and supported them enough for them to love and support us back of their own volition.

I agree with this. Kids can't willingly bring themselves into the world (although "forced" is an exaggeration), and the burden is on their parents. A kid, until a certain point, is a person with certain needs and restrictions that call for external supervision (e.g. needing shelter, not voting). I consider a person in general to not have inherent obligations beyond not killing and whatnot. Sure, I can ditch my friend in a socially awkward moment and that would make me a huge jerk, but surely it doesn't rise to the same level as hitting someone.

> Loving your kids is not a moral obligation, though most do (for the record, I love mine very much). Supporting your kids is a moral obligation, whether you love them or not, incurred by creating them.

I don't quite know what you mean by "loving" versus "supporting". To me, supporting sounds like loving, with the caveat that I think emotional care ties into supporting a kid. Do you mean extra things like buying more presents on holidays?

Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees

#320

Post by lern_too_spel »

ativzzz wrote: post #82
nkzd wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not sure about this one. In the past, quality of life was terrible compared to modern life but fertility was not an issue.

I imagine that birth control as well as the giant array of entertainment options available to us other than sex contributes to modern fertility Why do poorer people have more kids? Sex is free, birth control and netflix is not

Poor people are also more religious, and in the age of birth control,religions that don't explicitly require their adherents to procreate will have far fewer followers than those that do after just a few generations.
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