It's difficult not to see to the word 'slumped' as an editorial judgement, and I find it quite strange. The world is grotesquely overpopulated and at some point it needs to stop.
Germany passes Japan to have world's lowest birth rate
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Re: Germany passes Japan to have world's lowest birth rate
#12It's difficult not to see to the word 'slumped' as an editorial judgement, and I find it quite strange. The world is grotesquely overpopulated and at some point it needs to stop.
There are, for example, economic ramifications of an unusually aged populace which cause modern societies like Japan's to see it as a problem.
Re: Germany passes Japan to have world's lowest birth rate
#13Note that Japan fertility rate is not the worst out there: for instance Hong Kong (1.1), Singapore (1.2) and South Korea (1.2) are all bellow Japan (1.4).
Re: Germany passes Japan to have world's lowest birth rate
#14It's difficult not to see to the word 'slumped' as an editorial judgement, and I find it quite strange. The world is grotesquely overpopulated and at some point it needs to stop.
The world is not overpopulated by a long shot. There may be a lot of overconsumption in certain regions, but that's a different issue.
Re: Germany passes Japan to have world's lowest birth rate
#15It is interesting how a country with a lot of seemingly positive aspects -- abundant natural resources and fresh water, temperate climate, stabile economy and low unemployment, and great infrastructure -- cannot convince its citizens to procreate, whereas a country like Yemen with little in development is exploding in population (doubling every 20 years). When given the choice, it seems humans have children more out…
If your goal is to live in comfort after you're too old to work, then having lots of children is often the best way to accomplish that in a crappy country. Odds are good at least one of them will survive and do well enough to support you when you're old.
In a nicer place with better finance and social security systems, you can pull it off without having a lot of children.
Re: Germany passes Japan to have world's lowest birth rate
#16It is interesting how a country with a lot of seemingly positive aspects -- abundant natural resources and fresh water, temperate climate, stabile economy and low unemployment, and great infrastructure -- cannot convince its citizens to procreate, whereas a country like Yemen with little in development is exploding in population (doubling every 20 years). When given the choice, it seems humans have children more out…
Developed countries offer alternative life goals. This, education and entertainment provide enough reasons not to have a family. Lower birth rate is a good thing in the long term, and getting non-developed countries into developed stage will accomplish that. See Gates' yearly letters.
> Lover birth rate is a good thing in the long term
It most definitely is NOT a good thing to have a birth rate below replacement in a developed country, especially one with European-style social programs. Eventually you run out of workers to support the people who aren't doing so.
Re: Germany passes Japan to have world's lowest birth rate
#17Note that Japan fertility rate is not the worst out there: for instance Hong Kong (1.1), Singapore (1.2) and South Korea (1.2) are all bellow Japan (1.4).
So you're drawing distinguishment between birth rate and fertility rate?
Re: Germany passes Japan to have world's lowest birth rate
#18Is a normal consequence on the poverty fuelled by the policies of those last years, probably. You can not expect that people think too much about having babies whereas struggling to live on microjobs. No real jobs, lots of cats and dogs. No real new babies.
But aren't the poorest those who get most of the children?
Re: Germany passes Japan to have world's lowest birth rate
#19It's difficult not to see to the word 'slumped' as an editorial judgement, and I find it quite strange. The world is grotesquely overpopulated and at some point it needs to stop.
The world is not overpopulated by a long shot. There may be a lot of overconsumption in certain regions, but that's a different issue.
You haven't travelled to India, China or Bangladesh have you ? The world is already heavily overpopulated. If we estimate the amount of people the world can support and that's higher than the current number, it does not mean we should have that higher number.
If we keep going higher, we will not be able to stop the destruction of flora and fauna that is currently underway. The world may be able to "support" more people, but it is unlikely to be a world worth living in.
Re: Germany passes Japan to have world's lowest birth rate
#20As a German who lives in the US since 8 years I am not surprised by this at all. By the time you finish university in Germany you are about 25 years old. They introduced the Bachelor/Master system, but at least when I studied, getting a Bachelor was more of a way to drop out gracefully. In addition there was a culture that expected you to stay at home until your child is at least 1 year old. Therefore there was very little support to take care of very young children.
For well educated couples this leaves an extremely small window in which you can have children. That doesn't even account yet for people with other goals. Having a child means having time to try to bootstrap a startup parallel to your day job or doing extensive travel becomes extremely hard if not downright impossible.
An additional factor is that most Germans aren't religious and even the ones who are are only on paper, but don't actually care very much. Religion often times plays a large role in people's desire to have children. That rarely happens in Germany.