51–60 of 65 posts
Perhaps the issue is related to the devaluation of "non-productive" aspects of the family associated with late Western-style capitalism.
The article makes an interesting case for the possibility that South Korea's military dictatorship intentionally created low-fertility policies that can't be reversed. But reading the description of what's going on, I can't help be reminded of John B. Calhoun's work on the "behavioral sink" [1], where he basically created a utopia where rats had everything they needed for survival, they multiplied exponentially, but…
Lack a source but for many this will be the first generation in a long time where today's new parents will be unable to provide an equal or better quality of life to their children - especially in big urban centers which have seen the full effects of stratification. Space and resources are big weights in a "QoL" function.
I make more than my dad did when he retired, yet, if I were to have kids today I could not provide the lifestyle to them that I had as a kid. And he certainly didn't make what he did at retirement when I was a child. If I had a dual income household, there would be the money to do it, but the kids would lose out on something that I considered a crucial part of my upbringing - a full time parent.
But, the perspective here is that I (and many of the people on this site) work in one of the few remaining well paying professions, whereas my dad was in a "well paying" but not "top paying" field.
It just can't be sustainable...
Off topic question, I've been using a different HN aggregation tool that isn't the front page, and I've found that some of the more interesting topics get flagged, why is that?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>there isn't enough children to keep the country functioning I wonder if some kind of mandatory civil service will become necessary. I feel in the US that many people are disengaged from the rest of their communities for numerous reasons, and it would be both a direct public service and a benefit to societal cohesion for all people to experience being a servant to their cities via public works.
How do you get from the resurrection of corveé labor to an increased birth rate? I don't see the connection. If anything, I would imagine that taxing people's time as well as their money would only make the burden of parenthood feel heavier.
If we have fewer people to operate society, we may need to conscript ourselves into being useful to the rest of our community.
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Yeah, not the best choice, then. "Bleeding heart" has been used as a slur by (US political) conservatives[1] to attack (US political) liberals. It implied that the liberals suffer from an excess of empathy to the point that it clouds their judgment, or something. Nowadays it's just a slur. You're using "liberal" in a way that differs from standard US political usage, which is all right, especially since you clearly d…
Frankly, I have only heard liberals self-identify as "bleeding heart", and misunderstood its definition. Then again, I don't consume US conservative media. > These "conservatives" would count as liberals by your definition - they still believe in individual rights. Of course. Virtually every faction of US politics is philosophically liberal.
Based US politics :sunglasses:
The hostility towards children is a real thing you can see today. I saw it first hand in Japan; parks had signs with dozens of prohibitions, while news stories about this phenomena inevitably had an 80 year old complaining that there were children outside at 8 and politicans saying that it was a "complex problem". These are not new parks mind you; just there are silver-haired "main character syndrome" types who consi…
EDIT: I recall a documentary about certain bridges requiring security cameras due to elderly people jumping from them.
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> As it stands today, having children places an unbearably high social and financial strain on people. Suburbs have been just one solution to the problem but there are others. Yet Suburbs are the only ones I see that work. If you are thinking about having kids in the US move to the suburbs soon. Cities are not setup for you. Schools in the city are considered bad for a reason. Even if you can afford private schools,…
North American style suburbs are artificially subsidized by cities and not sustainable for society. A series of policy decisions at all levels of government have artificially made the suburban lifestyle cheaper than it otherwise would be, but sooner or later, something has gotta give. This is a good starting point on the subject, with many sources for more in-depth reading if one chooses: https://www.strongtowns.org/…