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The Global Fertility Crisis Is Worse Than You Probably Think

derekthompson.org

51–54 of 54 posts

Re: The Global Fertility Crisis Is Worse Than You Probably Think

#51
post #15

This is "only" a crisis in the sense that our current economies break down if the influx of new consumers slows down. We'll adapt. Won't be painless, but it is not catastrophic, at least not in the same sense that climate change is catastrophic > “Do you know how hard you need to abuse a mammal to make them not have children?” If you asked Leahy what the explanation was, “my answer is technology,” he said. “My answer…

Also, the global fertility crisis isn't too few births, it's too many. Pretty much all of the world's problems boil down to too many people competing for too few resources. Less humans competing for and consuming everything imaginable, less problems.

Re: The Global Fertility Crisis Is Worse Than You Probably Think

#52

I think the real issue is not fertility. It is humans refusing to share wealth fairly, which then leads to low fertility. A world with fewer humans, plus AI/robots doing the heavy work would be amazing, if we shared wealth fairly. Unless we humans figure out a way to build institutions that share wealth rather than hoard it, then we are toast either way. Headline should read “The global wealth hoarding crisis is wors…

Communism seems to fail every time it's attempted. Probably not because it's a bad ideology per se, but because it doesn't take greed as a human base trait into consideration. So yes, but until a new Homo species evolves (time scale: millions of years,) we're going to have to adapt to the base traits of Homo sapiens.

Fewer than 1,000 U.S. billionaires own more combined wealth than the bottom half of the entire American population.

Surely, this or communism cannot be the only 2 options humanity has. Between those 2 extremes there are so many options.

Re: The Global Fertility Crisis Is Worse Than You Probably Think

#53
post #7

if you want a thing, pay for it. the economics of childrearing aren't workable for most people without a huge cut to standard of living.

What I find interesting is that, it really seems that the opposite is true. My great-grandparents (and their entire ancestry that I can trace, all the way back to 1807) were punishingly, desperately : poor. Yet, it seems they averaged a heck of a lot more children than me, or my contemporaries. And their children largely lived to be adults with only a few minor exceptions. The adults themselves didn't seem to live lo…

> Yet, it seems they averaged a heck of a lot more children than me

Not by choice, I assume.

Re: The Global Fertility Crisis Is Worse Than You Probably Think

#54
post #53
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I find interesting is that, it really seems that the opposite is true. My great-grandparents (and their entire ancestry that I can trace, all the way back to 1807) were punishingly, desperately : poor. Yet, it seems they averaged a heck of a lot more children than me, or my contemporaries. And their children largely lived to be adults with only a few minor exceptions. The adults themselves didn't seem to live lo…

> Yet, it seems they averaged a heck of a lot more children than me Not by choice, I assume.

fuck. fair point.

I totally forgot that the 60s gave us effective contraceptives.

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