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Korea shatters its own record for world’s lowest fertility rate

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Re: Korea shatters its own record for world’s lowest fertility rate

#81

Post by remarkEon »

gumby wrote: post #41
exhilaration wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By the end of the century robots will be doing most of the work anyway 1) What if they don't? 2) The end of the century is 78 years away, somebody's going need to turn you on your side every few hours when you're in that old folks home - what happens if there aren't enough people to do those jobs?

> somebody's going need to turn you on your side every few hours when you're in that old folks home - what happens if there aren't enough people to do those jobs? Obviously we will have robots doing that job! Elder care is already a major area of robotics effort in Japan. And if the robots don't get there? Well, it's not terrible. A smaller population doesn't need as many buildings erected, or crops grown etc. Some p…

The notion of retirees dying alone surrounded by robots doesn’t strike you, at all, as kinda weird and dystopic?

Re: Korea shatters its own record for world’s lowest fertility rate

#82

Post by irrational »

thunderbird120 wrote: post #71
pengaru wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's just a lump in the population vs. age graph and you're fixating on the back side of the lump as if it's inevitably going towards zero. After the lump passes through South Koreans will look around and see a lack of traffic congestion, abundance of housing, lack of competitors for their now abundant resources, and lack of disproportionately large population of unproductive elderly dependents. Wanna guess what h…

>Wanna guess what happens in that welcoming environment? My guess is people feel inclined to make some babies. I would assume the exact opposite given that this will probably probably crank up pressure on working-aged people as more and more old people need to be supported by fewer and fewer young. I would also assume a significant exodus of the young to places with actual opportunities rather than a country sized re…

This was my exact same though while reading OP's comment. Taxes will go way up since the number of people having to support all the old people will be fewer and fewer. The increased taxes will cause people to have fewer and fewer children. It's a vicious cycle.

Re: Korea shatters its own record for world’s lowest fertility rate

#83

Post by rr808 »

I have just one child. I thought it was kinda sad that they're an only child but I didn't think about that its more than that. They wont have any nieces or nephews, if they have one child with a partner who is an only child my grandchild wont have any uncles, aunts or cousins either.

Its a huge contrast to other branches in my family where there are like dozens and dozens of cousins all living close to each other and always hanging out.

Re: Korea shatters its own record for world’s lowest fertility rate

#84

Post by greaterthan3 »

Birth rates are low pretty much everywhere in the developed world, but South Korea is an outlier in how low they are. For example, Japan's fertility rate is 1.3, compared to Korea's 0.84. That's a huge difference.

It's possible there's something unique to South Korea that causes it. Perhaps it's mandatory 2 years of military service for males. Or maybe their famously judgmental culture. I don't know.

Re: Korea shatters its own record for world’s lowest fertility rate

#86

Post by AbrahamParangi »

amrocha wrote: post #72
throwaway_4ever wrote: post #12

Something has deeply deeply changed in society for a fertility rate to go from 6 to 0.8 in 60 years, the living memory of a single life. Before, society grew with the average working age person only needing to half support an elderly retiree. Now, that same working age person will need to support more than 2 elderly retirees themselves, over 4 times the resources. Has it occurred to people that, maybe, modern fertili…

What? Declining birth rates have nothing to do with oppressing women. Worker exploitation, poor social safety net, and wealth disparity are squarely to blame.

When all these things were worse, 100 years ago, people had more kids than they do today.

Re: Korea shatters its own record for world’s lowest fertility rate

#87

Post by thematrixturtle »

faeriechangling wrote: post #62

It’s eerie to think of how hard South Korea is going to crash in the future. These past years may have been it’s peak.

The closest thing we have to a crystal ball is Japan, which is a few decades ahead in demographics, and it's been much more prolonged slump than sudden crash there.

Re: Korea shatters its own record for world’s lowest fertility rate

#88

Post by irrational »

throwaway_4ever wrote: post #53
Kon-Peki wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Surrogacy will be the next big thing. Women in poorer countries will birth the children for wealthier nations. So you think women in poorer countries are willing to "pre-sell" their children? That's insanely absurd, and an absolute human rights violation if forced. No. This will not happen.

You need to look up what surrogacy means. The surrogate women is doing the "pregnancy" part, with prior agreement and IVF from a different couple.

But... why? Most women I know are fine and even happy with the pregnancy part. Why would they want to outsource that part? They love the attention. The birth part? Not so much, but that part is difficult to outsource.

Re: Korea shatters its own record for world’s lowest fertility rate

#89

Post by makeitdouble »

wil421 wrote: post #67
brnt wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nitpick: industrialisation started in Belgium.

Pretty much everything I can find says it started in Britain with textiles. Everything from Wikipedia, National Geographic, to Encyclopedia Britannica all say the same thing.

You are citing a British-US founder's product, an US magazine, and Encyclopedia Britannica to assert it all started in Britain.

I'd wager we need a bit more geographically/culturally varied sources to have a fair guess at the truth.

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