Why would anyone have children given what's coming. Inflation is through the roof, buying a house is not accessible to a large chunk of the population, wages are stagnant, right wing populism is on the rise, the climate is going down the shitter.
It's not a great future environment for children, I know I won't have any.
this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2023
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Good thing anti-immigration politics is becoming so popular lately in many countries, that will surely help with this issue /s
The nations most vocal in Europe about anti-immigration, Italy and Hungary, are very actively seeking for immigrants who will do the menial jobs.
They're preparing the grounds for slavery.
We are on the forefront of innovation yet once again! /s
Immigration is not a solution to this problem, just a short term band aid. What will happen if current immigrants became old? More immigrants? At some point you will run out of new people
Having more and more kids is not the solution this problem because at some point you run out of resources and acting counter to that because you can't distribute the people you have properly among countries is not exactly a solution.
This is only a problem because people aren't having children. And in some ways, that's a good thing. Until we find more sustainable ways to exist, more children are not good for the environment.
If governments wanted to encourage people having children, they'd have to do something to counteract the world turning into a capitalist-dystopian hell-scape. So far it looks like governments are doing the opposite. They act like it's still the 50s with 'The rising tide lifts all boats' and 'trickle-down economics' still being things people believe in. Nobody does, though.
How is anyone supposed to trust in the future, when it's clear that the world is a rich people's playground, where a few hundred-thousand people get to self-actualise in the most insane ways, while the remaining ~7.9 billion are wage-slaves having to live through shocking daily indignities at the behest of the ruling class.
Not sure how we'd fix it though. Workers have no interest in acting in unison. While rich people do (and are much easier to coordinate). Eventually, the ruling class will just use AI-powered police / military to ensure nobody challenges the status quo. So it feels a bit like the game is lost.
Some people not having children won't solve the crisis, on the premise that no real action is taken against source of pollution. By that I mean both the private sector and governments give zero shits about doing anything remotely close to effective for stopping 100% of emissions now.
Another thing I believe net zero 2050 is a scam in this. And I can't seem to write a coherent sentence, just a bunch of statements
That's not news, everyone has known for decades
We have organizations in Germany (Rentenversicherungen, national pension funds) that can predict the exact day when Germany will officially become a retirement home with more pensioners than young people.
That day is frighteningly near.
According to these figures the median age is already (almost) as bad as it gets: https://www.statista.com/statistics/624303/average-age-of-the-population-in-germany/
Not considering regional effects, like lack of immigration into federal states with large amount of neo nazi population. They will be fucked more thoroughly.
When is it?
Dunno... Next month? Depends on definition and on circumstances. One hot summer could delay the date as old people tend to die more in heat (at least the poor ones).
That being said iirc after Japan, Germany has the second oldest population worldwide.
So labour shortages, which means capitalist have to pay higher wages. Inflate public budgets are not a problem, with the richest paying almost no taxes at all.
Oh man the pain.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
These are some of the disquieting findings from a new report on demographic change released by the European Commission on Wednesday, which paints an alarming picture of the profound societal and economic transformation triggered by a shrinking workforce.
The drastic shift in the demographic pyramid will upend the labour market, with widespread shortages that could inhibit growth, productivity and innovation rates, and therefore accelerate loss of competitiveness vis-Γ -visΒ other major economies.
A dwindling workforce will inevitably reduce revenue for state coffers while piling additional pressure on public budgets to spend more on healthcare and pensions, an explosive combination that could divert attention away from the much-needed investments in renewable energy and cutting-edge technologies.
Before the damage becomes irreversible, the Commission recommends member states take decisive action, such as closing the gender pay gap, improving work-life balance, offering tax benefits, reducing childcare costs, and making it easier for young people to access quality jobs and affordable housing earlier in their adult lives.
Brussels also says it is "crucial to empower older workers to remain active for longer" through upskilling programmes and flexible working hours, and urges businesses to overcomeΒ "preconceived notions and stereotypes" about the elderly.
The bloc, which is in the midst of a hard-fought push to reform its asylum policy, received last year 3 million migrant workers via legal pathways compared to 300,000 who arrived through irregular means.
The original article contains 567 words, the summary contains 227 words. Saved 60%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
If there was easy access to assisted suicide it could help a bit. There is a whole lot of problems with this topic and working out an acceptably ethic solution is hard. But some people would use it. And I'm very much one such person. Being disabled sucks.
With AI replacing most jobs and with human resources being less and less valuable, is this a problem or a solution?
AI isn't really replacing any jobs though. It is not as if AI replacements for jobs produce the same amount of money for the economy and the pension system. It is eliminating jobs.
It is also not really a solution for caring for the large percentage of old people.
Show me how AI is supposed to replace jobs such as plumbers, electrians, carpenters, nurses, school teachers, kindergardeners...
There is a lot of labor where it is unlikely to see any effective replacement anytime soon. These are also jobs that are often underpaid and not so popular anymore.
Oh no! Some arch villain has spilt fast aging potion in the water! What to do.