this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2024
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[–] [email protected] 320 points 2 months ago (4 children)

News flash for wealthy authoritarian parasites around the world, because you all seem ignorant of this fact:

Declining birthrates are a direct result of the simple fact that more people all the time decide that they have no desire to bring children into this world, and that in turn is a direct result of the fact that you've turned this world into a warped, corrupt, toxic, authoritarian shithole.

You have no one to blame but yourselves.

[–] [email protected] 63 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (8 children)

I disagree. There's a lot of reasons why people don't have children, including:

  • emotional devastated youth (abandoned by parents, addicted to smartphones, misunderstood by society)
  • people can't find partners for this reason
  • too much stress from too much work
  • wages are barely keeping up with inflation, and I project they will in fact not keep up in the long term in the US due to missing labor protections and decreasing demand for labor.
  • rising cost of living because politically, nobody really cares about the population.

edit: sorry i realized i made these points US-specific but you were talking about russia, sorry.

[–] [email protected] 50 points 2 months ago (1 children)

They aren't necessarily US specific. Wages not keeping up with inflation and rising cost of living is a factor from South Korea to Japan to Singapore as well. Some countries muck it up themselves like China with their one child policy back in the day (even the Chinese fertility rate has dipped below 2.2, I think).

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago

Well, it's only a very, very recent problem in Japan. They had stagnation for decades. Little to no change in wages, little to no change in prices. In 2011, I was making something like 33,000 USD per year there and living very comfortably with ample savings and what the Japanese considered to be a large apartment. It's a pretty affordable country, aside from travel. Or if you want to live in a fancy place in a desirable big city neighborhood.

(And yes, I have been to Japan since then and know that things have changed somewhat. It's still cheap compared to the US. Food is so cheap, it's amazing what you can get.)

[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 months ago (1 children)
  • Women get educated
  • Women get their own money
  • Women get control over reproductive rights and tools

So much of our world is based around women keeping it on the rails without receiving credit for their efforts.

[–] sorval_the_eeter 1 points 1 month ago

The strongest correlating factor around whether a child born into the world will starve to death or not is whether the mother has a basic education. It outweighs even regional data.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago

In a developing country rates also go down with civilization as people learn how not to breed like bacteria. But once it's about choice, that starts to be a good list. I'd almost list safety as a common theme in them. And in Russia.. yeah.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

No - actually I was talking worldwide. Russia's just a notable example.

And I would say that all of the things you listed are, directly or indirectly, consequences of the fact that wealthy authoritarian parasites have warped societies to their benefit regardless of the harm done to others, so are actually examples of exactly what I'm talking about.

[–] alleycat 5 points 2 months ago

One point I want to add: Throughout most of human history, it was economically beneficial to have lots of children. They were your retirement plan (and cheap labor).

In most developed countries, this is no longer the case. People who want children get one or two, just to scratch the itch, but that's not enough to sustain the population (without migration).

[–] BombOmOm 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

rising cost of living because politically, nobody really cares about the population

Well, interest rates were just raised to 19% in Russia. So good luck financing anything.

[–] njm1314 3 points 2 months ago

You say you disagree but all those points seem to fall under what they were arguing for.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 2 months ago (1 children)

My wife and I both work over 40 hour weeks. We are pretty comfortable especially compared to our friends and family members and we are not even close to buying a house and don’t have time to raise a kid and still think it’s too expensive to do so.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

And if the world were a just place instead of a twisted shithole designed to maximize the privilege of a relative few wealthy and empowered parasites, you could work fewer hours, make the same or even more money and afford a house.

But instead the system has been warped so that you have to work long hours for insufficient pay and still can't afford a decent life, and all so that a relative few executives, board nembers, bankers, investors and politicians can siphon off the bulk of the wealth you generate so that they can buy more houses and bigger yachts.

[–] Lost_My_Mind 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I REALLY wish it weren't against TOS to log into my Fedia.io account, and my piefed account to upvote you 3 times.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

It's weird just how much he looks like Michael Keaton there.

[–] Fedizen 8 points 2 months ago

industrialization is linked with lower birth rates. Its probably because people need room to breath to fuck around.