darkSpyro

everybody shames on this generation for some reason by claiming we are out of control and teenagers are getting pregnant left and right. but now that the teenage birth rate dropped we are uneasy. Lmao. replace the mcdonalds workers with robots and let our population decline a bit. this doesn't go for everyone obviously but a lot of the "young workers" ive seen and dealt with...theyre better off being replaced by robots because they arent contributing anything anyway. less babies, less threat of overpopulation, less strain on the earth. and less useless workers. Amazing.

Quote: Thunderdragon14

everybody shames on this generation for some reason by claiming we are out of control and teenagers are getting pregnant left and right. but now that the teenage birth rate dropped we are uneasy. Lmao. replace the mcdonalds workers with robots and let our population decline a bit. this doesn't go for everyone obviously but a lot of the "young workers" ive seen and dealt with...theyre better off being replaced by robots because they arent contributing anything anyway. less babies, less threat of overpopulation, less strain on the earth. and less useless workers. Amazing.

- - -

super unpopular opinion that will leave my head on a stake: being a young single mom doesnt make you brave or extraordinary

Quote: somePerson

super unpopular opinion that will leave my head on a stake: being a young single mom doesnt make you brave or extraordinary

I agree because "single moms" often get child support. nothing brave about choosing to have a child with a man that wants nothing to do with you. my mom was actually an uno mom because my dad died. there's no man you can leech off and then praise yourself for being a single mom. these "single moms" will take that child support and use it on themselves and claim how hard their life is. I don't think they can call themselves brave until they've lost their house and everything because they literally have no support lol.

I have no issue if you don’t want kids, what I do have an issue with is people act like not wanting kids makes them better in some way.

It doesn’t.

Nor does wanting kids. In truth it’s s pretty large decision but ultimately it’s not something that makes you better or worse than anyone else.

I hope that makes sense.

people arent having kids as often because its so hard to get ahead. people cant afford children. or theyre so busy trying to make enough money they just dont have the time. i dont want people to have kids if they cant give them a good life. im not against this dip in the population, if its whats best for everyone than it just works out.

i hope that makes sense? im not great at articulating

I don’t want children myself

America's fertility rate is going down because there's a large emphasis on education and careers, due to it's heavy focus on a capitalistic economy.

While I'm not one of those people that say "Capitalism is evil," it does effect our society in huge ways. For one, it affects our culture. Ever since we started school, we were geared to learn how to be dedicated workers. This started in the 1980's, where the government started to implement a curriculum that included "21st century skills," which looked something like this:



Notice how all of these skills, even those NOT listed in the "Career and Life" category, all focus on an individual's work ethic. From a young age, children are being taught skills that would gear their minds towards careers. That's also why there's such an emphasis on college, starting from Grade 6.

Just like HDAZ pointed out, people are too busy trying to make money, or focus on education, that they don't have the time to have children anymore. It's also why most children that are born happen to be accidents, and why there's an influx of single mothers.

That's why it's seen as brave or extraordinary most of the time, because these single mothers still have to get an education and a job in order to give a good life for their kid. Sure, they can provide with child support, but it's almost never a good life if they rely on it. It's all because that's the way our society is structured. Taking a care of a kid is hard, especially by yourself. In my opinion, it's ignorant to say that single mothers aren't brave, especially if you've never taken care of a kid by yourself either.

Even if you WERE a kid to a single mother, parents frequently hide hardships from their children at a young age. When I was a kid, my parents could barely afford the bills. Sometimes the electricity or water would just stop running completely, but I didn't even know until last year when my dad was teaching me about money management, since I plan to move out once I graduate with my B.A.

Quote: parisruelz12

I have no issue if you don’t want kids, what I do have an issue with is people act like not wanting kids makes them better in some way.

It doesn’t.

Nor does wanting kids. In truth it’s s pretty large decision but ultimately it’s not something that makes you better or worse than anyone else.

I hope that makes sense.

You're spot on!

That said, I wanna add that trying to have children over the notion that they'll be working in specific jobs to keep economies flowing is naive at best. Most likely, future workers could be exploited in order to keep the rich bloated. Then there's the risk of bringing into the world during issues with the political climate and well as climate change itself. Less children born in modern times doesn't mean a Children of Men-style future since the future is more likely gonna be like Mad Max.

Quote: parisruelz12

I have no issue if you don’t want kids, what I do have an issue with is people act like not wanting kids makes them better in some way.

It doesn’t.

Nor does wanting kids. In truth it’s s pretty large decision but ultimately it’s not something that makes you better or worse than anyone else.

I hope that makes sense.

Quote: HotDogAndZap

people arent having kids as often because its so hard to get ahead. people cant afford children. or theyre so busy trying to make enough money they just dont have the time. i dont want people to have kids if they cant give them a good life. im not against this dip in the population, if its whats best for everyone than it just works out.

i hope that makes sense? im not great at articulating

Quote: TheFlyingSeal

America's fertility rate is going down because there's a large emphasis on education and careers, due to it's heavy focus on a capitalistic economy.

While I'm not one of those people that say "Capitalism is evil," it does effect our society in huge ways. For one, it affects our culture. Ever since we started school, we were geared to learn how to be dedicated workers. This started in the 1980's, where the government started to implement a curriculum that included "21st century skills," which looked something like this:



Notice how all of these skills, even those NOT listed in the "Career and Life" category, all focus on an individual's work ethic. From a young age, children are being taught skills that would gear their minds towards careers. That's also why there's such an emphasis on college, starting from Grade 6.

Just like HDAZ pointed out, people are too busy trying to make money, or focus on education, that they don't have the time to have children anymore. It's also why most children that are born happen to be accidents, and why there's an influx of single mothers.

That's why it's seen as brave or extraordinary most of the time, because these single mothers still have to get an education and a job in order to give a good life for their kid. Sure, they can provide with child support, but it's almost never a good life if they rely on it. It's all because that's the way our society is structured. Taking a care of a kid is hard, especially by yourself. In my opinion, it's ignorant to say that single mothers aren't brave, especially if you've never taken care of a kid by yourself either.

Even if you WERE a kid to a single mother, parents frequently hide hardships from their children at a young age. When I was a kid, my parents could barely afford the bills. Sometimes the electricity or water would just stop running completely, but I didn't even know until last year when my dad was teaching me about money management, since I plan to move out once I graduate with my B.A.

these are good posts

Give me a job that lets me afford a house, a non-crappy car, and a family, and I'll start having kids.

Quote: Samius

It seems like it's generally the wealthy parts of the population that reproduce way less than the poor parts. It's a really interesting problem because it seems very counterintuitive at first glance. The parts of society that have the most resources to enable growth do the exact opposite.

It's more about education than wealth. Tons of mid twenties to mid thirties Americans got a college degree that has done **** all to get us ahead in life and has been little more than a source of crippling debt. We aren't having as many kids as past generations.

Whereas the poor people who are...on the less educated end of the spectrum tend to be much more willing to pump out babies. But that's the same as usual, so it won't affect the overall trend.

Quote: Muffin Man

Give me a job that lets me afford a house, a non-crappy car, and a family, and I'll start having kids.

Quote: Samius

It seems like it's generally the wealthy parts of the population that reproduce way less than the poor parts. It's a really interesting problem because it seems very counterintuitive at first glance. The parts of society that have the most resources to enable growth do the exact opposite.

It's more about education than wealth. Tons of mid twenties to mid thirties Americans got a college degree that has done **** all to get us ahead in life and has been little more than a source of crippling debt. We aren't having as many kids as past generations.

Whereas the poor people who are...on the less educated end of the spectrum tend to be much more willing to pump out babies. But that's the same as usual, so it won't affect the overall trend.

^Exactly.

And before anyone says "Are you saying that the "dumber" people are, the more kids they have?"

No. Going back to my own post, it's more about culture than it is education. It's not that women are more willing to have kids because they don't have education, but it's because their culture is structured in a way where women HAVE to have kids in order to belong in their society.



Take this chart for example. Third-world countries cannot afford/have time for children to have education, so the children are educated at home with the subject of domestic life. Thus, the women are taught about raising a household and what it means to be a mother. Their culture focuses on building and maintaining a proud bloodline - that's why China is the largest population in the world.

Meanwhile, in places like the US, birthrates are so low because our culture focuses so much on having a career and contributing to the economy. Home Economics classes, like sewing and wood-shop, have been disappearing because they aren't seen as useful in the school curriculum anymore.

Quote: Samius

People having less children is not a big issue in and of itself, but presently there are also a lot of elderly people in many countries and that puts some strain on the economy. Japan famously has this problem, where the ratio of working-age population to both children and the elderly was about 60/40 in 2017. Furthermore, the rate of children to elderly people was about 1/2, so the situation is only going to get worse before it gets better.

A lot of these Japanese traditions seem to be at odds with each other. Salarymen have no time to spend time with families when they have to work 80 hours a week. Anything less would be considered. Even then, they would be cynically obligated to drink and sing karaoke with their co-workers. Can't see how raising a family work in that kind of position.

Then there's the entire Japanese idol industry as a whole, slowly choking the life of whatever youth is left in the country's ageing population. Does anyone remember when the girl who shaved their hair while apoligizing for DATING a guy after being shamed by their peers? Or when Aya Hirano's fanboys were in a fit of rage because she was dating some dude? Where does it say contractual purity recquires not having a life of your own? "You're an object of everyone's desire as they all look at you with their pervy eyes but DON'T EVER HAVE A BOYFRIEND OR HELP WITH OUR DYING POPULATION OR WE'LL END YOUR CAREER IN A FLASH!!!?" Satoshi Kon's Perfect Blue is over 20 years old and is still relevant to this day.

Japan is THAT deadset in its conservative values, believing admitting your faults and correcting is a sign of weakness.

Yeah, let's make the soil more fertile.

time to spread em, ladies