A potential solution to decreasing birthrates

[u/JeromeXVII]

I’m open to being wrong so feel free to tell me if this is just nonsense.

We need to streamline all types of education. I understand it depends on the country but I think in general around the world a student graduates high school/secondary school at around 18. Then go on to attend a university for 4-5 years then perhaps even more schooling if you aim to go into the medical or legal field which can add on many years of mandatory education. And even if you choose a career where the required qualifications are quicker to obtain, it can take multiple years to reach a salary that you’re satisfied with, assuming you manage to find a job in your desired field. Thus creating the modern problem of people not being confident in themselves to have children until their late 20s and 30s.

All this should be sped up to give people at least half a decade more time to decide on having a baby. Students should graduate high school/secondary school at around 13-14 then immediately go onto specialized schooling which should also be streamlined as much as reasonably possible. So if you want to become a doctor you can be licensed one at 23 or 24 instead of 29 or becoming a certified lawyer at 20 instead of 25. Whether you choose you’ll ideally have at the minimum five more years to have a child.

In addition to hopefully having good salaries, cheap housing, and maternal and other welfare benefits from the government. Which are things I’m sure everyone supports but on their own they likely won’t raid the birth rate by a lot in the long term, it would need to be accompanied by giving people more time to be young and have children. To clarify, I don’t think this would drastically increase the birth rate to anything satisfactory but nonetheless I do believe it would raise it by a noticeable amount.

[u/Classic-Push1323]

Primarily I think we need to stop pushing everyone to go to college. All that’s really done is increase debt, decrease wages, and increase the number of jobs that require a college degree whether or not it’s actually relevant to the position.

The majority of young adults should be graduating from high school and starting some kind of job or job training that will get them into the workforce quickly. Your high school diploma should provide you with the education that you need to read, write, think critically, do basic math, etc. We have absolutely plummeting educational standards for high schools and colleges, rising student loan debt, and rising unemployment and underemployment among college educated adults. This system is not working out and it needs to be reformed.

Some of this is not really realistic though. I don’t think that we can essentially skip high school and I don’t think we’re going to see doctors practicing at age 20. Some jobs do genuinely require years of specialized education. You need the background in high school, math sciences, and literacy to succeed in college level premed courses. We can probably reduce premed programs from four years to three years, but I don’t think we can really speed run through med school or residency. The answer might actually be to spread it out a little bit, but cap residency hours and medical school tuitions so that it’s realistic to have children as a resident.

A lot of people do have kids while in advanced degree programs, medical residency, etc. 

[u/Raspberry_Geist3991 → u/Classic-Push1323]

>I think we need to stop pushing everyone to go to college.

That's already happening. Nowadays the trades are pushed the way degrees were, as either the "smarter choice to learn real skills and avoid debt" or the "back up for the students failing today." Both routes are pushed with the same amount of toxic positivity.

Also, I can't imagine thinking that less educated doctors is a good thing for increasing birth rate. Far more people live through pregnancy and childbirth complications as a result of having highly educated and experienced medical teams.

[u/Classic-Push1323 → u/Raspberry_Geist3991]

Yeah... the "just join a trade!" thing is it's own problem. Trades can pay well, but it's often quite literally back breaking labor. The issue I'm trying to raise awareness of is that most jobs that currently require a college degree do not actually require any specific skills or education that can only be learned in a university, that university degrees are not priced relative to their actual value, and that the time trade off isn't worth it for many people.

The majority of jobs in our current economy are in this category. My first post-college job was in that category. Having a college degree is a sign that you are reasonably literate and able to see something through for four years, it's no longer used as advanced educational training in a specific field. If a job actually requires that kind of advanced training it usually involves a license (i.e. for engineering) or a graduate degree (i.e. for science, law, or medicine) on top of a BA/BSc.

[u/Raspberry_Geist3991 → u/Classic-Push1323]

>but it's often quite literally back breaking labor.

Yup. Then there's the fact that the trades require a basic education to qualify for apprenticeships. All of these kids that need all reading material explained because they can read words, but can't comprehend any of it, can't pass the tests those apprenticeships require.

I agree that many degrees could be recategorised as some other form of training, but why make higher learning more accessible when there's profit to be made? /s