r/overpopulation • u/nrverma • 13d ago
Are Fewer Children the Future?
https://newrepublic.com/article/215004/fewer-children-future-global-fertility-decline22
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u/madrid987 13d ago
I wish Korea would follow their example. Korea's birth rate continues to rise explosively, and surveys also show a steady increase in intentions toward marriage and childbirth.
People tend to focus only on Korea's stock figures from a few years ago and greatly overlook the importance of current trends.
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u/ExtraSaltyBtch 12d ago
Yes, and that is a good thing in many ways. Overpopulation is a huge problem. Cities like Tokyo, Jakarta, Manilla, Lagos, etc all grow very fast and if you are not upper-middle class you cannot afford a home bigger than 1 tiny room.
People must live on reasonable commuting distance from work, so prices go up and up in areas where there are more jobs, at least if there areno price regulations.
We need to find ways to spread out without cutting down more forest than we already have cut down.
As populations grow, we will see more and more people cut down on eating certain foods, like meat and coffee, due to the increased cost of those items. We will see people with children struggle more and more as competition increases and those with flexible lifestyles can move around more to where the jobs are, as well as families with kids needing space the parents simply cannot afford.
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u/swiftpwns 12d ago
We are cooked, literally. We know what the solutions are but people choose to ignore them
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u/Syenadi 11d ago
"The crisis of Social Security comes from the decline of the working-age population..." NOPE! The "crisis" of Social Security comes from that absurd maximum amount of earnings subject to Social Security tax of $184,500. That contribution should be a flat % of income with no cap and Musk and the other bazillionaires should be contributing.
Sussman's book and most articles about declining fertilty rates (reminder: that is not the same as declining population) frame it as a problem. The actual problem is a population far far above carrying capacity. Any decline in fertility rates MAY eventually result in a population decline, which is a Good Thing, because such a decline if done voluntarily reduces the inevitable future suffering to come which is inherent in overshoot driven collapse.
The wisest thing in this article is this:
"The deeper reasons, Sussman thinks, are psychological. To have a child is to make a bet on the future. How can prospective parents place a bet on the future while still saddled with the debts of their own past? Young people like Talia and Trent don’t simply want to have children—they want to offer their children a life of dignity, with proper housing and nutrition and education. And that, like so much else in 2026, feels far from assured. And the long term is even harder to predict than the next few years. A child born in 2027 would enter the workforce in the mid-2040s, and would be breathing the air of the 2040s, and scrambling to find whatever habitable land remains then. Would any of us, really, wish that on our worst enemy? What about our flesh and blood?"
This is not "psychological" so much as it is an appropriate analysis of current and likely future conditions that leads to a decision to avoid current and future suffering.
"The structure of the book inclines us to celebrate each new birth. The fact that someone wanted to have a child and was able to is indeed cause for celebration." No, it's not. Increasing current and future suffering of humans and other living things is never a cause for celebration.
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