How do these Natalists feel about the African continent?
The old people here are going to have a fun little surprise when they realise the kids they didn't have aren't able to pay for their pension 😁
this post was submitted on 13 Apr 2025
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The 14 Words: The New Generation.
Natalism (also called pronatalism or the pro-birth position) is a policy paradigm or personal value that promotes the reproduction of human life as an important objective of humanity and therefore advocates a high birthrate.
Antinatalism what what - don't make fresh when plenty actual living kids need rescuing.
Adopt, don't ~~shop~~ breed!
I watched a video recently on how South Korea is pretty fucked because of their declining birth rate. 2.1 is fine by me.
There is nothing bad about going back to a sustainable population level. The cost for raising a child is greater than the cost for taking care of elderly. When elderly die that frees up resources for the next generation making it even easier.
The problem with declining population is the huge bubble pop you get when the population is mostly elderly people and few workers.
Korea used to have 2 workers and 10 dependents. Now its 2 workers and 7 dependents. There are literally more workers per dependent. There's no bubble that will pop.
Where are your statistics? Do any cursory searching and you’ll find that South Korea is desperate for care workers. There’s a huge shortage.
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Right, but this can be resolved with immigration.
Maybe in the west. Not in places like South Korea or Japan. Even if you got the populations to buy in to immigration 100%, you’ve got an impossible task convincing immigrants to learn the language.
English’s hegemony over the world makes immigration to non-English-speaking areas a huge problem. Quebec, for example, tries mightily to force immigrants to learn French and the results are quite ugly in Quebec politics.
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The cost for raising a child is greater than the cost for taking care of elderly
Holy [citation needed], Batman!
Cost to raise 1 child is $350k including college.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-much-does-it-cost-to-raise-a-child-240000/
https://educationdata.org/average-cost-of-college
Average nursing home cost is $120k/yr and people live on average 2 years in a nursing home.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2945440/
2 parents working
6 kids = $2.1m 4 grandparents = $960k
So you're comparing the cost of 18 years' worth of child-rearing (or 22 years' worth including college) to an up-to-$120k per year cost of supporting an elderly person, and aren't even bothering to consider anything but the last two years?
In what fantasy world is $15,900/year ($350k/22 years) somehow more than the annual cost of living for a senior citizen—even a healthy and independent one‽
Until a senior citizen needs to have nursing home care, they are independent. In-home care is far cheaper. They don't need the costs of 6 hours a day of schooling which cost $15k per child in taxes to pay for the teachers and infrastructure. (That $15k/year isn't part of the $350k cost quoted earlier because it's covered by taxes.)
https://educationdata.org/public-education-spending-statistics
You aren't making 3 meals a day for them because they do it themselves. You aren't paying for day care- until it's nursing home or in home care time. In many cases the elderly are providing the day care for children.
You aren't making 3 meals a day for them because they do it themselves.
They still have to pay for it, though! Don't even try to tell me that an elderly person's regular living expenses — food, housing, utilities, etc. — averages out to less than $15,900/year.
Are you just forgetting those exist? Are you trying to compare the total costs of raising a child, including all living expenses, to only the extra age-related costs of caring for an elderly person, not including living expenses? 'Cause it sure seems like that's what you're doing.
In many cases the elderly are providing the day care for children.
And if it's a multigenerational household where that's feasible on a daily basis because they live there, then they could even save on housing expenses too (maybe even brining down their living expenses to nearly equal to that of a child in the same household).
But we're talking averages, and that's not the average — neither living together, nor providing regular day care. On average in the US, elderly people live separately from their grandkids and only see them occasionally.
Don’t even try to tell me that an elderly person’s regular living expenses — food, housing, utilities, etc. — averages out to less than $15,900/year.
That $15k/year is just for school. You think a child doesn't also need food/housing/utilities?
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True, but the lack of productive workers and the thinned tax base will crash the country while it all balances out. Only way to make a smooth transition is to slaughter the elderly, which is largely what will happen, just not on purpose.
If 10 dependents per 2 workers (6 kids, 4 elderly) didn't crash the country in 1950, then having more workers per dependent in 2040 won't either.
The only people who suffer from a population decline are the idle wealthy because their income comes from skimming profit from the workers.
You keep bringing up the same point but do you plan on just letting seniors rot? We literally don't have the workers to care for the elderly AND run society. Demographic collapse is a real issue
Seniors had care when there were less resources because families had 6 kids to raise. I showed that because children take up more resources than elderly that they not only wouldn't rot, but would have more care because the resources that went to children would go to them.
We literally don’t have the workers to care for the elderly AND run society.
Yet we can have the resources to raise kids that cost even more? That makes no sense.
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The video ignores the other side of the economic cost: the number of workers needed to support raising a child.
It costs more to raise a child than to care for elderly. Without child care costs there is a surplus to care for elderly.
Claiming South Korea is doomed because right now population growth is .8x is as ridiculous as those claiming South Korea was doomed in 1950 because at 6x population growth, everyone would starve in 50 years. Populations grow and contract to match their environment.
When the population has decreased to sustainable levels, individuals will have the free resources to raise children again.
Sounds like a job for immigration.
Ideally, sure. SK would have to change a lot for that to work, and that does not happen in a hurry. As far as the US is concerned, :gestures_widely:
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