this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2025
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[–] [email protected] 43 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (13 children)

This is not a “crisis.”

The only major challenge we face with falling birth rates is figuring out how we care for the elderly. Ok, that’s something we need to figure out and get right.

However, otherwise, falling birth rates is a good thing.

We simply don’t need 8 billion+ people on planet Earth. It’s too many.

I’d rather future generations maintain a smaller population, and enjoy a better quality of life overall. They’d have more space, more clean air and clean water, bigger national parks, fewer crowded spaces, less congestion and traffic, more trees, fish, birds, and critters, and bigger plots of land with more distance between neighbors.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I'd say yes and no. The strain on the planet would lessen for sure. But then we have the dependency ratio, meaning the amount of people in work related to those out of work, like children, the elderly, disabled etc.

This are getting worse in every European country. More babies won't fix it, at least not in the short term but it'll lessen the impact in about 20 years.

To fix the dependency ratio you either drasticly reduce the welfare state, increase the retirement age, raise taxes, or accept a lot of immigrants. Any of those options appealing to the general public you think?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Or increase taxes on the rich's assets (including houses) to fund the silver sunami (i.e. the large amount of boomers retiring all at once) and therefore encourage more of the value generated to go to the worker's wages. Then you don't have to worry as much about the welfare state because income tax revenues increase, the worker's private pensions also increase, more economic activity happens because more people have money in their pockets, and the economy grows.

Either that or work more people to death to keep expanding the current wealth inequality and hope the population keeps getting distracted with culture wars and fascism.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

Either that or work more people to death to keep expanding the current wealth inequality and hope the population keeps getting distracted with culture wars and fascism.

As we in Germany say: "Some of these answers would unsettle the population."

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