Yeah well maybe give people some incentive to want a family like maybe some mother fucking downtime from work and maybe some fucking guarantees that the world isnt going to turn into Venus in one goddamn generation.
This is really it. My wife and I are in our mid 30s and are finally at a financial place to have kids. But we work so much, we would not have time to really raise them. If we did have time, then we wouldn’t have the money.
I’m not going to have a kid that we can’t raise properly.
It’s not just the Japanese either. All developed economies see their birth rates slow. The simplest way I ever heard it explained is that when your society is agrarian, more children means more labor for the farm, and therefore more wealth. Once your economy moves on to manufacturing or services, and children stop being labor, they begin to cost money. And people slow down. These advanced societies also tend to be larger and more populous and therefore more competitive, which deepens the cycle. Add in the longer lifespans in affluent modern societies and you have this demographic crisis. Especially in Japan where they have standout longevity for genetic and dietary reasons.
I just finally started watching Gundam and damn do they love putting those kids in mechas. Zeta seems to follow the trend and I guess the other series do too lol.
Evangelion at least tried to provide a plot reason for why the pilots all had to be young teenagers. Skimped a bit on explaining why all the support staff were in their twenties except for the two older dudes at the top tho...
As a foreigner living in SE Asia, it's inevitable that foreigners bring their culture with them. If culture is a pain point for immigration, it's a very real fear.
Yeah, and part of the gap can probably be explained by life expectancy differences. Germany faces a tough time by 2040 when the big block of 50-59 who most likely pay an outsized part of the taxes as well will have virtually all retired.
Given how Japan seems to embrace AI and robots more than any other nation, it makes me wonder if Japan may inevitably have a significant portion of the population comprised of robots.
Japan is also a nation that spends a lot of money for Civil Servants to do every little thing, including giving people directions at stations instead of just leaving it to signs.