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US Births Dip To 30-Year Low (npr.org)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: The birthrate fell for nearly every group of women of reproductive age in the U.S. in 2017, reflecting a sharp drop that saw the fewest newborns since 1978, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There were 3,853,472 births in the U.S. in 2017 -- "down 2 percent from 2016 and the lowest number in 30 years," the CDC said. The general fertility rate sank to a record low of 60.2 births per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44 -- a 3 percent drop from 2016, the CDC said in its tally of provisional data for the year. The results put the U.S. further away from a viable replacement rate -- the standard for a generation being able to replicate its numbers. "The rate has generally been below replacement since 1971," according to the report from CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. "The decline in the rate from 2016 to 2017 was the largest single-year decline since 2010," the CDC said. The 2017 numbers also represent a 10-year fall from 2007, when the U.S. finally broke its post-World War baby boom record, with more than 4.3 million births.

571 comments

  1. Feminism at work by Reverend+Green · · Score: 4, Funny

    I, for one, welcome our new sexless, soulless, joyless Feminist overlords.

    1. Re:Feminism at work by iggymanz · · Score: 5, Insightful

      nah, most feminists have children, 86% of women do. they're just not having more than 2, instead about 1.86 kids on average. That's not enough to keep a population growing.

    2. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Incel spotted.

    3. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There’s plenty of tail to be had. You’re probably just some pasty fatass.

    4. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Does the population need to grow? We keep hearing about how robots are going to take over manufacturing and agriculture and AI will take over service industries, that there will be fewer jobs for humans. Maybe America doesn't need to grow further, but has instead reached a technological level where the machines can sustain our standard of living while we reach a more sustainable population equilibrium with nature.

      Oh, wait, the underclasses will breed like rabbits and immigrants will flood our country because we're rich. Fuck.

    5. Re:Feminism at work by Ayano · · Score: 1, Insightful

      It sounds like someone is in the 'forever single' category and is upset about it, so let's blame feminists for for not having enough babies?

      --
      I don't read AC
    6. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So, sounds like we won't need to worry about overpopulation then?

      Oh, right, the human population is still growing like mad.

      This reduction in birth rates is a sign of an increase in the general level of luxury.

      History has proven time and time again: wealth is the best form of birth control.

    7. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But he went around snapping girls’ bra straps. That obligates them to have sex with him! God damn feminists!

    8. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Roastie detected. The roastie gets its self-worth from its social relationships and how many dicks it's personally acquainted with thus it perceives only a world where questioning others' sexual viability is the most cutting insult.

    9. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The economy depends on exponential population growth.

    10. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Keep on pretending you're gay because you actually *like* fucking another man's ass, not because you're desperately lonely yet terrified of having a relationship with a woman.

    11. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      And they are doing that because they waste their most fertile years pursuing pointless careers and wasting societal resources to Eat, Pray and Love.

    12. Re:Feminism at work by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Maybe the ecahhhhnamy needs to be restructured so it can function even without continuous growth, sprawl, and environmental depredation.

    13. Re: Feminism at work by Reverend+Green · · Score: 1, Insightful

      If you hurl enough sophomoric insults, *someday* a feminist will give you a kiss. Keep trying!

      But don't waste too much time on it - you've still got a lot of capitalist boots to lick today.

    14. Re:Feminism at work by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No one is obligated to breed kids for the good of the country. If women want to work, eat, pray, love whatever, it's their business -- you can't choose others' path in life for them.

    15. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Absolutely. Without at least a maintenance level, we will encounter massive problems with caring for our elderly. Japan is already starting to experience this.

    16. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You must be dumb or catholic. Sex and birthrate have been decoupled for quite some time.

    17. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Funny, I had never heard of this bar. Interesting that you had. I wonder why...

    18. Re:Feminism at work by gweihir · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Naa, that would be rational, fact-based and forward-thinking. Cannot have that, must make America Great Again!

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    19. Re:Feminism at work by PaulRivers10 · · Score: 1

      "Feminists are pro-sex, it's just a gigantic coincidence that everything they say is 100% negative about straight people having sex. Feminists need to be taken seriously, and also, it's totally unfair to blame them for the things they say."

    20. Re: Feminism at work by Reverend+Green · · Score: 2

      But how would that maximize short-term profits for the oligarchy?

    21. Re:Feminism at work by gweihir · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You can, and a lot of people try. It is just hugely unethical and has spawned the most evil movements the human race has ever seen. (Organized Religion, Fascism, etc.)

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    22. Re: Feminism at work by Reverend+Green · · Score: 1

      Because I lived in the great sewer of humanity that is San Francisco for over a decade.

    23. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And you loved every second of it.

    24. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dang son, how much cock have you sucked just this evening? I bet it was a lot.

    25. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And those children with no siblings are going to turn into spoilt little shits.

    26. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not on my watch. I have four sons and one daughter of Dutch and Polish decent. 1st generation on the dutch side. We also lost two baby boys due to complications. If we could have more we would but we are too old and Im disabled now. My daughter is brilliant, logical and taught to think for herself. Oh and well even at 11 she thinks there are a bunch of young women that need a serious spanking by their daddies. I love my daughter, wisdom from the mouths of babes.

      -Geekpoet

    27. Re:Feminism at work by yuriklastalov · · Score: 0

      Yep, better let the central planners take care of everything, they know best anyhow.

    28. Re:Feminism at work by cold+fjord · · Score: 0, Troll

      You left out Communism., which killed far more than Fascism. Funny how you left that out and threw in "Organized Religion." That would seem hard to do if you are genuinely interested and opposed to "the most evil movements the human race has ever seen." It is actually backwards.

      --
      much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
    29. Re:Feminism at work by Peter+P+Peters · · Score: 1

      nah, most feminists have children, 86% of women do. they're just not having more than 2, instead about 1.86 kids on average. That's not enough to keep a population growing.

      Good. This economic model of constant growth isn't sustainable.

    30. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

      No, but for those in power - their power comes from the number of people they control.

      Their tax cattle are not breeding fast enough. So they bring in new stock.

      They then lie to their old stock - telling them that diversity is your strength, and to be happy to share your hard work and the hard work of your ancestors with these new people.

      Ignore that the new people have no understanding of what made your country great. Ignore that most of them came from nations where the average IQ is 85 - which is below the level at which you can play any part in a democracy. Ignore that their culture is utterly alien and incompatible with any notion of human rights and decency... and isn't going to pay any attention to this diversity nonsense that 's been swallowed by the white idiots.

      No... just flood them in. It will all work out.

      In reality of course, what you are watching is an invasion. One that will result enormous bloodshed if it's not reverse - and quickly.

    31. Re:Feminism at work by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      A logical thought. The problem is in human reproduction is most often not reliant on logic but inebriation and laziness. The smarter make the logical choice and the dumber just 'hmm', 'well', what can you say but drink and fuck, birth control, well, beer is for drinking and not for thinking.

      With a declining birth rate I would be more interested in the association with IQ, as well as age of reproduction and the long term forecast for achieving an idiocracy https://www.youtube.com/watch?... or a parenting licence, cough, cough, to dumb to parent, to dumb to breed.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    32. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That away, instead of making a decent argument, you feel the need to throw out insults.

      Take a look in the mirror sometime and study your eyes and overall face for about 5 mins. Your mind and heart might, "might" wake up.

      -Geekpoet

    33. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thank you for that insightful commentary, Agent Smith. How's the weather in Fort Meade today?

    34. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Where are you getting those statistics from?

    35. Re:Feminism at work by jouassou · · Score: 5, Insightful

      We live on a planet of finite size with finite resources, and it's very unlikely that we'll have the means to ship billions of people into space over the next century. So the exponential growth cannot continue indefinitely, and we might as well start looking for a better economical model today—one that doesn't break down if the population stabilizes.

    36. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How many women do you think identify as feminist? It's about 7% in the UK and 18% in the US. It's entirely possible that most feminists are not having children.

    37. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are a fucking idiot. Communism removed filth from the society, filth like you. Good riddance.

    38. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's true!

      I hates touching men's anuses with my penis! I just miss those women's who hate me!

      Being a successful white male (due entirely to privilege and crocodiles) I have lost touch with society.

      I don't know how to be a poor man hating lesbian or at least an effective one. I suppose there are a lot of ineffective ones. Perhaps the majority. Maybe they will let me join them!

    39. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      0.86 of a kid explains a lot about the current millennial generation.

    40. Re: Feminism at work by Reverend+Green · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Look, I know the MBAs sold us out. They shipped half the jobs in the software industry to India. Then lied to Congress so they could import hundreds of thousands of Indian indentured workers to drive down wages for the remaining domestic software jobs.

      So definitely, let's see the rich private school Progressive capitalists as enemies of the people. But we don't need to be racist towards our Indian brethren. Have you never even once met a *nice* Indian person? I have, many times. They, like us, are but pawns in a bigger game.

    41. Re:Feminism at work by mikael · · Score: 1

      People having children boosts the economy if the parents have jobs. They need to spend money on clothes, household items, toys, gifts and food. Many places have now become ghost towns because so many families have moved out.
      The trouble is everyone moves to where the jobs are, and the jobs move to where everyone is. Many people won't take the risk of moving to a one company town for job security reasons.

      --
      Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
    42. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      [...] everything [feminists] say is 100% negative about straight people having sex.

      Feminist: "We want equal pay!"
      PaulRivers10: "Why do you hate my penis?"
      PaulRivers10's ideal woman: "Me so horny!"

    43. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I like cornbread and the comedy stylings of Gallagher!

    44. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't worry. Idiocracy isn't actually founded on science and breeding is more correlated with education and wealth than intelligence.

      Also, in Idiocracy the people voted for a president that would delegate their most important issue to the smartest dude around. (Based on the tests they had available.)
      Once that dude got the opportunity to prove himself people voted for him instead.

      I would also like to add that IQ tests are unscientific crap that deserves to be grouped together with astrology, but I wouldn't go so far as to bundle it with homeopathy.
      At least astrology is based on observation, it's just that the idea behind it is crap.

      By the way, here is a nice correlation:
      People who are Aquarius, Pisces and Aries have higher IQ than those who are Libra, Scorpio and Sagittarius studies have found.
      It is clearly scientific and has nothing to do with the tests being taken by school classes at the same time where there is a significant age difference between the two groups.

    45. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I remember fucking your ass bareback. Still pissed you didnt get a reacharound?

    46. Re:Feminism at work by gweihir · · Score: 1, Troll

      No, I do not. While they called themselves "communism", they actually fall under fascism in most respects that matter. The funny thing here is how utterly clueless you are. But I guess you just want to push some demented propaganda.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    47. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sounds like an alternative to "Everyone I hate or has ever done anything bad is a Nazi."

      The funny thing here is how I always project. But I guess I just want to push some demented propaganda.

      The only person you are fooling is yourself.

    48. Re:Feminism at work by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      If feminists didn't want sex and children then why are they so concerned with birth control, sexual liberation, parental leave etc?

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    49. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Never met one. They talk and act just like obnoxious invaders would. There must be truth to indians turning my life into shit. Open your eyes.

    50. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you're not a sad sack piece of shit, you can probably have consensual sex with a feminist woman if you want. So maybe work on that.

    51. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dear me, how wrong you are. These numbers clearly show that the USA needs more immigrants, and pronto, to keep its current standard of living going.

    52. Re:Feminism at work by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1

      Contraception.
      Education.

    53. Re:Feminism at work by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1

      THANOS.

    54. Re:Feminism at work by Barsteward · · Score: 1

      Yes it does need to grow because you will eventually get a smaller and smaller working population and then less tax revenues and your economy shrinks etc etc

      --
      "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
    55. Re:Feminism at work by Barsteward · · Score: 1

      For that to work, you'd have shoot all the people that only want to increase their wealth by expansion of the economy.

      --
      "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
    56. Re:Feminism at work by DamnOregonian · · Score: 1

      You have my vote.

    57. Re:Feminism at work by Barsteward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      extreme left and extreme right are both sides of the same coin and both not needed

      --
      "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
    58. Re:Feminism at work by DamnOregonian · · Score: 1, Troll

      He didn't leave it out, he just didn't want to mislead people like you seem bent on doing.

      The communists in question were fascists. To the core.
      Slaughtering humans and letting them starve because they're an inferior breed of Rus aren't any tenants of Communism that I'm aware of.
      The real problem, is that *most* revolutions end up with some form of fascist government, regardless of their economic model. America lucked out in this regard.
      When the world sees communism for real, and not simple fascism dressed in red, it will come form scandinavia.

    59. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Need more people? Half a billion muslims are looking for a new home

    60. Re:Feminism at work by DamnOregonian · · Score: 1

      Sounds like an alternative to "Everyone I hate or has ever done anything bad is a Nazi."

      Sounds like gaslighting. Like the assholes who spout clearly fascist beliefs and complain about being Godwin'd in the same breath. It must seem so clever to you.
      Nu uh, YOU'RE the fascist!

    61. Re:Feminism at work by martyros · · Score: 4, Insightful

      While they called themselves "communism", they actually fall under fascism in most respects that matter.

      First of all, it doesn't matter if they were "really" communist or not, you left them out. They were certainly atheists, so maybe you should have called them "organized atheism".

      Second, we could play the same "Are they really X?" game with religion. The people who did the worst atrocities in the Crusades, as with Islam extremists today, often clearly violated the teaching of the leaders in whose name they claim to be acting. So either those people don't count as "organized religion", because they weren't "really" Christians / Muslims / whatever; or, Stalin and Pol Pot and Mao do count as "communists" (and "atheists"), because whatever Marx would have thought of them, they did see themselves as trying to follow his teaching.

      You can't have it both ways: You can't tar me with the Crusades without accepting the black mark of the Killing Fields.

      --

      TCP: Why the Internet is full of SYN.

    62. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The AI overlords will be without work soon as well if there is no population to use them and they don't use each others services. The only way forward is to give our AI overlords a penchant for cheap disposable sh1te from China, that's the only way the economy can survive as well

    63. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      LOL!

      perhaps the US actively works to try and reduce the number of children born in the US... like most european countries are doing with their less than optimal politicians and their less than optimal politics and their less than optimal laws..

      It has never been easy being a family with kids in my country and in the last 10 years it has been made more difficukt by politicians each and every year.. despite the desperate need to encurage people to have more children.... It is almost as stupid as Android phones with notches!

    64. Re:Feminism at work by Raenex · · Score: 2

      For that to work, you'd have shoot all the people that only want to increase their wealth by expansion of the economy.

      Nope. I know primitive brains have a deep knee-jerk reflex to reach for violence, but given that 99% are not the 1%, you only need to come up with a solution that actually works and implement it. As much as I derided BitCoin in the past, and still think it's deeply flawed, I do respect how it started from one man and eventually made a wave that went across the word.

    65. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not Stalin, that man was just a crass opportunist who picked the right faction at the right time.

      Mao and Pol Pot on the other hand are what happens with communism and collectivization taken to the extreme.

      We can probably agree the problem is extremism, not communism or capitalism or religon.

      Except Fascism. "when did it stop being OK to punch NAZIs?"

    66. Re: Feminism at work by Reverend+Green · · Score: 1

      Friends don't let friends date feminists.

    67. Re: Feminism at work by Ayano · · Score: 1

      I suggest you keep working in Vietnam, no American corp wants you.

      --
      I don't read AC
    68. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Thanos' solution is actually pretty lame because eliminating just 50 percent of the population doesn't solve the problem. The hard fact that we must accept is that 99% of us is not needed anymore and the endgame for mankind is that the One Percenters become all that is left. With just 1% of the world population, and the most talented and successful at that, technology will become fully sustainable. There will be a paradise on earth, just not for you and me. For us there will only be the mass graves.

    69. Re:Feminism at work by Ayano · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You're confusing traditional Seneca Falls feminism with the newer 'femi-nazism' that's creeping along social media.

      Feminism is about equal opertunity, true feminists won't mind chivalry but nor will they expect it where a feminazi would want both in their hypocritical mind.

      Also I don't see what your 'social family duties' have to do with this, are you advocating that women should be pressured into marriage commitments and the traditional 'wife' role? You feel like you missed something that required giving women less choice, and more societal pressure?

      From someone who has mentored exemplary young women in a professional environment, I really have no words for that if so. Women can balance work and life goals such as a family on their own terms with a partner, not a caretaker as some groups would advocate.

      --
      I don't read AC
    70. Re:Feminism at work by misexistentialist · · Score: 1

      They aren't choosing anything, they are doing what they are told to do by corporations and government. All you have to look at is who benefits: the women usually have unsatisfactory lives before being snuffed out without a trace from this world, while corporations and government grow and prosper forever from female labor and votes.

    71. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It was before welfare.

    72. Re:Feminism at work by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 0

      Collective ideologies demand the good of the group before the good of the individual. Are you in favor of collectivism? Why are you arguing against your own side?

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    73. Re:Feminism at work by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 0

      LOL that's a whopper there. Where do you come up with this? The corporations are ruining women for their votes and labor? Whose idea was it that women should vote and enter the workforce? Feminists. I think your rage is misdirected.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    74. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      irst of all, it doesn't matter if they were "really" communist or not, you left them out.

      Actually, it does. Otherwise we'd get confused about who people are, versus what they lie about being.

      They were certainly atheists, so maybe you should have called them "organized atheism".

      And here we have a sign of your own bias, don't we?

      Second, we could play the same "Are they really X?" game with religion.

      It isn't a game. It is a necessary component of rational discourse, and is, in fact, a central tenet of religions such as Christianity.

      You can't have it both ways: You can't tar me with the Crusades without accepting the black mark of the Killing Fields.

      You have it backwards, you can't excuse yourself and condemn others without accepting the very same tenet yourself. And it goes beyond the Crusades, try reading the 95 Theses, or the reports on sex abuse in the Catholic Church, or the Lost Cause of the Confederacy, or the tobacco industry, the lead industry, or the asbestos industry.

      People forget how many smoking has killed just because there is no concentration.

      So go ahead and judge, we'll judge you right back.

    75. Re:Feminism at work by William+Baric · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I'm not confusing anything. Since the Suffragettes, feminism was always about power. The "equal opportunity" of second-wave feminism was only a (dishonest) selling pitch, not the goal. You say that "true feminist" won't mind "chivalry". OK, but what men will get in return for being chivalrous? What men will get in return for protecting and constantly helping women?

      I don't know if you are a man who is virtue signaling in order to get sex or one of those "feminazi", but I find it very revealing that you completely missed my message. I talked about me. I talked about me who should have been pressured into marriage and the traditional husband role, even if my freedom looked more appealing. Yet, you immediately changed the subject to make it about women. Why?

      Of course, I certainly acknowledge that any social duties imposed on men should be reciprocated with social duties imposed on women, so I do acknowledge that women too should be pressured to play their traditional roles, but it doesn't change that you think only about women and completely ignore men. What does that say about you?

      Anyway, your idea that women can still have a "partner" is dying. I live in Quebec, where feminism is very strong, and as a result most men are now like me. The synthetic marriage rate (the number of women who will marry at least once before the age of 50) has fallen to 30% for women and 27% for men. Only 30% of women will find a husband, and considering that the divorce rate is about 50%, it means not a lot of women will be able to find a stable partner.

      You said women should get things on their own terms. Well, in my case, when one of my clients wants to get things on his own terms, what I do is to tell him to find someone else.

    76. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      *Date*, yes. It's been amazing in my years as a poon-hound how many politically radical feminists wound up spending nights with me instead of the "nice guy" male feminists, the "just friends" fools who never actually asked the women for sex. I spent the 80's and 90's doing that very effectively. Now... well, I've slowed down and need to not date where I work, so we'll see how what I do at the new workplace. (Automated myself right out of the job at my last workplace!)

    77. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Communism "removed filth from society" mainly by putting filth in charge of society, where it committed the Holodomor and countless other crimes of murder, mass murder, torture, political repression, forced labor death camps, wrecking and ruining their societies and peoples. That is what you embrace? The most charitable thing we can say is you are morally confused. More likely is you are consumed by evil. You should repent.

    78. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The biggest problem with immigrants is the lack of integration. There once was a live/die expression known throughout the world in every language. When in Rome, do as the Romans. Itâ(TM)s that simple.

      I once watched a documentary a decade ago talking about immigration in England, and the way muslims were outcast etc. then they interviewed a young muslim man in his early twenties that had lived in England since he was a kid. He said it was all bullshit. He said that England is the easiest place to integrate if you want to. All you have to do is hang out in a pub and cheer for your favorite football (soccer) team.

      Its when people move somewhere, isolate themselves in grouped neighborhoods, only talk among themselves, and dont make an effort to introduce themselves to the locals that these problems fester. When trying to not be noticed, sometimes its like shining a spotlight on you. Its better to hide in plain sight.

    79. Re:Feminism at work by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1

      But the cohabitation rate in Quebec is very high... maybe people just realised that they don't need some ass in a frock (judge or priest) to give them gracious permission to be in a committed relationship. Who says some of the cohabitants aren't as committed to each other as married people? Quebec sounds like my kind of place -- a province of freethinkers.

    80. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      If the one percenters are all thats left then humanity is fucked. If tomorrow they woke up and the other 99% were gone, they would immediately start fighting amongst each other. Because thry know that _someone_ remaining is going to have to start doing some labor. Thats something no 1%er is prepared to do.

      The 1%ers do not represent the top 1% of society, only the wealthiest. Look no further than Paris Hilton or the Kardassians if you need proof of complete intellectual drains on society. They contribute nothing but amusement and crotch shots. Their parents built the empires they squander daily.

    81. Re:Feminism at work by William+Baric · · Score: 1

      How do you know "cohabitation rate in Quebec is very high"? I was never able to find any statistics on this. More than that, I was never able to find any statistics on the average duration of non-married relationships. From the people I know, I'd say they don't last long.

      Of course, if what you want is a short-term relationship, then I guess Quebec is your place.

    82. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      History also shows that nassive population correction is just around the corner. The black plague wiped out 2/3rds the world population at the moment it reached a point where every available scrap of land was used to grow grain to feed the masses.

      Luxuries like wine and cheese only returned after the land could be repurposed to these crafts. When food crisis becomes a growing concern, expect a course correction of historical proportions.

    83. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hes not wrong about religion though. Catholisism and the muslim faith both have a goal of massice population growth in order to grow their power base.

      Policies on Birth control has nothing to do with opposing gods will, and everything to do with growing power. Youre telling me a religion that believes god impregnated a woman without her having sex, can so easily be thwarted by a condom or hormone regulation??? What a weak ass god he must be, how ever did he part the red sea or make locust infest egypt or level the town of Sodom.

    84. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sorry, faggo. I don’t live in FagTown like you.

    85. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not one or the other. Think a little.

    86. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes. We have the solution to overpopulation, it is called war and starvation. When a plot of land becomes to populated to sustain the animals living on it, they animals will fight and kill them selves, or starve. Either way the remaining members of the species are the fittest and continue to breed a heathier species. Unfortunately human kind has been infected with something I call white liberalism.

      White liberals have the mistaken belief that they are not animals and that somehow everyone should be nice and do no mean things. They want a world where people and species do not die out. Because they are so very very nice and do not want to overburden the planet or take up space that was being used by black or brown people they will be replaced with animals that are not infected with the pathology of liberalism. This is happening as we speak.

    87. Re:Feminism at work by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      Of course you can't keep population growing when you have one child and one cripple.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    88. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Feminism was created by rich oligarchs to ensure that they had a steady supply of cheap labor. They reasoned that if a family has two people working, you can pay each of them half the wages and get twice the work output. When you had only the male working you had to pay him enough to support a wife and children. Since slavery was abolished another source of cheap labor was needed. Now girls are not working for themselves to create a stable loving family. Instead they are working in the factory or convenience store to make the landed gentry money. They call this progress and liberalism.

      Back in the old days, before feminism, you had the women taking care of the family, and the man getting the money. Now thanks to feminism, you have both genders working dead end jobs to make money for oligarchs. The oligarchs will use the money to bribe the government to provide cheap abortions, and subsidized child care so that they parental units don't feel the need to rise up and demand enough money to support children.

      It's a brave new world

    89. Re:Feminism at work by west · · Score: 0

      Feminism is worse than organized religion. At least most organized religion understood human nature and tried to force people to adopt a behavior that would bring them happiness.

      Oh, please. What's next - blacks are "naturally" slaves (as was claimed by many Confederates)? You sound like a small Southern farm-owner after emancipation, bemoaning how life has gone downhill for you.

      Feminism may not have benefited you personally - after all, what's not to like about having an attentive partner who handles all the emotional and physical scut-work of raising a family, while your responsibilities are limited to bringing home an income. We men had it very good for many years. But a system based on oppression is unethical, and believing "but they want to be oppressed!" is pathetic.

      And if you really can't stand equality (an acceptable option), then you have the option of "going your own way". But don't pretend you should have the *right* to such cultural and social dominance or even more sad, that such inequality is in the best interest of the oppressed.

      (And let's not straw-man feminism. Take the beliefs of 10 of your closest female work-mates - that's the feminism worth debating, as opposed to some random person on the Internet.)

    90. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or better technology will develop. A hundred years ago most experts thought the Earth couldn't take any more people at 1.3 billion and contemporary experts would agree with that assessment. Then the green revolution in agriculture happened plus other technological advances such as refrigeration and suddenly we could feed a LOT more people. Technology will allow more people to exist. The next big issue in agriculture is uneven distribution. A revolution in that would make what we grow feed a ton more people.

    91. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're halfway to thinking about the eventual end-game of secularist relationships.

      Part of the reason a justice of the peace signs the form is so that there exists legal standing for a spouse to sue for support in the event of a divorce. Society (at some level) realizes that children without financial support is terrible and does its best to try to keep one (or both) parents from simply abandoning their children.

      Heinlein actually envisioned the end-game a long time ago: eventually families become legal constructs between two (or more, Heinlein was actually remarkably freethinking in this regard for his time) consenting adults for the purposes of forming a family. My point is that you still probably want the legal framework in place even if you're against the religious aspect.

    92. Re: Feminism at work by cyber-vandal · · Score: 1

      Life was a bit more complex than that even in the past. Let's also not forget that "just" bringing home an income often meant working in hazardous conditions on a daily basis.

    93. Re:Feminism at work by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 0

      No one is obligated to breed kids for the good of the country. If women want to work, eat, pray, love whatever, it's their business -- you can't choose others' path in life for them.

      We can't? But can we "nudge" them to a path though, for the good of the country?

      With a tax here, a subsidy there, some in-school propaganda there? Or perhaps some six figure fines for violating brand new social norms?

      Or is that only OK for the things that you think are good for the country?

    94. Re:Feminism at work by William+Baric · · Score: 1

      Apart from ridiculous straw men and absurd conspiracy theories ("system based on oppression"), do you have any argument? I guess not.

    95. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's easier to make America great when you first make it empty.

    96. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yes, definitely millions of violent, religious, uneducated invaders is exactly what we need to solve all our problems! Just look at how that's working for Europe! Mass sex assaults, mass murders, terrorized citizens, and antisemitism not seen since the Nazis!

    97. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The Democrats are rushing us towards suicide with mass importation of cheap labor. Not sure why you would attribute this fucking insanity to the guy trying to stop it.

    98. Re:Feminism at work by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Funny how you left that out and threw in "Organized Religion."

      Not necessarily; Communism in many countries is an organized religion on its own.

      if you are genuinely interested and opposed to "the most evil movements the human race has ever seen." It is actually backwards.

      The most human race the evil movements have ever seen?

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    99. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Like when the Chinese executed teachers, engineers, and anyone who wore glasses?

      You are a fucking imbecile.

    100. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When you started to label anyone that you disagree with, even slightly, as a Nazi.

    101. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      But we don't need to be racist towards our Indian brethren.

      A banker, a worker, an immigrant and a politician are sitting around a table with 10 cookies on it. Without warning the banker grabs 9 cookies and shoves them all in his mouth. Everybody looks perplexed and is silent for a second, then the politician leans over to the worker and says "Watch out, that immigrant is eyeing your cookie".

    102. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, but they are not true Scottish Communists!

    103. Re:Feminism at work by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      inists have children

      There are feminists and there are feminists.

    104. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Holy shit you are brainwashed. Seek help.

    105. Re:Feminism at work by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      who bred like rabbits

      We can blame the Vatican for that. How about their closeted asses break out the valuables and start taking responsibility for their sick, feudalist shit?

    106. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      First of all, it doesn't matter if they were "really" communist or not, you left them out. They were certainly atheists, so maybe you should have called them "organized atheism".

      You are indulging in the availability fallacy. You focus on one characteristic that is prominent in your view and assume that is the cause of the problems. Its simplistic and says more about the person whose focus is drawn to that characteristic than it does about the characteristic itself.

      There have been atrocities committed by regimes that weren't communist but shared other more relevant characteristics with groups like the Khmer Rouge. For example, the 3rd reich was not communist and were only socialist in the same way the DPRK is democratic.

    107. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Great analogy. I would also mention the banker throwing up some of his cookies into the politician's mouth and patting him on the head like a dog.

    108. Re:Feminism at work by Type44Q · · Score: 2

      That would be to improve society... and, by definition, to reduce society's "dependence" on the machinations of the elite: If you and I are either producing what we need (or are able to obtain it from each other through barter), what the fuck do we need them for?

    109. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seems like good advice. Might make a few friends and live a happy life too.

    110. Re:Feminism at work by Dragonslicer · · Score: 0

      You say that "true feminist" won't mind "chivalry". OK, but what men will get in return for being chivalrous? What men will get in return for protecting and constantly helping women?

      If you're only being polite and helping people because you expect something in return, then I would argue that you aren't really being polite or helping people.

      I'm going to take a wild guess and say this attitude is a major reason that you've had trouble starting a meaningful relationship.

    111. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If feminists didn't want sex and children then why are they so concerned with birth control, sexual liberation, parental leave etc?

      Why not? There's no contradiction here.

      The first two are all about having sex WITHOUT children. When you want people to have sex AND children, giving them to option to have but not the other will inevitably lead to more people taking that option.

      (Not saying we should force people to have sex and kids, the point is supporting sex without kids is not the same as supporting sex and kids)

      Parental leave by normal definitions would be about children, but by normal I mean that's how the traditional conservative patriarchy defines it. It's not the one feminists use.

      By feminists definitions, parental leave is about money (e.g paying women enough to take time off to have kids). Thing is, sex and children aren't about money. It's about love, trust, family, sacrifice, etc. By focusing so much on cold numbers, feminists have made many women (and men) view relationships as a cold hearted numbers game, and that attitude does not foster the kind of trusting relationships that lead to sex and children.

    112. Re:Feminism at work by ranton · · Score: 1

      Maybe the ecahhhhnamy needs to be restructured so it can function even without continuous growth, sprawl, and environmental depredation.

      The economy would run just fine without continuous exponential growth, it is only our standard of living which would be reduced. Currently most adults are burdened with supporting their children for 18+ years while they are not productive, but they are not burdened with supporting their parents for 30+ years of retirement. Exponential growth of the economy currently allows us to save around 20% of our salary throughout our career and then live off the proceeds while retired because it grew exponentially. If that level of growth stopped, we would simply need to save around 50+% of our salary throughout our careers. Either that or we would be spending nearly half our salaries supporting our parents.

      Depending on how long our economy's exponential growth continues, that eventual reduction in our standard of living may still be much higher than we have today.

      --
      -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
    113. Re:Feminism at work by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No one is obligated to breed kids for the good of the country. If women want to work, eat, pray, love whatever, it's their business -- you can't choose others' path in life for them.

      That s correct. One of the oddest things about this whole matter though is that in all of the stories about the falling birth rate, the focus is very gynocentric.

      Which is a little odd - if you don't consider the other half of the equation, you don't get the whole picture.

      The only time we get any mention of the male aspect of this birth issue is attack pieces on this so-called MGTOW movement, men who have dropped out of the relationship game. And as passive avoidance, it is becoming a problem.

      I guess you might consider "types' of men involved. The divorced and now indigent males who are no longer attractive as support providers, the traditional nerds and otherwise males unattractive to women come to mind.

      But there is a new sub-group of normal men who have simply chosen to opt out of relationships because it offers benefits like less financial drain, avoidance of the divorce trap, and greater overall freedom.

      Coupled with the new demographic in Universities of female to male ratio, largely in favor of the females, and still growing, there are a lot of well educated women in high paying jobs that simply cannot find a male that measures up to their standards. They aren't freezing their eggs because there are men lined up to mate with them. A lot of ladies, and a much smaller pool of acceptable men.

      I suppose the issue of men choosing to remain childless and out of relationships with women doesn't fit the narrative, but not addressing it at all except in hit pieces describing these men alternately as selfish jerks and pathetic weasels isn't helping the women's cause.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    114. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't worry, a variant of H1N1 is going to cull the herd in the next few years.

    115. Re:Feminism at work by mjwx · · Score: 1

      You left out Communism., which killed far more than Fascism. Funny how you left that out and threw in "Organized Religion." That would seem hard to do if you are genuinely interested and opposed to "the most evil movements the human race has ever seen." It is actually backwards.

      Communism did its damage over nearly a century and most of those deaths were unintentional consequences. Facsism achieved most of its deaths in 3 short years and those were targeted and deliberate.

      Hey, but keep telling yourself Fascism is Good(TM) because Communism is bad... Its like saying you'd rather have Hepatitis E over AIDS... Personally I'd rather not have either.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    116. Re:Feminism at work by Thelasko · · Score: 1

      We live on a planet of finite size with finite resources, and it's very unlikely that we'll have the means to ship billions of people into space over the next century.

      But I just invested my entire 401k in a startup building a Dyson sphere!

      --
      One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
    117. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      While they called themselves "communism", they actually fall under fascism in most respects that matter.

      First of all, it doesn't matter if they were "really" communist or not, you left them out. They were certainly atheists, so maybe you should have called them "organized atheism".

      Second, we could play the same "Are they really X?" game with religion. The people who did the worst atrocities in the Crusades, as with Islam extremists today, often clearly violated the teaching of the leaders in whose name they claim to be acting. So either those people don't count as "organized religion", because they weren't "really" Christians / Muslims / whatever; or, Stalin and Pol Pot and Mao do count as "communists" (and "atheists"), because whatever Marx would have thought of them, they did see themselves as trying to follow his teaching.

      You can't have it both ways: You can't tar me with the Crusades without accepting the black mark of the Killing Fields.

      Not a single person has ever actually followed their religious dogma of choice. They distort and twist it to meet whatever criteria they want. That's how religion works. It encourages magical thinking as an alternative to actual fact and then punishes either directly or indirectly those who question said dogma. It's been this way as long as we've recorded religious history. It isn't both ways, it's only one way and that way follows very closely with any other dictator. If you believe or do ANYTHING based on the fairy tale you choose to believe as told by some random person or book you're a fool. Plain and simple.

    118. Re: Feminism at work by Thelasko · · Score: 1

      Have you never even once met a *nice* Indian person? I have, many times. They, like us, are but pawns in a bigger game.

      Americans and Indians have a lot in common. It's easy to underestimate the impact of British colonialism on a culture.

      --
      One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
    119. Re:Feminism at work by Hognoxious · · Score: 2

      *to* dumb to parent, *to* dumb to breed.

      Sow cut you're bawls of, write know.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    120. Re:Feminism at work by ceoyoyo · · Score: 2

      Modern economies are based on continual exponential growth. From the stock market to pension plans, they all depend on it.

      If your population doesn't grow, that's probably not going to happen. And yeah, it has to end sometime, but the western countries are all desperately trying to stave off the day of reckoning, mostly with very open immigration policies and paying people to have kids.

    121. Re: Feminism at work by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

      Ahem.

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    122. Re:Feminism at work by hey! · · Score: 1

      People always make the same mistake about processes like this; they imagine the country with a stable population, perhaps somewhat smaller than it is today, and ask themselves is that a bad idea? Or they imagine a world 4 degrees warmer than it was in the 1800s; that doesn't sound so bad, does it?

      The mistake is that they're imagining the stable aftermath and ignoring the stress that the rate of change puts on our ability to adapt.

      The population of the US has been growing briskly since 1776, and our society is dependent upon that fact. While a stable, smaller population would be arguably better, a rapid transition to zero population growth will feel like the demographic equivalent of cancer chemotherapy. It depends on our ability to prepare for the transition in advance.

      Oh, wait, the underclasses will breed like rabbits and immigrants will flood our country because we're rich. Fuck.

      Actually this is quite easy to fix. Provide birth control and abortion services to women and teenage girls and the problem would be sorted. But right there you see why change is generally bad for the US. We'd rather deny change is happening or complain about it than do something.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    123. Re:Feminism at work by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 3, Interesting

      We lucked out in the US because the men who founded the country believed in something radical - that Government exists to serve men, not the other way around. Our rights are extra-Governmental, and the individual is the unit of value - not the community. We'd be well-served to remember that, but alas it's been slipping for 100 years...

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    124. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually I think pretty well of the Indians I know. And lots of other immigrant groups as well.

      What you need to realize is that the problem isnâ(TM)t specific immigrant groups (although I certainly agree there are some we could do without), the problem is diversity itself.

      Diversity + Proximity = War

      As admirable as Indians may be, their interests are in conflict with my interests, and that isnâ(TM)t going to end well.

    125. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mass extermination programs for Africa would probably do more to accomplish that than anything else I can think of.

    126. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Given that our current crop of elderly are the boomers who created this clusterfuck, color me not sympathetic.

      The Day of the Pillow looms over the horizon!

    127. Re: Feminism at work by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Are the interests of grandchildren of German, Irish, and Eyetalian immigrants in conflict, or are they all Americans at this point?

    128. Re:Feminism at work by VFA · · Score: 4, Funny

      A ton of people is about 100 - 200 people.

    129. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Suck it up, loser!

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29Mg6Gfh9Co

    130. Re: Feminism at work by orlanz · · Score: 1

      Historically, this has happened to the Native Americas, Africans, Irish, Scottish, Italians, Chinese, Japanese, Mexicans, Taiwanese, Russians, etc. And it is totally natural. May seem weird for Americans because we are a melting pot but if you go to other countries that are far far older civilizations, people split, identify, and group themselves over the smallest things. Same religion, dialect, history, location... difference is the day they are vegan (of course there are other minor things too). Or side of the river they are from. Or their family name/crest. This is natural.

      As for the US, the first batch of adult immigrants struggle to survive here. Everything is unfamiliar and different from what they adapted to over a lifetime. They don't want to accidentally offend and cause trouble because life is already hard and they know even harder times they fled. So they collect and congregate and identify. This causes tension with the "locals" because with that identification, comes placement of blame and a direction to vent frustrations against, justified or not. This makes it even more difficult for the younger immigrants who don't have the history of the old ways and are curious about the new. They have to choose one side and some try to become locals with the stigma of the old identity. Others continue with the old and continue the tensions. Some form gangs and groups for protection of "their" kind and shunning the deserters.

      But the locally born children or grandchildren of the immigrants end up totally integrating. They aren't cemented in the old ways and the new is whats most familiar for them. The younger immigrants have already cleared the paths of integration and now its a two way street where both "locals" learn from each other.

      ALL immigrants eventually integrate. Eventually, all "locals" integrate too. Historically it took 3-4 generations, but these days it is only taking the younger and first born to meld to a new culture. Look at what we consider "American culture" in the US. There is very little that didn't come from somewhere else. The old "flower power" culture is more foreign than what most foreigners bring today. There is as much variance between regions of the US as there is between racially divided neighborhoods.

    131. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What about personal responsibility?

    132. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nice whataboutism.

    133. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because they are parasites. As are you.

    134. Re:Feminism at work by orlanz · · Score: 1, Interesting

      We are no where close to maxing out our planet. Most of that nonsense is based on 1940s research where they saw ever increasing population growth & that our planet had limits. They figured by now we would be at 10 billion or some nonsense. But today, we do a ton of inefficient things and waste a ton of resources because we live in relative abundance. People around the world do not starve based on maxing out resources but do so for political & cultural reasons.

      We also haven't been in "exponential growth" for a few decades. 50 years ago, we had much of the world's population below developing nations. Now most of the world's population live in developing nations and there are very few below that category. Most of the developed nations are not seeing a local population growth. So as the world develops and gets better, the world population growth will falter further.

      Some of us are probably going to leave for space in the next two to three centuries because of curiosity rather than a need from over population. But till then, we have a solution for barely growing populations... its call automation. That will carry us for centuries.

    135. Re:Feminism at work by Myrdos · · Score: 1

      It seems we are undertaking a selective breeding experiment on a massive scale. It used to mean that sex = kids. Now, irresponsible sex or actually wanting to have kids = kids. I'll wager in 200 years not having children will seem very strange, much like living as a hermit now. Because people who don't want kids will have been bred out of the gene pool, over and over again.

      We will breed a different kind of man, one who wants commitment, family, and one-night stands without protection.

    136. Re:Feminism at work by swillden · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Maybe the ecahhhhnamy needs to be restructured so it can function even without continuous growth, sprawl, and environmental depredation.

      It's not the economy that's the problem, it's our approach to aging and retirement. Because the working population supports the retirees, we need to maintain the ratio of workers to retirees above one, preferably well above.

      If we can stave this problem off for two or three decades, I think automation will solve it. Or, rather, automation will produce a different problem, where we need very few workers. Total production will be massively higher (and can continue growing unboundedly) so we'll have plenty, we'll just need to distribute it differently.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    137. Re:Feminism at work by DamnOregonian · · Score: 1

      First, no. I'm most definitely not trying to defend communism. I'm a capitalist through and through. I'm just smarter than you.
      No one said they weren't followers of Marx. I said the aspect you criticized them for was most certainly not Marxism in any form, it was a side effect of the fact that most revolutions end in Fascist authoritarian governments to hold on to their power, regardless of the economic model. That's called explaining how you're wrong, not invoking a No True Scotsman fallacy. The way you use No True Scotsman, pointing out any objective example of how a criticism toward a group isn't a diagnostic characteristic of that group is a fallacy. In short, it's a pathetic attempt at silencing people you can't actually argue with. Good job. You're so clever ;)

    138. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      True, if you were weighing them on the moon, or you are only including new-born babies in your set of people.

      1 ton = 2000 lbs = 10-20 people

    139. Re:Feminism at work by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Quebec sounds like my kind of place -- a province of freethinkers.

      You mispelled "French assholes".

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    140. Re: Feminism at work by c6gunner · · Score: 3, Interesting

      This is natural.

      Maybe so, but "natural" is not the same as "good" or "desirable". The issue isn't solely one of immigrants not wanting to integrate; it becomes a much larger issue when a society no longer encourages them to do so.

      As for the US, the first batch of adult immigrants struggle to survive here. Everything is unfamiliar and different from what they adapted to over a lifetime. ... So they collect and congregate and identify. ... But the locally born children or grandchildren of the immigrants end up totally integrating.

      And this isn't inherently true either. My parents immigrated with me when I was a child. From day one they took to the new life and integrated into the community. Meanwhile we had relatives who had moved to the country 15 years earlier and had children my age who were born here; their children spoke English almost as poorly as I did because they had been completely isolated in an immigrant community and raised to speak "our language". I also had friends growing up who, despite being born here, mainly sought out friends and business relationships with people of the same ancestry, and were far more passionate about "the old country" than I was, or than their parents were.

      We've also seen - repeatedly - cases of Islamic terrorists who were born in a western countries to well integrated moderate parents, and then self-segragated themselves later on in life.

      It's complicated.

    141. Re: Feminism at work by c6gunner · · Score: 1

      The economy depends on exponential population growth.

      [Citation Needed]

    142. Re: Feminism at work by c6gunner · · Score: 1

      Modern economies are based on continual exponential growth. From the stock market to pension plans, they all depend on it.

      1. No, they don't require "exponential growth", they only require growth.

      2. Financial growth and population growth are not inherently linked.

    143. Re: Feminism at work by c6gunner · · Score: 1

      I would be perfectly fine with letting you punch fascists as long as we also got to punch commies. Fair is fair.

    144. Re:Feminism at work by Gilgaron · · Score: 2, Funny

      Wait, so what you're saying is that I can setup a harem of highly educated women in high paying jobs that are hard up for worthy mates? "Sorry, honey, it is my duty to the public to pick up the slacks from all the incel guys"

    145. Re:Feminism at work by nospam007 · · Score: 1

      "Does the population need to grow?"

      Yes, it's in the Bible, duh!

    146. Re: Feminism at work by c6gunner · · Score: 1

      That's a good response, but you're abit off. Communism inherently requires authoritarianism. You're going to have one hell of a time trying to "redistribute" lands, jobs, and wealth, without it.

      Marx didn't advocate imposing communism by force; he believed that it would emerge organically as the wealth of mankind increased. I suppose that eventually that might still happen, though I suspect that there will never be a "true communism" like the one he imagined but rather a heavily socialist society which mixes communist and capitalist values/traits. Either way, any attempt to institute communism from the top down is doomed to result in exactly the kinds of atrocities we've already seen, so it's perfectly valid to blame communism as an ideology.

    147. Re: Feminism at work by ceoyoyo · · Score: 2

      What you probably consider growth IS exponential growth.

      How much do you think the economy should grow every year? 10%? 1%? 0.1%? Those are all exponential growth.

      Financial growth and population growth don't have to be linked, but they generally are in a modern economy. People make and buy more things as more products are produced, especially if you can play tricks like making things wear out faster, but the whole thing looks a lot better if you've got more people too. It's easy to find a historical GDP chart, or the year-over-year GDP growth numbers, but try finding the same thing per capita. It's possible, but it's harder to find. And you won't see it on the news or the president talking about it.

    148. Re: Feminism at work by DamnOregonian · · Score: 1

      Communism inherently requires redistribution. That does *not* require authoritarianism. If you need authoritarianism to impose communism, then it is not supported by your populace, and you're a dictator.

      As you pointed out, Marx believed it would emerge organically, and *must* emerge organically for it to succeed.
      As I said previously, I believe if communism ever comes to this world, it'll be in one of the scandinavian societies that are already heavily socialist.

      It isn't valid to blame communism as an ideology, unless you also want to blame capitalism as an ideology.
      Almost all revolutions are literally an act of imposing your will from the top-down. The only real difference between communist revolutions and capitalist revolutions, are that the communist ones seem to survive longer.

      America is an outlier with regard to non-authoritarian revolutions.

    149. Re: Feminism at work by c6gunner · · Score: 1

      If you're only being polite and helping people because you expect something in return, then I would argue that you aren't really being polite or helping people.

      But this is the whole reason we formed societies and social contracts in the first place. I promise not to murder you or steal your shit, and in return you promise not to murder me or steal my shit. If I'm the only one actually following the norms then they become detrimental. The reason we follow social norms is because we expect to receive the benefits of living in that society.

      Most people don't think of it in those terms - we tend to dress it up in terms of "honour", "chivalry", and "charity" - but this action/benefit equation is built into us and underlies whatever reasons we dream up to explain our behaviour. When the social structure of nation breaks down in times of war or natural disaster people's behaviour changes drastically, exactly because the equation has changed.

    150. Re:Feminism at work by jeff4747 · · Score: 0

      OK, but what men will get in return for being chivalrous? What men will get in return for protecting and constantly helping women? ...
      I don't know if you are a man who is virtue signaling in order to get sex or one of those "feminazi"

      Relationships are not transaction-based. You do not get a card where you get a blowjob after 10 "nice guy" stamps.

      I talked about me. I talked about me who should have been pressured into marriage and the traditional husband role, even if my freedom looked more appealing. Yet, you immediately changed the subject to make it about women. Why?

      Because men aren't forced into the roles you claim they are forced into. Men were the ones deciding what those roles are, so men chose the roles they would prefer to take on.

      but it doesn't change that you think only about women and completely ignore men. What does that say about you?

      Not the parent poster, but it shows I'm not a denizen of r/incel.

      We menfolk have it really good. All those traditional gender roles? We never had to obey them. You could go ahead and never get married. You could go ahead and abandon your family. You could go ahead and fuck any woman regardless of your marriage vows.

      This feels like oppression to you because you're losing elevated status, not because you're actually oppressed.

      Anyway, your idea that women can still have a "partner" is dying. I live in Quebec, where feminism is very strong, and as a result most men are now like me. The synthetic marriage rate (the number of women who will marry at least once before the age of 50) has fallen to 30% for women and 27% for men. Only 30% of women will find a husband, and considering that the divorce rate is about 50%, it means not a lot of women will be able to find a stable partner.

      You realize that "partner" does not mean "spouse", right?

      Let's go to the numbers: https://www.statcan.gc.ca/tabl...
      Married + Common Law in Quebec = 47% of the population.
      Married + Common Law in Ontario = 47% of the population.

      My God, look at that massive difference!! Quebec is clearly a place where people can't possibly form long term relationships without being forced into them by society!!!! Or not.

      Well, in my case, when one of my clients wants to get things on his own terms, what I do is to tell him to find someone else.

      Golly....I wonder why you're having so much trouble with long-term relationships.....it's not like there's a massive warning sign, alarm klaxon and flashing lights around this sentence.

      Once again, relationships are not transaction-based.

    151. Re:Feminism at work by jeff4747 · · Score: 3, Informative

      How do you know "cohabitation rate in Quebec is very high"? I was never able to find any statistics on this

      Really? You must not have looked hard.

      https://www.statcan.gc.ca/tabl...

    152. Re:Feminism at work by William+Baric · · Score: 1

      If I'm being polite and helping people, I certainly do expect people to do the same with me. This is part of our basic social contract. If you are polite and help people who won't do the same with you, then you are just being abused, and I suggest you get away from those people as the only result will be that you'll end up bitter and vengeful.

      As for starting a meaningful relationship, who said I had trouble doing so? I said I never felt I had the duty to do so. Can you understand the difference?

      Duties are what gives us a meaningful life. The duties parents have toward their children. The duties we have toward our neighbors. The duties we have toward our employer or our clients. The duties we have toward our society. Those are what is important in life. Unfortunately, this is something we can understand only when we are older.

    153. Re:Feminism at work by jeff4747 · · Score: 1

      That s correct. One of the oddest things about this whole matter though is that in all of the stories about the falling birth rate, the focus is very gynocentric.

      Which is a little odd - if you don't consider the other half of the equation, you don't get the whole picture.

      That's because the women are the ones who actually give birth. They're also the ones who decide whether or not to have a child the vast majority of the time. It's not like women actually need to be in a long-term relationship to get pregnant. Heck, sperm donors mean she doesn't even have to have sex.

      And as passive avoidance, it is becoming a problem.

      Citation required.

      the traditional nerds and otherwise males unattractive to women come to mind.

      What, are you 16?

      Nerds and "otherwise unattractive males" are quite in demand as "husband material". We are usually paid well, we don't have sufficient social skills to find a mistress, we tend to be far more devoted because we're thrilled that there's a woman who likes us.

      Now, it does require sufficient social skills to not drive all woman and most men away as soon as you open your mou.....oh, I see the problem.

    154. Re: Feminism at work by deadwill69 · · Score: 1

      Here's a like that is right up this line of thought. Found it the other day and shared it with some friends:

      http://time.com/5280446/baby-b...

    155. Re: Feminism at work by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Yes, definitely millions of violent, religious, uneducated invaders is exactly what we need to solve all our problems!

      When you quote something you should cite the source.
      --
      Powhatan, near modern-day Richmond, 1607.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    156. Re:Feminism at work by William+Baric · · Score: 1

      Relationships are not transaction-based. You do not get a card where you get a blowjob after 10 "nice guy" stamps.

      Relationships are contract-based, and like all contracts, each party expects to receive something for what they give, whether you like it or not.

      Because men aren't forced into the roles you claim they are forced into. Men were the ones deciding what those roles are, so men chose the roles they would prefer to take on.

      No, men never decided what role they should play. Those roles were decided by culture.

      Not the parent poster, but it shows I'm not a denizen of r/incel.

      Neither am I, but that doesn't mean I center my life around women. I'm not a "mangina".

      We menfolk have it really good. All those traditional gender roles? We never had to obey them. You could go ahead and never get married. You could go ahead and abandon your family. You could go ahead and fuck any woman regardless of your marriage vows.

      I wonder in what universe you are living. For example, one day I received a letter from my government telling me I had to do my mandatory military service. Not that I disliked it, in fact I loved my military service, but men have always had to fulfill a lot of obligations that women never had to do.

      As for abandoning your family, divorce for the common man is something that became a reality only in the 19th century, and men who chose that solution ended up with having to support their ex-wife anyway, meaning they still had to fulfill their part of the contract.

      The feminist idea that men had power is just fantasy. The vast majority of men had no power at all.

      This feels like oppression to you because you're losing elevated status, not because you're actually oppressed.

      I'm not saying I'm "oppressed", I'm saying women are now highly privileged compared to men.

      You realize that "partner" does not mean "spouse", right?

      Yes, I realize that, but I don't consider a relatively short-term relationship without true commitment is really "finding a partner".

      Quebec is clearly a place where people can't possibly form long-term relationships without being forced into them by society!!!! Or not.

      Living a few years together and then abandoning your supposed "partner" is not what I define as a "long-term relationship".

      Golly....I wonder why you're having so much trouble with long-term relationships.....it's not like there's a massive warning sign, alarm klaxon and flashing lights around this sentence.

      My point was that I never wanted a committed relationship. I never wanted to become the "stable partner" that a lot of women desire. I just didn't see what I would get from this, and unfortunately, I still don't. I do think it's bad for both men and women, I do think it's a mistake not to start a committed relationship, but that committed relationship must be framed and enforced by society, and be fair for both men and women. That's not the case anymore.

      Once again, relationships are not transaction-based.

      Once again, relationships are contract-based, and like all contracts, each party expects to receive something for what they give.

    157. Re:Feminism at work by William+Baric · · Score: 1

      The context was replacing marriage, which is supposed to be "for life". That's why I said, " I was never able to find any statistics on the average duration of non-married relationships".

      The statistics you linked includes "temporary" relationships, which are not a replacement for marriage. My point was that without marriage (and the legal obligations that go with it), most relationships last at most a few years.

    158. Re:Feminism at work by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1

      better people move on than be tied together in unhappiness by the so called majesty of the law.

    159. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What's up with the blatant racism? Fact is, assholes and cockwads are to found in all communities around the world over. In fact, I bet many have lived in the ISS high above at one point or another. But you want to meet the closest one? Look in thy mirror.

    160. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No one is obligated to breed kids for the good of the country. If women want to work, eat, pray, love whatever, it's their business -- you can't choose others' path in life for them.

      Tends to explain exactly how we got to a 30-year low for birth rates. Women are far more career oriented today. Blame equality. Blame feminism.
        Blame it on whatever the hell you want to blame it on. Bottom line is a woman's place is not automatically in the kitchen anymore, as it was for the last few thousand years.

    161. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually most feminists are more sexually deviant and perverted/nasty than the harshest misogynists they criticize.

    162. Re:Feminism at work by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1

      Have you done a survey personally -- how many have you slept with? :D

    163. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      99% would perish once super AI and automation, followed by a relatively short period of time for the remaining 1% as they engage in infighting. All that remains is the rest of nature and "The Machines".

      Humbling to think Humanity was just a temporary stepping stone to a much larger evolutionary goal.

    164. Re:Feminism at work by William+Baric · · Score: 1

      Why are so many people becoming unhappy with relationships? Why do they hop from one relationship to another so easily?

      Happiness is something we build, it's not something we find.

    165. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your assertion that these things are genetic is pretty far off base; these things are social. Without social stability it doesn't create the desire for men and women to have kids.
      Capitalism is DESIGNED to create instability and division. What we've done is take profit motives so far that we're destabilizing society, and it can only end in disaster because the system will eat itself.

    166. Re:Feminism at work by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

      While the idiocracy effect would certainly happen given enough time, if you think about it in terms of generations you see just how long that would take. One generation every twenty years - five every century, and it's going to take a lot more than five to achieve that level of change. Just ask any dog breeder.

    167. Re:Feminism at work by gweihir · · Score: 1

      You have been fucked in the head, seriously. Your propaganda is both incredibly stupid and incredibly disconnected from reality.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    168. Re:Feminism at work by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1

      Children should be entitled to support, but the concepts of maternity and paternity can exist outside of marriage. As far as spousal support after divorce, if you're talking about able-bodied adults of sound mind, none should be permitted. Marriage shouldn't be a ticket to a lifetime income.

    169. Re:Feminism at work by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Indeed. As is any other extreme. Because extremists disrespect and destroy (if they can) anybody that is not an extremist of the same color.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    170. Re:Feminism at work by gweihir · · Score: 1

      The communists in question were fascists. To the core.

      And that is just it. You are not a fascist because you or others claim you are one. There is a definition (with some fuzziness, as this is about the real world) and any group that matches that definition is a fascist one. It does not matter whether they claim to be a political group (left, right, communist, capitalist, anarchist, whatever), a religious one or something else. It matters what they do.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    171. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In other words, that would be socialism, and the CIA spends too much money murdering South Americans to allow for any of that.

    172. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And why exactly is that my problem? They had more than enough time to plan ahead.

    173. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Feminists i know have lots of sex, soul, and joy! You have quit being a dick and get to know them better.

    174. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Where do you live that is suffering an influx of Americans? I thought they didn't like to travel, let alone emigrate anywhere.

    175. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, the problem is that a modern lifestyle requires the income from both spouses to live properly - unless one has a helluva good paying job. Add to that a general tendency for governments to short-sightedly not want to pay for parental leave or child care, and no wonder having kids is a decision many couples put off as much as possible. Today we have cellphones, computers, internet, expensive cable TV, expensive housing, a couple needs two cars, etc. the cost of the toys we all want is so much higher that we cannot afford to also at for several children.

      Is this bad? Probably not. the world is already overpopulated. The birth rate is declining almost everywhere in the world as people become better off. Perhaps immigration can replace birth rates, but then we siphon the best and brightest from developing countries where they are most needed... and what happens when there is not enough new population anywhere?

      The world needs to adapt to a more steady-state economy. This does not mean stagnation. New tech, and replacing what we have as it wears out, provides the demand (as it generally does already). We see this, for example, with any industry. How many people are buying their first cellphone, versus replacing one? (And then subtract the number of cellphone owners who died). Same with DVD or Bluray players, TV's, automobiles, mattresses, microwave ovens and shoes. At a certain point the market is saturated. Few people are new to the market; the sales are due to replacement or technical innovation. Some industries (i.e. newspapers, movie theatres) are in decline, others (Netflix) are growing or replacing them. Mature markets even today measure their growth in a very small percent. (Even 1% implies doubling in 70 years. I doubt that's realistic today...)

    176. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Does the population need to grow?

      Ask Japan.

    177. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not so much that, I think...more that modern society, egalitarian or not, does not provide the support women need to have children. Despite "equality" women receive the brunt of the disadvantages of child-bearing and child-rearing. They have to endure the physical consequences; then they are called on most often in society and relationships to handle the heavy lifting of caring for children - housework, cooking, looking after sick kids, etc. For those "exemplary young women" especially, as opposed to low wage earners, they see that this would detract from a career path competing against most men and some other women who can put in extended hours and do not take a few months' leave; and then, there's the cost of child care (required presumably for someone who wants an "exemplary" sort of career). One they factor in these negatives against the positives, they tend to have few if any children - maybe zero or one compared to the baby-boom families of 3 to 5 children.

    178. Re:Feminism at work by jeff4747 · · Score: 1

      Do you need me to link the definition of common law marriage?

      Hint: It's not moving in with someone on a short-term basis.

    179. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Texas.

    180. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...it'll be in one of the scandinavian societies that are already heavily socialist.

      Time to bomb Sweden!

    181. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The divorced and now indigent males who are no longer attractive as support providers,

      Ouch. Why do those have to go hand in hand?

      the traditional nerds and otherwise males unattractive to women come to mind.

      OH! Well now, just fuck you too dude. There's no need for that sorta shit around here. Have you forgotten where you are?

    182. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes yes, and plants will crave Bradow. Cause it has electro lights.

      We've all seen that movie.

      I'm expecting something more along the lines of GATTACA with designer babies.

    183. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hot DAMN that's on the mark. ...kinda hurts too.

    184. Re:Feminism at work by William+Baric · · Score: 1

      Here in Quebec common law "marriage" doesn't give women a right to alimony, division of property, inheritance in case of death, etc. There is no commitment associated with common law "marriages". Ending a common law "marriage" is just about ending the relationship and declaring to the government and a few other legal entities (for example insurance companies) that you are not together anymore.

    185. Re:Feminism at work by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      "Can you understand the difference ?" is an interesting question from you. You object to "feminists" even when they don't mind chivalry. You say chivalry doesn't help the person doing it- fair enough, but he is doing it so he could be doing it in his understanding of his noble "duties" that you so adore.

      "Minding" chivalry is an act of violence, an interference in another man's life choices even if it does not affect you materially. Expecting chivalry is, also an attempt to dominate, and in that sense an instance of violence.

      The only non-violent way is to neither expect nor mind chivalry. Can you understand the difference ?

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    186. Re: Feminism at work by mapkinase · · Score: 1

      Economy needs 18-34 demographics to buy all the stupid excessive consumerist crap: iPhones, trips to Burning Man, engagement rings, cars wtih spoilers.

      --
      I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
    187. Re: Feminism at work by mapkinase · · Score: 1

      You can, but it is not needed for survival, so nobody gives a shit

      --
      I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
    188. Re: Feminism at work by mapkinase · · Score: 1

      > as with Islam extremists today

      You gotta be shitting me.

      --
      I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
    189. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why would anyone want to have sex with a feminist? I'd rather put my cock in a meat grinder.

    190. Re:Feminism at work by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      The divorced and now indigent males who are no longer attractive as support providers,

      Ouch. Why do those have to go hand in hand?

      Every time you divorce, you split half of everything with your ex-wife. And if there are children involved, a lot of money goes there as well. So most likely she will get the house as well. Very likely half of your retirement. So unless you are really wealthy, you are going to be pretty poor. Not as attractive a marriage prospect, and the new wife often having to deal with the drama that can sometimes come with dealing with an ex-wife and children.

      the traditional nerds and otherwise males unattractive to women come to mind.

      OH! Well now, just fuck you too dude. There's no need for that sorta shit around here. Have you forgotten where you are?

      Don't shoot the messenger.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    191. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It does need to grow because capitalism is a Ponzi scheme.

    192. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Making a virtue out of a necessity, eh?

    193. Re:Feminism at work by HeckRuler · · Score: 1

      At least most organized religion understood human nature and tried to force people to adopt a behavior that would bring them happiness.

      Haha, wut?

      There are SO many religious types that practically worship suffering. Mother Theresa, Calvinists, Bhudda literally fasted away to escape this world. Isn't the joke that raising your kid Jewish has the goal of just making them sad all the time? And how many religions used guilt as a tool to force obedience?

      No way dude, other than a few hippie cults and the Ayn Rand "greed is good" sort, religions are pretty much the opposite of "if it feels good, do it". Hell, I'd even say that overcoming our natural animalistic urges is what defines most religions.

    194. Re:Feminism at work by Rakarra · · Score: 0

      Thanos' solution is actually pretty lame because eliminating just 50 percent of the population doesn't solve the problem.

      In fact, you can get back to the same number of working population (on Earth) in just one generation.
      Is Thanos planning on finger-snapping every twenty years?

    195. Re: Feminism at work by Rakarra · · Score: 0

      Are the interests of grandchildren of German, Irish, and Eyetalian immigrants in conflict, or are they all Americans at this point?

      I think it's more like the interests of his established society is in conflict with the interests of a newly-introduced society.

    196. Re:Feminism at work by William+Baric · · Score: 1

      You don't understand the concept of duty. Duties always come from others (mainly society), never from ourselves. I can assign myself goals, but not duties.

      Because duties are, by definition, not a choice, someone accomplishing his duties has to be rewarded. This is part of any social contract. Both duties and reward goes together. For example, when I was doing my mandatory military service, the reward I got for accomplishing my duties was a promotion, that is I was given more power.

      There is a lot of talk about "incels" right now, and I believe their feeling of entitlement comes from their idea there is still a social contract between men and women. I guess they believe they accomplish their social duties toward women, and therefore they expect a reward. Feminism should explain those men that they don't have any duty at all toward women, unfortunately feminism sends the opposite message. The feminist message to men is that they have the duty to respect, protect and help women achieve their dreams (while receiving nothing in return).

      As for your rhetoric about "violence", although I tend to be a pacifist, I'm certainly not nonviolent. Violence is not only part of our human nature, but it is also necessary and inevitable in a civilized society. Without violence to enforce social rules, there would be no society.

    197. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ok, I'm a bunny fluffing liberal and support women's rights, but did you just say that being chivalrous is VIOLENCE? Like you think I am assaulting you if I open the door for you? What the literal fuck!

    198. Re:Feminism at work by William+Baric · · Score: 1

      Although I agree some religious people like Mother Theresa were psychopaths, there is a difference between happiness and seeking immediate pleasure. I'd agree most religions are about constraining our search for pleasure, but I do think controlling our desires for immediate pleasure is necessary for happiness.

      You say religions forced obedience, but I believe that if people followed a religion (instead of another), it's because the rules of this religious made people happier. The concept of natural selection also applies to how religions developed.

    199. Re:Feminism at work by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 2

      That s correct. One of the oddest things about this whole matter though is that in all of the stories about the falling birth rate, the focus is very gynocentric.

      Which is a little odd - if you don't consider the other half of the equation, you don't get the whole picture.

      That's because the women are the ones who actually give birth. They're also the ones who decide whether or not to have a child the vast majority of the time. It's not like women actually need to be in a long-term relationship to get pregnant. Heck, sperm donors mean she doesn't even have to have sex.

      And yet - here we are. Seems like there is absolutely no problem at all, men have not one thing to do with the issue, and women can take care of all of this with no issues whatsoever. http://www.bbc.com/news/health... . Seems some places are having trouble getting donors. Perhaps this low birth rate is fake news.

      And as passive avoidance, it is becoming a problem.

      Citation required.

      Okay, let us start. You can get an inkling of the problem just by DDG'ing "Where have all the good men gone?" one of the best links is http://www.dailymail.co.uk/fem...

      https://www.theglobeandmail.co...

      And here is where things start getting weird. Men are avoiding relationships with beautiful desireable women, and it is the men's fault. So you start blaming people who are avoiding you for avoiding you. Men her age are too fat, and as she calles them "delusional" There is a certain lack of logic in utilizing shaming tactics on people who largely base their lack of interaction on shaming tactics of the past. THese women are whining about how they can't find a good man, then whining about how awful men are. There is a face slapping clue in there, unless one goes through life with the firm conviction that any and all problems are distinctly the fault of males. these women? I woudn't put up with their whiny misandric ways for a minute.

      Next up, we get the red-pill movements. This one is a bit worrying. There are a few different types. One is Men's right's activists, or MRA's. These are sort of like feminists. They are more understandable to feminists, because of similar tactics.

      The part of red-pilling that has recently become more concerning to feminists and women in general is MGTOW, or men going their own way. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... This is because instead of marching to provoke people or agitating for laws, these men simply use passive avoidance. It is a largely online community with no political aims, even when there are people or groups that try to frame it as such. I was listening to an NPR "On the Media" presentation and interview when the woman host was trying to frame MGTOW as an alt-right movement, who was mystified by a felliow who did an analysis that shoed that overall, except for the passive avoidance, these men could largely be called centrist Democrats.

      The large concern is because of this passive avoidance. And almost all are completely immune to shaming tactics. https://www.mgtow.com/ Anyhow, I've provided a few cites - there are thousands out there, and a lot of data that indicates that not all problems are the fault of men.

      the traditional nerds and otherwise males unattractive to women come to mind.

      What, are you 16?

      How cute. Something I have written that angers you? Very strange, when I write some non-insulting post, where all you have to do is go down point by point and show me the error of my ways, yet you post this

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    200. Re:Feminism at work by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      Yes yes, and plants will crave Bradow. Cause it has electro lights.

      Autocorrect in action here!

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    201. Re:Feminism at work by Rakarra · · Score: 0

      If I'm being polite and helping people, I certainly do expect people to do the same with me. This is part of our basic social contract. If you are polite and help people who won't do the same with you, then you are just being abused, and I suggest you get away from those people as the only result will be that you'll end up bitter and vengeful.

      I treat people the way I want to be treated, even if I don't know that will be reciprocated. For multiple reasons, but I believe it's better for one's mental health to feel good at being kind, just as it's bad for one's mental health to be cynical and bitter.

      That doesn't mean I necessarily stick my neck out and take risks that I'm pretty sure are bad ideas, nor do I have to be naive in all situations and just be taken advantage of all the time. But kindness takes two for it to not be abusive, and if I'm not the one to take the first step, why should I expect it of anyone else?

    202. Re: Feminism at work by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      OK, you are the rambling type:
      1. Can you understand the difference between expecting and minding ?
      2. How is not minding the chivalry, the fault of the women who don't mind the chivalry ?

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    203. Re:Feminism at work by sydbarrett74 · · Score: 1

      ...which is why we need to transition to a steady-state economy ASAP. Check out Kate Raworth's Doughnut Economics for more information.

      --
      'He who has to break a thing to find out what it is, has left the path of wisdom.' -- Gandalf to Saruman
    204. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That was Cambodia, not China. Your ignorance is showing...

    205. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      #ProgressiveFascist

    206. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why are all "male Feminists" such rude assmunches who immediately leap to personal insults?

      Oh, wait, I know! It's because they NEVER get laid. Even Feminists hate "male" Feminists.

    207. Re:Feminism at work by Peter+P+Peters · · Score: 1

      to dumb to parent, to dumb to breed.

      Oh dear...

    208. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No one believes your lies anymore.

    209. Re: Feminism at work by William+Baric · · Score: 1

      The basis of cooperation, and therefore the basis of social behavior, is reciprocation. If someone offers me a gift, and if I accept that gift, then I know I have to reciprocate. If I don't want to reciprocate, I have to refuse the gift.

      If a woman accepts the chivalrous act of a man, she also implicitly accepts to reciprocate in one way or another. If she accepts the chivalrous act of a man without the intent of reciprocating, she's just an abuser.

    210. Re: Feminism at work by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      You began at the dishonest note of replacing "not mind" with "accept".

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    211. Re: Feminism at work by William+Baric · · Score: 1

      "Not mind" necessarily means to accept.

    212. Re:Feminism at work by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Feminazis are an invention of anti-feminists. Of course feminists say stupid things from time to time, but feminazis are just a straw man to rail against.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    213. Re:Feminism at work by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      The main reason that men are not wanting children is that they are becoming liberated like women were in the 60s. Unlike women though there is no biological clock, at least not until old age.

      It's easy to keep putting off having children. Plus, the basic cost of living is so high that kids are unaffordable anyway. They also see their parents doing better and assume they will later in life too, which looks somewhat unlikely now.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    214. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, bankers are taught about the first mover advantage at school.

    215. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I would also like to add that IQ tests are unscientific crap that deserves to be grouped together with astrology

      Just because you got 92 doesn't mean you're worthless as a person. There'll always be streets to sweep and ditches to dig.

      It is clearly scientific and has nothing to do with the tests being taken by school classes at the same time where there is a significant age difference between the two groups.

      By the time kids are old enough to score above baseline noise on tests designed for adults differences within the year will have become proportionally too small to matter.

      Tests designed for kids will have some form of adjustment for age anyway.

      You fail it, Donald.

    216. Re: Feminism at work by west · · Score: 1

      > often meant working in hazardous conditions on a daily basis.

      Well, I suspect "occasionally" might be more accurate, but it's neither here nor there.

      Culturally confining any group to their appointed roles regardless of their personal preferences is oppression, and while feminism has allowed a number of men and women to find roles where the woman is the main breadwinner, I think it's pretty obvious that there were a lot more women who had wanted and been (and to some extent still are) denied access to men's traditional roles than the other way around.

      There's a reason that the movement to equality was driven by women and labelled feminism.

    217. Re:Feminism at work by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      I suspect you don't quite understand how religions work.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    218. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or to phrase in the general sense: The state shalt not coerce the lawful freedoms of the individual.

      And we all know that do a whole lot of that all the time.

    219. Re:Feminism at work by west · · Score: 1

      If people are denied a role they desired and merited because of cultural or legal constraints, then yes, I'd call that oppression.

      People may choose to accept it, as the cost of fighting might not be worth the reward, or they may personally find it not oppressive ("I *like* my assigned role"). But being forced into a role *is* oppression.

      Economists have something called "revealed preference", which involves looking at what people actually do when given the freedom to choose. And big surprise, the vast majority of women who have that freedom choose to enter the workforce and compete meaningfully there when given the option.

      From your original post:

      > tried to force people to adopt a behavior that would bring them happiness.

      That canard has been used to justify oppression throughout the centuries. "You're happier being slaves!" "You're happier serving me."

      I say give them equality and let each individual choose the role that they feel they want to play, rather than trying to play God and decide for them. Feminism has been God's gift to freedom. And again, look at the feminism as embraced by your coworkers (they may not even call it that - our feminist society is pretty much taken for granted it scarcely needs a name), not whatever outrages one happen to read today on the Internet.

    220. Re:Feminism at work by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      The main reason that men are not wanting children is that they are becoming liberated like women were in the 60s.

      Can't disagree with that. The sad part is a lot of women who do want children won't now. I wonder though, if the fracture between the sexes was the proper outcome of liberation?

      Unlike women though there is no biological clock, at least not until old age.

      It's easy to keep putting off having children.

      Right. For some reason, the standard modern model for women has been to put off childbearing until mid-30s or for the brave, until the 40's. This is often accompanied by fertility treatments, in vitro, and frozen eggs. All to avoid having children at their most fertile years. This is a terrible disservice to the children. especially if they are disabled due to the advanced age at which they were conceived. Not to mention if you have child in your mid 40's you'll be mid 60's when they are in college.

      Might be a better idea to have children early, then dive into your career full steam ahead.

      Plus, the basic cost of living is so high that kids are unaffordable anyway. They also see their parents doing better and assume they will later in life too, which looks somewhat unlikely now.

      And how! We spent a small fortune raising one child. Granted, travel Ice Hockey is expensive. But having a big, high energy child, Ice hockey beats the hell out of drugging, which is today's mode d'emploi with boys to make certain they make no trouble.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    221. Re: Feminism at work by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      Nope.

      I don't mind people being wrong on the internet. I don't accept it.

      Anyway, if "accept" and "not mind" really did mean the same thing you would not have played the dirty trick of replacing words. If , for the sake of argument i say that you did it owing to a mistake, try using the correct words "not mind" in your post, and laugh at the resulting stupidity yourself.

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    222. Re:Feminism at work by William+Baric · · Score: 1

      According to your definition, any social rule we have to obey, or any social duty we have to fulfill, is "oppression". The funny thing with your definition is that since men always had more roles and duties than women, it means men were always more "oppressed" than women. Also interesting in that since Western societies always had more rules and structures than African societies, it means white people always were more oppressed than black people.

      Let's get real for a minute. Living in a society always come with rules we have to obey and roles we have to play. For example, like all men (and only men) of my generation, I was once a forced conscript. For a minimum of 10 months (I ended up doing 2 years), I had to train to insure the security of my country. According to your definition, this is oppression, particularly when we consider that the "salary" I was given was about $70 per month (and I had to use that "salary" to buy hygiene products like razors, since I was also forced to shave).

      But the reality is it was not "oppression". It was just part of my social contract. I wanted to live in my society, I wanted to benefit from my society, therefore I had to contribute to that society and play the role my society needed me to play. It's as simple as that. The reason it was not oppression is because I could have left my society whenever I wanted. I could have chosen to live in the woods somewhere and never bother with civilization again. I didn't want to do that, so in the end, it was my choice, and therefore not oppression.

      Feminism is not about freedom, it's about power. It's about changing society to give even more privileges, protection, and support to women. It's about giving a superior status to women, and it worked. Men are now nothing but second-class citizen.

    223. Re: Feminism at work by William+Baric · · Score: 1

      If you don't mind people being wrong on the Internet, then obviously you don't do anything against it, which means you accept it. It seems to me you are confusing the concept of "encouraging it" with the concept of "accepting it".

      Again, when someone doesn't mind something, then logically that person necessarily accept that thing. For example, I don't mind homosexuality, therefore you can conclude I'm not trying to forbid it, therefore you can conclude I accept it. On the other hand, I do mind pedophilia, meaning I do not accept it and therefore I will try to forbid it.

      Anyway, my point is a woman who accepts the chivalrous act of a man, implicitly accepts the duty to reciprocate one way or another. Do you agree with that point?

    224. Re: Feminism at work by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      Try your statement again , replacing "accept" with "not mind". Let's have a laugh at your logic.

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    225. Re: Feminism at work by William+Baric · · Score: 1

      My statement is a logical conclusion based on your premise. "Accept" is the logical conclusion of the premise "don't mind". For obvious reasons, I can't replace a logical conclusion with the premise (if I could then it would it would indicate circular reasoning, which is a fallacy).

      In effect, what you are asking me is to avoid stating any logical conclusion based on your premises, that is you don't want me to say anything about the consequences of your premise. Sorry, but I won't do that. I will educate you and show you what are the consequences of your premises.

      For the second time, my point is a woman who accepts the chivalrous act of a man, implicitly accepts the duty to reciprocate one way or another. Do you agree with that point?

      Please, stop making a fool of yourself and answer that question.

    226. Re:Feminism at work by geowash01 · · Score: 1

      Absolutely. Because stagnation is not a thing.

    227. Re: Feminism at work by notbob · · Score: 0

      does it matter we still bring the best food!

    228. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ... or about 6 Germans.

    229. Re:Feminism at work by west · · Score: 1

      It means men were always more "oppressed" than women.

      Except that I suspect that more men were happy about the roles they were assigned than women happy about the roles they were assigned.

      Also interesting in that since Western societies always had more rules and structures than African societies

      Come now. If we're talking about blacks in Western society, there's been a huge number of roles that they've been barred from playing.

      I was once a forced conscript. For a minimum of 10 months (I ended up doing 2 years), I had to train to insure the security of my country. According to your definition, this is oppression

      Damn right that's oppression - it's called forced labour and almost every civilized society that isn't facing an existential risk has abandoned it.

      It was just part of my social contract.

      If you feel it was so, then make it mandatory for all. Why should some be exempt,. but not others? Otherwise, do the sensible thing. Raise taxes so that you can pay a good enough wage that men AND women actually volunteer to become soldiers. Maximal freedom *and* social contract preserved. Small wonder that's what every ethical society has done.

      In all of this, you've put forward the idea of a social contract, and I agree. But there's no reason why we should select who fulfills the roles that are necessary by gender, eye-color, or the first letter of their last name. That's simply cultural laziness - "we've always done it this way and change makes me uncomfortable (or even worse, reduces my advantages)".

      By the way, equality of opportunity does not preclude someone (and quite possibly, even the majority) choosing to adopt traditional roles. But putting huge social and cultural hurdles to escaping them? Reducing people's freedom to choose their role? That's simply evil.

      Men are now nothing but second-class citizen.

      Snort. I'm about the same age as you (slightly older) and also a Canadian. I'm struggling to come up with a *single* time it's been a disadvantage to be a man. And it's sure has hell been an advantage many a time (like always being taken seriously when I make technical suggestions at work - it's better now, but I remember the time when I had to basically repeat what my female colleagues said in order to get my boss to take it seriously. Thankfully the worst offenders of that era seemed to have retired (or work in Silicon Valley, apparently :-)).

      Ah, I've remembered one disadvantage I had from being male - when my son were very young, the Greek grandmothers of our neighbourhood were always giving me advice, because as a father, I couldn't possibly understand how children worked.

      I'll take unsolicited advice over professional sidelining.

    230. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Old to see someon here has some knowledge of anthropology and sociology.

    231. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Feminazis are an invention of anti-feminists.

      Anti-feminists are an invention of feminazis. Of course normal people say things feminists don't like from time to time (they don't even have to be stupid), but anti-feminists are just a strawman to rail against

    232. Re:Feminism at work by William+Baric · · Score: 1

      Except that I suspect that more men were happy about the roles they were assigned than women happy about the roles they were assigned.

      So you suspect the coal miner who was working 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, and who could see the sun only on Sundays was happier than his wife who was staying at home raising children? Really?

      If we're talking about blacks in Western society, there's been a huge number of roles that they've been barred from playing.

      Your definition of "oppression" also includes duties people had to fulfill, and blacks in Western society had fewer duties to fulfill. You have to realize that white people never had anything for free. Every "privilege" that you believe white people was associated with duties.

      [About my forced military service] Damn right that's oppression - it's called forced labour

      As I explained, this was part of my social contract. Being a citizen implies we have to fulfill our roles to maintain society. Without forcing people to do their duties in order to maintain society, there is no society. You are Canadian, so you didn't have to do a military service, but it doesn't change that you have to obey a lot of rules and do a lot of tasks for your society.

      If you feel it was so, then make it mandatory for all. Why should some be exempt,. but not others?

      Because different groups of people don't have the same abilities or the same way to view things (either because of biology or group culture), therefore different roles should be assigned to different groups.

      While I was doing my mandatory military service, I saw a total of three women who chose to do a voluntary military service, as well as a few professional female soldiers. Let me be blunt, those women should not have been allowed in the military. They didn't have the physical strength to accomplish their roles, nor the psychological resilience to endure the training. They had to be exempted from the most rigorous training. They had to be given special privileges.

      More importantly, they were destroying the social cohesion of the group. Not only because of their special privileges, but also because when things were beginning to get tough, they used sexual seduction to get help from men, and the result was infighting between men in the wild hope of getting sex. The reality is women in the military are destructive. I do think women could play some roles in the military, but only as civilians.

      Another group that was virtually exempted from military service were Muslims. Things like Ramadan means a Muslim also has to be given special privileges (mainly because they don't have the right to drink water between sunrise and sunset, meaning forcing them to participate to exercise during Ramadan could lead to dehydration), so the army preferred to exempt Muslims from conscription.

      Otherwise, do the sensible thing. Raise taxes

      You don't think the government taking your hard-earned money is oppression? I gave two years of my life to do my military service, but considering I pay about 50% taxes, I gave a lot more than two years of my life in taxes.

      In all of this, you've put forward the idea of a social contract, and I agree. But there's no reason why we should select who fulfills the roles that are necessary by gender, eye color, or the first letter of their last name.

      Can you give me examples of roles that are attributed according to eye color? I can't think of any.

      By the way, equality of opportunity does not preclude someone (and quite possibly, even the majority) choosing to adopt traditional roles. But putting huge social and cultural hurdles to escaping them? Reducing people's freedom to choose their role? That's simply evil.

      In a community where the leaders personally know each member of the communit

    233. Re: Feminism at work by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      Your dishonesty was , e.g. in "If someone offers me a gift, and if I accept that gift".

      Many chivalrous activities don't require any active acceptance - and not minding at times means just not throwing a hissy fit at someone holding a door open for you.

      In the above statement of yours that I quoted, I would like you to show how accept means not mind , replace" accept " with "not mind" and hilarity ensues.

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    234. Re:Feminism at work by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      It's the "proper" outcome, in that it maximises choice. What we need to do now is make the choice to have children more attractive.

      As for having children earlier, I agree it would be good but the only way to make that happen will be to fully fix things like the gender wage gap and age discrimination. At the moment there seems to be a lot of push back.

      I think a lot of guys enjoy the freedom of not having kids, making having them young more difficult.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    235. Re:Feminism at work by AutodidactLabrat · · Score: 1

      Wrong
      People having children creates debt, with 51% unable to pay for all necessary costs, like housing in California or heat in Nebraska
      Thanks for playing.

    236. Re:Feminism at work by KingBenny · · Score: 1

      thats good actually ageing population doesnt need to be fixed by replenishment it needs to be sat out, automation and a.i. won't stop , recources are dwindling less people is better definitely REJOICE!

      --
      Free speech was meant to be free for all... how can anyone grow up in a nanny state ?
    237. Re: Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In this metaphor, I think it's necessary to mention that the banker gives the politician 10 bucks first, or something.

    238. Re: Feminism at work by cyber-vandal · · Score: 1

      Why occasionally?

    239. Re:Feminism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think this is closely tied to feminism and politics. I am nearly 60 and single. I am a trump supporter. Women in my area, the state of Massachusetts, have proven themselves to be prejudice and judgmental , feminist haters. Who the heck would want to spend time with them or have a baby with them. So many disgusting women here it's amazing. They use their spare free time to attempt to find something that offends them. I work with them at my job, but that's all. Use to take dance lessons, but after the election , I realized it was time to stop the dance lessons because I don't want to meet women in my spare time and use the time to take engineering courses instead.

      A friend of mine can't find a wife because he has similar politics and has a job that pays him 15-20 per hour, so he remains single too. Anonymous coward is unwilling to sign up for this to assign another name.

    240. Re: Feminism at work by William+Baric · · Score: 1

      I already explained to you why "not mind" necessarily means "to accept". I won't repeat myself.

      Anyway, since you insist... If a woman "doesn't mind" that a man is chivalrous to her, if she doesn't say "no", then she has to do something in return. If she has no intention of reciprocating, she must say "no". If she doesn't, she's just an abuser who deserves no respect.

      As for your example of holding a door, this is not "chivalry", this is just basic courtesy. I expect women to hold the door for me too.

      BTW, if a woman wait for me to open the door for her, I will go before her and I will close the door behind me. I'm not a servant. When I was a virgin who was desperate for sex, I would do a lot of stupid "chivalrous" shit, but that was a very long time ago.

    241. Re: Feminism at work by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      I already explained to you why "not mind" necessarily means "to accept". I won't repeat myself.

      No , you just asserted it.

      If "not mind" necessarily means "to accept", why can't you replace "accept" with "not mind" in your sentence that I quoted earlier ?

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    242. Re: Feminism at work by William+Baric · · Score: 1

      If a woman "doesn't mind" that a man is chivalrous to her, if she doesn't say "no", then she has to do something in return. If she has no intention of reciprocating, she must say "no". If she doesn't, she's just an abuser who deserves no respect.

    243. Re: Feminism at work by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      One more assertion.

      If "not mind" necessarily means "to accept", why can't you replace "accept" with "not mind" in your sentence that I quoted earlier ?

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    244. Re: Feminism at work by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      One more assertion.

      If "not mind" necessarily has the meaning "to accept", why are you unable to replace "accept" with "not mind" in the snippet from your post that I quoted earlier ?

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    245. Re:Feminism at work by lsatenstein · · Score: 1

      nah, most feminists have children, 86% of women do. they're just not having more than 2, instead about 1.86 kids on average. That's not enough to keep a population growing.

      Why not more kids? Only one reason. Costs.
      Costs of healthcare, costs for education, and too may "eating out" meals.
      Want to bet that each family member has eaten at a fast-food outlet at least twice a week.
      Multiply that net-net expense by 52, and you will see it amounts to a lot of money and to obesity.

      net-net is the amount left after income taxes and necessary spending. Its also called discretionary spending. Corporations have made sure that you need two incomes to be able to afford your toys, a new car every 5 years, rent or mortgage and some trivial amount for
        luxuries.

      --
      Leslie Satenstein Montreal Quebec Canada
    246. Re: Feminism at work by William+Baric · · Score: 1

      Because as I already explained to you, "to accept" is a consequence of "not to mind", it is not the same concept. For example "being soaked" is a consequence of "taking a bath", yet, asking me to replace "being soaked" with "taking a bath" in a sentence would be absurd.

      Listen. You lost badly in this discussion, and instead of admitting you were wrong, you are now just making a fool of yourself. The consequence of your ridiculous ego makes you look like a complete idiot.

      One more thing. Since you obviously have psychological issues (I'm guessing autistic or narcissistic), here's one truth for you : being chivalrous won't get you laid. The time when women were rewarding chivalrous men with sex is now long gone. In our modern age, the only thing being chivalrous will get you is being abused by women. You will be treated as a loser and a creep, and the only result is you'll end up bitter and despising women.

      Have a nice day.

    247. Re: Feminism at work by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      Wow, yet another instance of dishonesty.

      http://www.dictionary.com/brow...

      Accept (2) can be the consequence of not minding. But it is not used for gifts : which you used it for. Accept (1) is for gifts.

      Do you never talk to educated people in person , who could catch your dishonesty ?

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
  2. Knocked up teenage sluts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    20 years ago "omg we have to reduce the teen pregnancy rate!"
    Today "omg where's all the babies at?"

    1. Re:Knocked up teenage sluts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      20 years ago "omg we have to reduce the teen pregnancy rate!"
      Today "omg where's all the babies at?"

      I thought the age range used for their statistics was odd:

      The general fertility rate sank to a record low of 60.2 births per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44

      Since it's generally illegal to have sex with a person under 18.

    2. Re:Knocked up teenage sluts by BLToday · · Score: 1

      20 years ago "omg we have to reduce the teen pregnancy rate!"
      Today "omg where's all the babies at?"

      I thought the age range used for their statistics was odd:

      The general fertility rate sank to a record low of 60.2 births per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44

      Since it's generally illegal to have sex with a person under 18.

      It’s legal if they’re both under 18 and no more than 2 years age difference.

    3. Re:Knocked up teenage sluts by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 4, Informative

      It depends strongly on the state. In Kentucky, the minimum age was effectively raised to 16. Marriage below that age is not explicitly forbidden, but requires a judge's consent.

      http://www.wdrb.com/story/3765...

    4. Re:Knocked up teenage sluts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Can't let them get pregnant at the age that's biologically ideal to get pregnant!

    5. Re: Knocked up teenage sluts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Stupid Whitey syndrome...

    6. Re: Knocked up teenage sluts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Typically 8yo girls can't get pregnant
      This does not stop muslums from trying
      The prophet did it so it must be right

  3. Sounds like a win to me. by DarkVader · · Score: 0

    (Insert Grumpy Cat Good meme here)

  4. Want us to have kids by rsilvergun · · Score: 2

    pay us. Births are dropping because Americans are becoming less religious (so no opposition to birth control, not even the token opposition you get from most Catholics).

    To be honest the solution right now isn't to pay us more, it's to bring in more labor from overseas. It's hard to argue with that since it's working. It just sucks if you're a member of the working class.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
    1. Re:Want us to have kids by ArylAkamov · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Or give people an incentive to have kids instead of importing more people and driving down wages so couples can't afford to have kids.

    2. Re:Want us to have kids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They're dropping because pregnant women no longer marry before or after they get pregnant, because "who needs a man? I identify as a successful woman at the peak of my life!". And they have all the sex appeal or marital appeal of a putbull with mange. Their kids are growing with only one parent, which is a much larger factor in job failure, drug addiction, educational failure, and incarceration than any race or income group.

    3. Re:Want us to have kids by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yep. Reasonable working hours, parental leave, sick/personal days, vaca time, so people actually have TIME to care for their families.

    4. Re:Want us to have kids by mentil · · Score: 1

      Incidentally, there was an early 20th-century German eugenics program that paid cash bonuses to college graduates who had children. The theory was that their offspring would be genetically superior to that of the lower classes. I'm skeptical that holds up, but it might have made sense for other reasons.

      Today in the USA there are many subsidies for having children (tax breaks, increased welfare/food stamp benefits, child healthcare programs). IMO the most effective subsidy would be on hospital childbirth costs; the costs were ~$25k in the 80s, according to my mom, and I shudder to think of how much they are now.
      Also, considering it was proven generations ago that children who are neglected in orphanages develop lower intelligence than those who are adopted, adoption fees should be minimized as well (particularly for older children).

      --
      Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
    5. Re:Want us to have kids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No no no, didn't you read OP? The solution is to import more slaves er I mean labor from overseas! They are willing to work for less so it's not slavery, it's just a great opportunity!

    6. Re:Want us to have kids by gweihir · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It is not about money. At some time, a society just reaches a state where it does not expand anymore and instead shrinks down slowly to a sane size. Most of the west is already there or getting there fast. It is not really a problem, you just need to manage this instead of ignoring it and sticking to the old recipes. Of course, the leadership of some countries is less well equipped to do that...

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    7. Re:Want us to have kids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's easily demonstrably incorrect, of course.

      But you already knew that, you're just a misogynist.

    8. Re:Want us to have kids by whoever57 · · Score: 1

      And better education, including tertiary education that doesn't require taking on a massive debt load.

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    9. Re:Want us to have kids by whoever57 · · Score: 1

      Or, perhaps, allow people from other countries to move to the USA ... Like, Syrians and other people living in war-torn areas.

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    10. Re:Want us to have kids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1
    11. Re:Want us to have kids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For those who see this comment and think it’s an argument:

      Use of shaming / name calling implies your argument is weak or nonexistent.

      Saying something is easily demonstratable requires you to provide at least one example, since it’s so easy.

    12. Re: Want us to have kids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Rationality is lost on Marxists. Your effort is in vain.

    13. Re:Want us to have kids by antifoidulus · · Score: 2, Informative

      It very much is about money, if you read the article you would see that the biggest drops are in women 30 years of age, women(and their partners) who are facing crippling student debt, housing costs, and health care costs. Costs are certainly one of the reasons women aren't having as many children.

    14. Re:Want us to have kids by gweihir · · Score: 1

      I, unlike you, have access to more sources of information than just this article. It is not about money. That is just an agenda pushed by some people that want to obscure the real thing that is going on.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    15. Re:Want us to have kids by Dorianny · · Score: 2

      Well educated, higher income parents families actually have fewer children then less educated, lower income ones. This holds true for European countries which check all the boxes on your wishlist's. Un-intuitively, putting all-their-eggs in one basket makes more sense for families that have a lot of resources and for ones that have have few, many and hope for the best

    16. Re:Want us to have kids by Barsteward · · Score: 1

      If people were prepared to pay the real price of goods made by a well paid indigenous population then the need for immigration will lessen. its people at the till that businesses listen to, so if you are will to pay more, let the businesses know.

      --
      "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
    17. Re: Want us to have kids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      YOU ARE A FAGGOT

    18. Re:Want us to have kids by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 2

      So with all your better sources of information, you still didn't tell anyone what you think the reason is. But still commented numerous times.
      Why, if it's not money? (It's money, and time, and education btw.)

    19. Re:Want us to have kids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I hate this conflation of birth rates and immigration issues.
      Firstly, if you had an extra 1,000,000 children born tomorrow I doubt any of them would fill the needs of any employers. Secondly, it's highly likely they would require nannies, extra houses to be built etc. So in the short term at least, a suddenly increased birth rate is likely to lead to higher migration than lower it.
      It would be much better to associate (poor) education with the need for economic migration than birth rates (keeping in mind that there is a lag of 10 - 15 years). If you improved the education system overnight, you'd still need to "import" people for another decade or so!

      Also, the idea of incentives for having children is a difficult one. The people you least want to encourage to have children are the most likely to benefit from most incentives.
      Just try to think of how you would encourage John and Jane degree holder, while not appealing to say unemployed people. Now try to phrase any ideas you come up with that doesn't make it look like you're being an elitist prick.

    20. Re:Want us to have kids by reboot246 · · Score: 1, Interesting

      A lot of people have children they cannot afford to have. We see it every day. That's why poverty is so rampant. The urge to procreate is unstoppable.

      Back before I had children I was talking to my mother about how my wife and I could afford to have a child. My mother told me that if they had waited until they could have afforded to have me, I wouldn't be here yet.

      Sometimes you have to have faith and take the plunge. It was a struggle for a few years and some sacrifices in lifestyle were made, but I was surprised at how easy it was to raise two children and give them what they needed. Once you have little ones depending on you, you come to understand what in life is important and what you can live without.

      Skip the five dollar coffee and designer clothes. Don't be selfish. Get with it and have a family.

    21. Re:Want us to have kids by Ayano · · Score: 1

      When you say 'indigenous population' I hope you're referring the Native Americans. After all, we took all the choice bits of land and put them in a desert with casinos as an after thought.

      --
      I don't read AC
    22. Re:Want us to have kids by Ayano · · Score: 1

      China's one child policy actually pushed many low income families to have their first college graduates as they could focus on one child. The flip of this is the male lopsidedness of the underground abortion scene. Another is younger the workforce soon being unable to support the retiring populace due to the effects of it. It's a ticking retirement bomb over there.

      --
      I don't read AC
    23. Re:Want us to have kids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're comparing cheap labor now VS some labor 20+ years in the future, good luck finding people that'll pick the latter.

    24. Re:Want us to have kids by Kjella · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Yep. Reasonable working hours, parental leave, sick/personal days, vaca time, so people actually have TIME to care for their families.

      Here in Norway we have all that in abundance and we still are below reproduction rates. The primary reason is that we start having children later, in the last 30 years the average age of first motherhood has risen from 25 to 29 years old. It's got nothing to do with teaching kids about condoms and such, teen pregnancies haven't been statistically significant in ages. Through the pill and legalized abortion women generally have children when they want to have children and no sooner, the change is intentional.

      One of the reasons is modern day equality, apart from some immigrants no Norwegian woman thinks housewife is a career or want to settle for less than men but pregnancy and the first months of a child's life can't be split 50-50. So most women want to be done with their education and have an established job before they start a family. And with their economic independence it's not about "catching" a man and rushing to get the ring on his finger and pop out a kid so he's stuck and even then divorce and finding a new partner is not the scandal it used to be.

      The effect of this is that even established couples are living out their responsibility-free lives for years until the woman is approaching thirty and the biological clock starts ticking, because once it starts it's diapers, babysitters and wailing toddlers for the next five years. And most typically stop at two, some have three but almost never four or more because you start running into either time or money constraints. Like if the woman is going back to work as most do then three is a bundle on top of two working parents, if she (sorry, it's usually she) does part time or stay-at-home then the money runs short.

      Not like the kids go hungry or freezing short, but like "we can't afford to let you participate in the things other kids do" short. It's hard not unintentionally acting like a dick when it's loose change for your two high income, one kid family while to a single income, three kid family it's an expense they can't afford on a really tight budget. And admitting you're poor well that's still a taboo, we've gotten rid of a lot of other social taboos but that one still hurts. And if you get like five kids, you're pretty much guaranteed to end up there these days.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    25. Re:Want us to have kids by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Weirdly, that's the one taboo I've never felt: living below my means/being "poor", whether it's used cars, used furniture, computers bought off Craigslist. I just don't like the Joneses enough to want to keep up with them - I'd rather watch them run like hamsters and get a coronary before the finish line while I walk comfortably and enjoy the views.

    26. Re:Want us to have kids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, because those noble savages weren't doing precisely the same thing to one another, you savior fuck.

    27. Re:Want us to have kids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Without a continuing increase in the workforce, Social Security goes bust. Payments to current recipients come from current revenues.

    28. Re:Want us to have kids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow. Science AND logic killed on the very first post.
      Slashdot at it's current "best"
      You sir are a toad and a luddite. Go sit on a running table saw so future generations don't need to suffer from your genes.

    29. Re:Want us to have kids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fuck off.

    30. Re:Want us to have kids by squiggleslash · · Score: 1

      It is not about money. At some time, a society just reaches a state where it does not expand anymore and instead shrinks down slowly to a sane size. Most of the west is already there or getting there fast. It is not really a problem, you just need to manage this instead of ignoring it and sticking to the old recipes. Of course, the leadership of some countries is less well equipped to do that...

      He's arguing that society has collectively just decided to stop growing for no reason, and that this is something societies do from time to time.

      (I'm quoting to answer your question about what he's proposing, not agreeing with him.)

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    31. Re:Want us to have kids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nice shaming language there

    32. Re:Want us to have kids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Weirdly, that's the one taboo I've never felt: living below my means/being "poor", whether it's used cars, used furniture, computers bought off Craigslist. I just don't like the Joneses enough to want to keep up with them - I'd rather watch them run like hamsters and get a coronary before the finish line while I walk comfortably and enjoy the views.

      There's a big difference between living below your means and actually being poor.

    33. Re:Want us to have kids by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1
      No he's 'arguing'

      I, unlike you, have access to more sources of information than just this article.

      He has access to some extra information, and to just trust him that he knows best. He may as well have just told us it was magic or Jesus.
      If it's not money, time, education, tell us why not. And what is the reason instead.
      (not expecting you to answer for him obviously)
      He will have to do better than a handwave, trust me 'argument'.

    34. Re:Want us to have kids by supremebob · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I can't afford any more kids. Preschool is expensive, dude.

      I'm also not sure what kind of future these kids will have. If the Al Gore followers are right, the place where I live near the coast will turn into a swamp about 20 years from now.

    35. Re:Want us to have kids by Gilgaron · · Score: 2

      I am still not sure where the common "selfishness" idea for couples without children comes in. I love my children dearly and certainly can't afford all the luxuries from before they were in my life but I don't see how it can be seen as selfish if someone else would rather have a different lifestyle. I'm the selfish one increasing my genetic footprint!

    36. Re:Want us to have kids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's because they have to spend 12 hrs a day at work and have to have both parents working to afford a semi-decent place. It's the Raw Deal. The ones without an education don't have a job and don't live in a even close to decent place.

    37. Re:Want us to have kids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or give men the same reproductive rights as women. That'd be nice. Currently, a woman can drag a man through the twenty-year cleaners with a single "oopsie" and the man gets nothing for the trouble.

      Maybe (some) men are wising up and realizing that fathers are not respected in America. Why play when you only stand to lose?

    38. Re:Want us to have kids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sometimes you have to have faith and take the plunge.

      That's a load of BS. You can be prepared for parenthood the same way you can be (better) prepared for *any* life event. If you don't have money stashed away in savings for at least 6 months, WITH child expenses, then frankly you shouldn't be having children. I grew up in a poor and unstable home, and I wouldn't wish that poor preparation on any child. It sets you back and screws you over socially and professionally.

    39. Re:Want us to have kids by ranton · · Score: 1

      Well educated, higher income parents families actually have fewer children then less educated, lower income ones. This holds true for European countries which check all the boxes on your wishlist's. Un-intuitively, putting all-their-eggs in one basket makes more sense for families that have a lot of resources and for ones that have have few, many and hope for the best

      I wonder how much of that would change if society collectively took on more of the burden of children instead of mostly just the parents. My wife and I are well educated, and we would have 3-4 kids if they weren't so expensive (we have 2 instead). Probably all we would have to do is treat child care as a cost of business and make 100% of it tax deductible and we would have had a third child.

      --
      -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
    40. Re:Want us to have kids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The calculation on "can afford to have kids" is very different between poor and middle class. To a middle class family, having a child means a lot of technically non-required expenses like college tuition. A poor family never had any dreams of being able to afford such a thing so it doesn't factor in their computations of whether they can afford to have children.

    41. Re:Want us to have kids by strikethree · · Score: 1

      Don't be selfish. Get with it and have a family.

      Eh? How is NOT having children selfish? We are not absolutely required to follow any biological imperatives and it seems as if we are breeding such biological imperatives out. Just let it be.

      --
      "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
    42. Re:Want us to have kids by Thelasko · · Score: 1

      Or give people an incentive to have kids instead of importing more people and driving down wages so couples can't afford to have kids.

      The data says otherwise. There is an inverse correlation between wealth and fertility rates. It's well documented, and worldwide.

      There are a number of hypothesis on why this is the case. However, its basically a big sociological mystery.

      --
      One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
    43. Re:Want us to have kids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is a well-established trend that the more educated women in a country are the later they have kids and the less kids they have.

    44. Re:Want us to have kids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Who wants to have a kid in a time where the country is ruled by Dotard J. Trump?

      Birth rates will go up when he's gone

    45. Re:Want us to have kids by quanminoan · · Score: 2

      It's more basic and universal. In third world countries more kids means more profit as you get "free" labor. In first world countries there is absolutely no labor or financial incentive and the drain is huge (day care, food, clothing, doctor bills, etc.). Every single country that moves towards a first world system sees their birth rates drop. Not a bad thing seeing as how the alternative would really screw the world.

    46. Re:Want us to have kids by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 1

      I just don't like the Joneses enough to want to keep up with them

      Such nice phrasing. I'm going to start using that one, I think - it fits my worldview very nicely....

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    47. Re:Want us to have kids by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 2

      Social Security is busted already. Anyone under the age of 50 who's counting on it needs to wake up - because at best you'll get 75% of what a retiree gets now. The average today is about $1400, meaning you'll get around $1000 per month. If you think living on $4K a month is hard - try 1/4 of that, with higher drug and medical costs to boot (half are covered by their employers today).

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    48. Re:Want us to have kids by ArylAkamov · · Score: 2

      I find it insane that so many parents both go to work in the morning (instead of one staying home to care for their child), just so they can make enough money to pay someone else to take care of their child.

    49. Re:Want us to have kids by ArylAkamov · · Score: 1

      Also stealing this, perfectly describes my thoughts.

    50. Re:Want us to have kids by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      Kids aren't expensive. They're so cheap poor people have lots of them.

      The advantages you want to give your kids may very well be expensive. In fact, the richer you are, the more likely you are to give your kid lots of things, and that gets expensive. So rich people think kids are really expensive, and don't have as many.

    51. Re:Want us to have kids by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      Evidence suggests the proximal reason for decreasing reproduction is educated women. The best predictor for fertility rates, by a long shot, all over the world, is educational status of women. Bangladesh is a beautiful case study.

      Why does it happen? As in some cosmic existential WHY? There probably isn't one. Rich people and especially women who are educated and free to make their own choices find lots of things in life they'd rather do than having lots of kids. So they have two, one, or maybe don't get around to it at all.

    52. Re:Want us to have kids by Gilgaron · · Score: 1

      Yeah if they want to encourage the middle class to have more kids then they're going to need to do daycare like public education, otherwise you can scarcely afford more than two in daycare at a time. I'm too lazy to google it, but I believe this was tried experimentally in some places in the US during WWII when the women were needed in the factories.

    53. Re:Want us to have kids by Gilgaron · · Score: 4, Informative

      There are opportunity costs for not maintaining your career, too, unfortunately.

    54. Re:Want us to have kids by jeff4747 · · Score: 1

      The primary reason is that we start having children later, in the last 30 years the average age of first motherhood has risen from 25 to 29 years old.

      One thing that is commonly forgotten in this discussion is the time before "30 years ago". Before WWII, first motherhood over 30 was as common as it is today (US statistics here. I don't know about Norway but the "last 30 years" trends are similar)

      The Baby Boom, where couples had their children fairly young, is the outlier. We're returning to trend.

    55. Re:Want us to have kids by jeff4747 · · Score: 1

      [Citation required]

    56. Re:Want us to have kids by jeff4747 · · Score: 1

      It mostly comes from interacting with 50-somethings who never had children. They tend to be far more self-focused than 50-somethings who had kids. And by that age, the difference between the two groups grows rather large.

    57. Re:Want us to have kids by ranton · · Score: 1

      Kids aren't expensive. They're so cheap poor people have lots of them.

      The advantages you want to give your kids may very well be expensive. In fact, the richer you are, the more likely you are to give your kid lots of things, and that gets expensive. So rich people think kids are really expensive, and don't have as many.

      That is true, but there is more to it. The biggest cost of children for the middle class and above is the opportunity cost of having children. The poor have very low opportunity costs for having children because the secondary wage earner is probably either unemployed or very close to minimum wage. If your family's lowest wage earner is making a six figure salary, the opportunity cost is very high.

      We do buy our kids lots of things, and go on nice vacations, but nothing compares to the cost of child care (to allow my wife to work) or paying for a house in a good school district. Those two costs are two thirds of the total cost of having children for us, which is why I cannot wait until my youngest is in kindergarten.

      --
      -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
    58. Re:Want us to have kids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not sure I agree with this. Societies throughout history have expanded and advanced in different forms. Societies will continue to do this and there is no blueprint for how they are supposed to evolve. There is nothing that says a society cannot advance and maintain a healthy birthrate. There are only limitations on what people think are the acceptable or possible means of achieving this. The US has maintained a healthy brithrste but also a healthy i'mmigration rate. In modern times there are way more restrictions that linit the migration impact on birthrate.

    59. Re:Want us to have kids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are expressing that taboo by starting right off the bat with "I'm not poor, I'm living below my means intentionally". So it's important to you to make sure that the audience knows you have "means" even though you don't flaunt your wealth in traditional ways.

    60. Re:Want us to have kids by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      Absolutely. The more you have, the more reasons there are not to have kids. The answer to the OP's question is that the best way to get more kids is to keep people poor, uneducated and preferably hopeless.

      By the way, I wasn't thinking of toys and vacations for kids. I was thinking more along the lines of good education, health care, quality food, etc. Those things are expensive, and technically unnecessary. But we quite reasonably want our kids to have the things we do.

    61. Re:Want us to have kids by Kjella · · Score: 1

      Weirdly, that's the one taboo I've never felt: living below my means/being "poor", whether it's used cars, used furniture, computers bought off Craigslist. I just don't like the Joneses enough to want to keep up with them - I'd rather watch them run like hamsters and get a coronary before the finish line while I walk comfortably and enjoy the views.

      Many people can make that choice for themselves. But when you have kids and they can't have what their peers have or do what their peers do that's a lot harder to stomach. In particular you can be sure that those other kids have never been on any hamster wheel and only see that your kid can't afford what they can.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    62. Re:Want us to have kids by gweihir · · Score: 1

      And that would be indeed one of this things that somebody that actually did a tiny bit of research would find on this. It is not the only reason, but it is an important one.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    63. Re:Want us to have kids by gweihir · · Score: 2

      Don't be selfish. Get with it and have a family.

      Quite a bit of hard scientific data indicates that the ones having those children are the selfish ones and they are destroying the planet.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    64. Re:Want us to have kids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You make the same point I think of... The cost of children is simply too high - in money and effort, and particularly for the women; they usually end up doing most of the heavy lifting for child care. The interruptions, and the difficulty to drop anything as a professional career demands, certainly limit the desire to have children.

    65. Re: Want us to have kids by mapkinase · · Score: 1

      Look how well it works for Europe.

      --
      I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
    66. Re: Want us to have kids by mapkinase · · Score: 1

      Historically, the concept of "shrinking to the sane size" is a fantasy. Shrinking always has been associated with decline, slow or catastrophic. That's the Darwin's law.

      Africans want to survive, they want to break through, we do not want to survlvive and there are no Joneses ahead of us.

      --
      I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
    67. Re:Want us to have kids by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      The planet is absolutely fine, not getting destroyed at all. Humans, and some other life forms on it, on the other hand, are going to have a harder time. Some might go extinct. Not the planet, though.

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    68. Re:Want us to have kids by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1

      Yes this is well know, which is why I mentioned it.
      Still seems strange he denied it was money, told us it was 'magic' and now is claiming he knew all along it was education and money, but thought it was some secret he didn't wan't others to know.

    69. Re:Want us to have kids by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1

      So you wan't the rest of us to discuss it, then jump in later with. Yes I'm so smart and knew all along? I just didn't tell you...because I'm so smart...some other reason?
      Why do you keep commenting here if you don't want to discuss it or share your insights with the rest of us?

      You are trying to convince us it's not money, but there is some conspiracy to make people think that it is. You have evidence to show us, but are keeping it from us. Doesn't sound like the best course of action to expose their agenda if you wan't to keep all your 'information/evidence' a secret.

    70. Re:Want us to have kids by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Don't be a twat. You know perfectly well what I was saying.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    71. Re: Want us to have kids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now every woman can toil away under the yoke of a corporation, while other women raise her children. Victory for Feminism!

    72. Re:Want us to have kids by Barsteward · · Score: 1

      No, just the people born in that country.

      --
      "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
    73. Re:Want us to have kids by ArylAkamov · · Score: 1

      I'd counter with the missed opportunity of raising your own child.

    74. Re:Want us to have kids by micahraleigh · · Score: 1

      The US is becoming less religious and look at the wonderful results secularism is having on mass shootings.

    75. Re:Want us to have kids by micahraleigh · · Score: 1

      Also consider that social security is a government enforced way to live off the work of someone else's children you didn't raise.

    76. Re:Want us to have kids by Gilgaron · · Score: 1

      True! But one could further argue that the professionals would to a better job, as we trust for college degrees versus letting Mom hand out the doctorates.

  5. Having Children is Expensive nowadays by Ayano · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you want to send the kid to college to be a part of the future, else you're all but assuring them knee-capped employment possibilities. There's a higher expectation overall for parenting, especially for middle income Americans that plan this out. Uneducated folk in the lower income brackets however will still reproduce irresponsibly though.

    --
    I don't read AC
    1. Re:Having Children is Expensive nowadays by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1

      State/city college is cheap -- in NY, CUNY/SUNY are great and basically free if family income is less than $120,000/yr. Ivy-league schools are better for grad/pre-professional (i.e. law/med school) anyway, not for undergrad.

      This goes for many states with a good public uni system -- NY, NJ, PA, Maryland, CA, MA.

    2. Re:Having Children is Expensive nowadays by mentil · · Score: 1

      An easy way to improve employment opportunities is to take a large number of people out of the workforce. Given all the time it takes to raise children, perhaps some people who are working could rear children instead. Then, the remaining workers would have employers competing for workers by raising their wages. The increased wages could cover the cost of one's reproductive partner raising a child rather than working.

      Gentlemen, I present to you: Domestics!

      --
      Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
    3. Re:Having Children is Expensive nowadays by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1

      Or just encourage part-time work for one or both parents. 30 hr a week can be more easily be made to coincide with time kids spend in school/pre-school/kindergarten.

      National insurance, lower the fixed costs of employment benefits by socializing them, require employers to provide parental/vacation leave.

    4. Re:Having Children is Expensive nowadays by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not children that are expensive. It's bigger houses to keep them in.

    5. Re:Having Children is Expensive nowadays by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1

      average home size was 1000 sq ft in the 1970s. needing a McMansion before you breed is a myth sold to dumb suckers by the US real estate builder industry.

    6. Re:Having Children is Expensive nowadays by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can't believe you left out Virginia.

      University of Virginia is top ranked, known as a "public ivy". William & Mary is public as well.
      And there are plenty of other well-known universities:
            https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/va

    7. Re:Having Children is Expensive nowadays by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I will say their better schools are not all that cheap.

    8. Re:Having Children is Expensive nowadays by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1

      My list was inclusive but not exhaustive. Should probably add NC, TX, WI, and IL to it as well.

    9. Re:Having Children is Expensive nowadays by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1,000 sq ft is awfully tight for 3 kids.
      After our third became a toddler, we sold the townhouse and bought a real house.

    10. Re:Having Children is Expensive nowadays by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1

      Even with an extra bedroom, it's still only 1200 or 1500 SF. Personally, better to live in a small/cheap house and save the money paid for a mortgage to do fun things with kids, travel, work less, spend more time with family.

    11. Re: Having Children is Expensive nowadays by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In order for that to have any chance of getting momentum you have to convince people that it's a good idea for their family to earn half of what every other family in their community does.

    12. Re:Having Children is Expensive nowadays by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      You used to be able to throw your kids outside and let them run around the neighborhood playing with other neighborhood kids. Now that is considered neglect.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    13. Re:Having Children is Expensive nowadays by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1

      Only if you live in a neighbourhood with retarded neighbors. Go to many small towns in NJ, kids still walk to school by themselves. Go to NYC and 11 year olds get a bus or subway pass. The key is to live in a "walkable" area, even if it's less upscale than the exurb full of McHouses.

    14. Re:Having Children is Expensive nowadays by Nidi62 · · Score: 3, Informative

      If you want to send the kid to college to be a part of the future, else you're all but assuring them knee-capped employment possibilities. There's a higher expectation overall for parenting, especially for middle income Americans that plan this out. Uneducated folk in the lower income brackets however will still reproduce irresponsibly though.

      Why college? Send them to trade school to become a welder, electrician, AMT, etc. With enough time in and skill, any of those jobs can lead to six-figure incomes without the debt load of a 4 year degree. This is an especially attractive option for children who have natural intelligence but are more mechanically inclined or like to tinker/build things as opposed to being book smart. Not everyone is built for college.

      --
      The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
    15. Re:Having Children is Expensive nowadays by atrex · · Score: 1

      The other big difference is that back in the 50s/60s only one bread winner was required per household. Nowadays it can be quite difficult to get by even with two working adults in a household, unless one or both of them is/are college educated and has a higher paying job. Even then, the cost and difficulty of raising children when both parents work full time is enough to make many choose not to have children.

    16. Re:Having Children is Expensive nowadays by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Keeping pushing the narrative. Master Plumbers can make up to $50 an hour. Even crappy ones make $25 and hour. Electricians the same thing. Ones business savvy enough to run their own shop can make quite a bit more than that.
      So yeah, you can go into debt, get a college education, and end up pouring coffees at Starbucks, or you can go to a trade school and make some real money. Then once you have some income take some business classes and start your own business. Or take your degree in Feminist minority studies and maybe get a nanny position somewhere.

    17. Re:Having Children is Expensive nowadays by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, more accurately, "most of the big land-grant universities not in the Southeast US." Tuition costs may be climbing but those schools still churn out graduates with reasonable-quality educations.

    18. Re:Having Children is Expensive nowadays by squiggleslash · · Score: 1

      Yes, raising wages while reducing overall productivity is a great recipe for success. ;-)

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    19. Re:Having Children is Expensive nowadays by BobSutan · · Score: 3, Insightful

      This should be higher voted. Women entering the workforce in droves is in large part why wages have stagnated since the 60s & 70s. It's plain old supply and demand, available labor surged so rates went down. Add the glut of "undocumented workers" and all combined you've just solved why it takes a dual-income family to raise kids anymore if you don't want to be raising them in poverty.

      --
      "On a scale from 1 to 10, people are stupid"
    20. Re:Having Children is Expensive nowadays by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 1

      average home size was 1000 sq ft in the 1970s.

      Where? Certainly not in the USA, where average home size in 1970 was 1500 sq ft, increasing to 1750 sq ft by 1980....

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    21. Re:Having Children is Expensive nowadays by hey! · · Score: 2

      And nobody cares if a welder is over 40.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    22. Re:Having Children is Expensive nowadays by Gilgaron · · Score: 1

      I've always figured I'd send my kids to trade school if they weren't interested in college. While moving some plumbing in my basement when finishing it, I replaced some copper sections with PEX and was shocked at how easy it was to put together versus sweating pipe. It may be that similar changes will lower demand for skilled trades by making it as easy as lego bricks. And while smart lights are kind of dumb now, needing to only run power to items without needing to directly wire them could lead to process improvements to electrical, as well. The cabinet makers have already gone CNC. Repairing appliances versus buying new has already become kind of pointless unless you repair them yourself to save the labor.

    23. Re:Having Children is Expensive nowadays by jeff4747 · · Score: 1

      Or just encourage part-time work for one or both parents. 30 hr a week can be more easily be made to coincide with time kids spend in school/pre-school/kindergarten.

      You'd be surprised at the frequency at which the school assumes a parent can drop everything to do something for their child.

      For example, today my daughter's kindergarten had an event for Mother's day at 10am. My son's pre-school scheduled us to take him to a farm all morning. There's plenty of similar events throughout the year. And then there's the many "your kid is a little sick, so you have to come pick them up right now".

      Only the last one gets you in any sort of legal trouble, but your kid will notice if you skip any of the former. But since part-time jobs generally frown upon employees leaving at the drop of a hat or asking for time off, it's not really practical until the kid is significantly older.

    24. Re:Having Children is Expensive nowadays by Comrade+Ogilvy · · Score: 1

      Some of the productivity as measured by GDP is phoney, so reducing that may not hurt at all. If both parents work full time jobs, unless grandparents are available, they end up spending a lot on childcare and afterschool activities. Working hard to pay for someone else to take care of the children you love is a losing proposition to everyone but the taxman, until you hit a pretty high income level.

    25. Re:Having Children is Expensive nowadays by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1

      you're seem to be making an argument for employers being legally required to allow (both) parents some time flexibility and personal days. i.e., if they can't be decent people on their own, decency has to be legislated.

    26. Re:Having Children is Expensive nowadays by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1

      Running PEX is easy. Planning a plumbing job and running PEX that won't leak for 30 years is harder. Also, codes require copper or iron pipe in many areas, and codes are slow to change. You also can't use PEX for sewer -- at minimum, you need hard plastic pipe

      Electrical? Again, code requires switches, and practicality does as well. Imagine your router going down and not being able to turn your lights on or off since none of them are controlled by switches! Anyway, there were still electricians in the early 1900s when lights typically had constant power running to them with pull-rope or rotary switches on the fixtures themselves.

      I suspect that electricians will have to know MORE in the future -- they'll be more like a combination of an I.T./home automation expert and a wire-puller.

    27. Re:Having Children is Expensive nowadays by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then maybe you were not ready or prepared for having a child?

    28. Re:Having Children is Expensive nowadays by jeff4747 · · Score: 1

      Then maybe you were not ready or prepared for having a child?

      Or maybe I'm part of a single-income household that can easily handle the situation, and I'm actually capable of empathizing with people in different situations?

    29. Re:Having Children is Expensive nowadays by jeff4747 · · Score: 1

      you're seem to be making an argument for employers being legally required to allow (both) parents some time flexibility and personal days

      You seem to be constructing a strawman so you can incinerate it.

      You'll note there is nothing in my post calling for any particular fix. Instead, it describes the reality that the parent poster is not familiar with: just because the kids are at school does not mean the parents are always free during school hours.

      Also, that's a really stupid fix. I can see why you were trying to set it up as something to knock down.

    30. Re:Having Children is Expensive nowadays by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I graduated college with a Master's in Math in 1990. Coudn't find work except office stuff, which I did for years. Never even got an email from any recruiter about the math degrees. I went back to trade school for two years over a decade period. Attended HVAC in 1993 and auto repair in 2005. Couldn't find work in HVAC due to the deep recession at the time. Lots of construction people left the trade at that time to find work in other fields. I couldn't find work in auto repair because employers said I was too old. Taking mechanical engineering courses now. I want to find out before I drop dead if education actually has any influence on my life or if it was a waste of time and resources.

    31. Re:Having Children is Expensive nowadays by micahraleigh · · Score: 1

      You're assuming money justifies existence.

      The truth is existence is always unjustified.

  6. can't afford a family by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well, I make entry six figures, can't afford a house, a feminist wife, or to have kids, so there's that.

  7. Good! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    After all, robots are about to take all the jerbs.

    So that's why we need to import more people! To save the environment by using more resources!

    Future generations will thank us, because they will know the truth: we had to destroy the planet to save it.

    1. Re:Good! by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      You know what else is a good thing to drop birthrates? Nuking from orbit. That's the only way to be sure. That, or Godzilla.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    2. Re:Good! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not necessarily. If the world had 7 billion 90yo asian males it would be much different than if the world had 7 billion 30yo diverse background male&female. You can't just look at population as a quantity and disregard age, skills, gender, genetic diversity, etc.

    3. Re:Good! by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      A rapidly spreading virus seems a better way. And first vaccinate everybody you really want to keep.

    4. Re:Good! by micahraleigh · · Score: 1

      Please tell me you are joking.

      You know what is growing unsustainably? Government !!

  8. Sorry guys by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 0

    I guess I've been dropping the ball for the past couple of years.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
    1. Re:Sorry guys by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Being an adult cryptorchid is nothing to be ashamed about.

    2. Re:Sorry guys by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I blame the decline in my production on the morning after pill. Once they sober up, they have those second thoughts... Just gotta keep pluggin' away though, make it up in volume.

  9. They're all butthurt, marching and frigid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Okay not all of them, but enough of them to skew the stats.

    1. Re: They're all butthurt, marching and frigid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Decades of moneychanger ideologies from Marxism to Feminism take their toll.

      As the bible describes it: all money civilizations go down the sink. Sodom, Gomorrea, Babylon and soon London and New York.

  10. 30-Year Low since 1978 by enriquevagu · · Score: 2

    Wellcome to 2008!

    BTW, the original article has been edited to correct the date yo 1987.

  11. Good by religionofpeas · · Score: 1, Insightful

    There are already too many people on the world. Having less would be a good thing.

    1. Re:Good by mentil · · Score: 1

      So what human population size is the objectively perfectly ideal size? If we reach that size, are you sure noone will then argue that it should be a different size?
      This seems as pointless as saying 'things should be different' with no explanation.

      --
      Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
    2. Re:Good by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      So what human population size is the objectively perfectly ideal size?

      One that is sustainable. I don't know the exact number, but I'm pretty sure we're at least an order of magnitude too high right now.

      If we reach that size, are you sure noone will then argue that it should be a different size?

      Oh, I'm sure they will argue.

    3. Re:Good by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Very obviously so. There are a lot of irrational nay-sayers on this very idea though. These are the people that want to stick to the human race expanding against all evidence that it is not a good idea, until it starts to rot away like a bacterial colony that has grown too far. There are those that say this has already started...

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    4. Re:Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're advocating for a max global population of 750 million? Or a US max population of 32.5 million? Killing/letting die off and not replacing 293 million people seems like an unsustainable drop. Or does being 10x too large mean something else?

    5. Re: Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly.. and somehow never discussed by the environmentalists????

    6. Re:Good by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      Killing/letting die off and not replacing 293 million people seems like an unsustainable drop.

      Why unsustainable ? It's been that low before.

    7. Re:Good by h33t+l4x0r · · Score: 1

      Any population size is sustainable if you're willing to work at sustaining it. Which we're not.

    8. Re:Good by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      One that is sustainable. I don't know the exact number, but I'm pretty sure we're at least an order of magnitude too high right now.

      You really would have been better off ending at "I don't know."

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    9. Re:Good by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      There are plenty of signs that our current population is too high for sustainability. We're running out of resources, including water, topsoil, phosphates, fuels, and we're creating way too much CO2 to name just a handful of obvious things.

      I don't think anybody knows the "perfect" number (which would obviously depend on a lot on technology), but it's fairly obvious that we've already overshot it. There's certainly no harm in going back a bit.

    10. Re:Good by Peter+P+Peters · · Score: 1

      So what human population size is the objectively perfectly ideal size?

      One that is sustainable. I don't know the exact number, but I'm pretty sure we're at least an order of magnitude too high right now.

      I'll play this game. If we base the 'appropriate number' on things that can't be changed easily (ie land, water, naturally sourced food etc) then I'd guess a comfortable number is about half of what we have now, so somewhere in the 3-4B range. If you say 700M then we've at least got a starting point that is in the same ballpark. Most of the problems we have now are population related. Climate Change, pollution, famine, drought etc. With less people, all of these go away.
      I'd be interested to hear other's opinion on this as constant growth cannot possibly turn out well.

    11. Re:Good by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      but it's fairly obvious that we've already overshot it.

      It's not.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    12. Re:Good by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      It's not.

      It is.

    13. Re:Good by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      We're running out of......fuels

      Really?

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    14. Re:Good by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      Yes, really.

    15. Re: Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No itâ(TM)s not.

    16. Re:Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So what human population size is the objectively perfectly ideal size?

      That is a very subjective question, but I am sure you asked because you are aware of that
      I'll try to give at least some input into what one could consider 'ideal'.

      I think an ideal population size should be small enough that it would be sustainable to keep it fed without "industrial scale" meat production or overfishing the seas and preferably without having to rely too much on pesticides.
      And I am not meaning that we should be able to go back to 19th century style food production but rather that we should be able to have a food production that doesn't damage the environment.
      It would also be nice if the main part of our meat came from wild animals or at least from livestock that have some sort of decent life.

      I have not done any research in how to attain something like that but with current technology I don't think that is possible with the current population size and my guess it that it would need to be less than a billion.

      Now there are probably plenty of other factors to take into consideration of what is 'ideal' but here is one at least.
      Once that is attained I am sure that you'd be able to find something more.

    17. Re:Good by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Which fuel in particular are you worried about running out of? The way you worded it implies you are worried about all of them.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    18. Re:Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So what human population size is the objectively perfectly ideal size?

      One that is sustainable. I don't know the exact number, but I'm pretty sure we're at least an order of magnitude too high right now.

      Since you're "pretty sure" it's an order of magnitude too high, getting rid of 9 out of 10 should just about do it. You sound like the type of genius that thinks we can fix that by "decimating" the population, right?

      Oh yeah, decimate actually means "reduce by 1/10th", and that would make you the type of genius that works for Apple. But thanks for throwing out random numbers as if you can't be wrong. It keeps Slashdot amusing.

    19. Re:Good by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      Mostly oil, but also gas.

    20. Re:Good by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      All we need is electric cars and we're good.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    21. Re:Good by squiggleslash · · Score: 1

      It used to be that people would claim that you could fit the entire population of the world on the Isle of Wight. That's not true... but it's nearly true, if the Isle of Wight were about 3x bigger (which is still really, really, small) you could fit the entire population there.

      I don't think we're anywhere near the point that we need to start culling people or sending them in missions to blackholes full of bookcases with poor dialog and shitty science.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    22. Re:Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mostly oil, but also gas.

      We've been running out of out and gas forever. If the news propaganda were correct, we would have ran out of oil 40 years ago. Pepperidge Farms remembers.

    23. Re:Good by Misagon · · Score: 1

      The ideal global population size depends on their ecological footprint, which is predicted to change both for the worse and for the better in different parts of the world.

      It has often been said that:
      1) There is not sustainable capacity for the current human population on Earth. We would need 3/4 earth more to keep going at the current rate of global consumption.
      2) US citizens are some of the most wasteful with the world's resources. If everyone on Earth was as wasteful as an average person in the Western world then we would need 3.5 earths, or with the average American as baseline, more than four earths.
      3) USA is one of the world's largest emitters of CO2 into the atmosphere per capita, and has been for a large time. The term "climate debt" is often used, in particular when discussing global treaties for limiting global carbon emissions. US' climate debt is the worst.

      There is a whole lot out there on the web about the world's overconsumption, and ecological footprint per country.
      One site I found with just a little searching is https://www.overshootday.org/

      And BTW, the Georgia Guidestones recommends a limit of human population of 500 million. :-P

      --
      "We mustn't be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology" -- Aldous Huxley
    24. Re:Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What about unfucked ocean, and tolerably hot summers?

    25. Re:Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Things SHOULD be different!

    26. Re:Good by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      The problem has never been where do you put the people. The problem has been how do you feed them.

      Also, people don't much like being packed into standing room only places. Unless someone is playing a guitar. And even then they tend to riot after a few hours.

    27. Re:Good by squiggleslash · · Score: 1

      I think you're missing the point. The point is that, relative to land mass, our population is still tiny. How much do you think each person need in terms of resources?

      Another way to look at it might be to look at the US and its obsession with suburbanization. Suburbs are inherently inefficient in land use terms - most of the land is being allocated just for transportation (roads, cars, etc), and single floor homes are the norm, not the exception. Would suburbanization be practical or affordable if there was actual overpopulation? (Leaving aside the fact suburbs sucks, but that's another story.)

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    28. Re:Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Imagine the unfettered joy of driving on a freeway with 90% fewer cars.

    29. Re:Good by micahraleigh · · Score: 1

      Objectivity has no way of yielding a value judgment.

      Nietchze made quite a name for himself simply drawing attention to this.

      Don't forget Camus, Kierkegaard, Sartre, Husserl, Jaspers, and to some extent Kant.

  12. Netflix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have netflix. Why would I want kids?

  13. Are you not entertained? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Between the end-game of Planned Parenthood... the unrestricted leftist media's endless and supportive babble and the far-left feminazi agenda that is on mainstream TV... this is less than expected.

    American women are being coerced through the mainstream media... to become self-empowered (nothing wrong with this) and an ideal where they don't have to conform with social norms to be happy (nothing wrong with this). But when they self-identify with people that aren't healthy.. and decide they don't need to marry or have children to be satisfied.. they've strangled the family tree. Again this is their choice.. but it is the actual reason this article even showed up on /.

    At least in Japan they have a better excuse than the U.S. mainstream media.. social pressures and the conformist society have led to very many young males (as Otaku... where it is preferable to fantasize about 2d Anime girls instead of interacting with real women) deciding its better to wish for a wife.. than actually pursue one. This leads up to the eventual 3d waifu (google it) that can be more satisfying than an actual relationship for most men.

    https://tokyogirlsupdate.com/gatebox-release-201612114708.html

    1. Re:Are you not entertained? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If men would just tell women they don't want to have sex until the woman accepts a covenant marriage (look it up), agrees to three or more children, and commits to half of the actual caregiving (you can go to shared jobs too), the women would return to the equation. Now where are your balls?

    2. Re:Are you not entertained? by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1

      Covenant?

      Why should anyone need to get the permission of a justice of the peace or some shaman in a funny robe just to be able to have sex? Marriage, no marriage, cohabitation, let people do what they want.

      Personally, I think marriage protects kids, and is thus best saved for after conception... marriage without kids is just a form of antiquated ritual.

    3. Re:Are you not entertained? by cold+fjord · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Millennia of human experience, not to mention science, tells us that some patterns of human behavior turn out better over the long term than others. You seem to disregard that.

      New Report: Majority of U.S. Teens Don’t Live in Intact Families

      You're right that marriage protects kids. But "Marriage after conception" . . . better than not at all, but both backwards and suboptimal for producing good marriages that last.

      Related: How shacking up leads to divorce

      --
      much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
    4. Re:Are you not entertained? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're right that marriage protects kids.

      Its more like marriage is an indicator of wealth and children of wealthy people do better in life. When marriage is imposed its decoupled from wealth and thus you get the higher rates of divorce and crappy outcomes for those kids anyway.

    5. Re:Are you not entertained? by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      The modern nuclear family is just that: modern, and kind of a western affectation. It arose as an artifact of religious control in Europe around the industrial revolution.

      Kids certainly do benefit from having more than one adult care giver. More than two, as well. There's research that shows kids who are raised by a variety of adults (e.g. a village) are better off in every way measured.

    6. Re:Are you not entertained? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Anything else you want to blame women for while you're at it?

  14. I know: let's bring in a ton of Muslim refugees by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There's an awesome idea: they'll procreate like fuck, go out and get jobs and start paying taxes so that our great republic can continue to be funded.

    Oh wait...

  15. Re: The Trump Effect by Reverend+Green · · Score: 1, Funny

    Naw brohamley, feminists just love having sex. Kinda like Quakers love to drink, environmentalists love pollution, and Orthodox Jews just can't get enough pork.

  16. Crazy Idea by DevsVult · · Score: 5, Interesting

    In developed countries we've seen the birth rate decline over the last several decades. I suggest that young people are reacting to negative conditions for having kids, by having less kids. Student debt, declining real wages, the rising cost of housing, expensive medical insurance, politics, religion shown to be empty, cultural Marxism; all are perceived by the primitive layers of our brains as the kind of resource scarcity and adverse social conditions that make having kids unwise.

    That even today's relatively poor people have more goods and better health care than the rich did a hundred years ago is irrelevant: the reptile layers of our brain translate our collective worry and disconnection into less offspring.

    This is positive news, because the birth rate should rise if conditions improve. I ascribe the declining prosperity of recent decades to declining energy returned for energy invested in the extraction of fossil fuels, an effect ameliorated somewhat by automation's productivity increases. Things will continue to get worse until the exponential increase in cheap solar and wind energy overwhelms the decrease in the value of fossil energy; which should happen in the next few years. Once this happens, everyone will start getting wealthier fast, as increasing energy and automation will improve people's lifestyles in tandem.

    Cheapening energy means financial security for the young, which leads to affordable housing, health care, food security, reduced conflict and increased social cohesion. Under these conditions, the birth rate will rise.

    --
    // DevsVult: The Machines Will It
    1. Re: Crazy Idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well you mentioned automation but did not connect:
      Automation could be a reason people are having less kids because in 23 years, when they enter the job market, they aren't going to have a job unless they are Einstein level smart.

    2. Re:Crazy Idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't forget another big reason behind lower birth rates: long educational period, esp. for women.
      People are all expected to go to college, women included these days, so that shortens the period of time they have for starting a family.
      In the old days, a high school diploma was enough for the bulk of jobs. You could get started in life at a younger age with money in your pocket, rather than later with a pile of debt!

    3. Re:Crazy Idea by AmiMoJo · · Score: 0

      While I agree with most of what you said, blaming the Jews is ridiculous. Cultural Marxism wasn't a thing in the 30s, and it still isn't today.

      We are at the point where we even built a lot of infrastructure that makes having kids hard, like houses that are too small and single bedroom apartments. It's gonna take a long time to fix that.

      That's just capitalism.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    4. Re:Crazy Idea by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      Things will continue to get worse until the exponential increase in cheap solar and wind energy overwhelms the decrease in the value of fossil energy; which should happen in the next few years

      Solar is still insignificant on a global scale, especially where it concerns transportation fuels. Tesla is only producing a few thousand fully electric cars in a week, while we have a billion cars driving around using fossil fuels. It's going to take more than 'the next few' years to catch up.

    5. Re:Crazy Idea by Raenex · · Score: 1

      While I agree with most of what you said, blaming the Jews is ridiculous. Cultural Marxism wasn't a thing in the 30s, and it still isn't today.

      Funny, he mentioned Cultural Marxism, but he didn't say a thing about Jews. Is that your anti-semite bias showing?

    6. Re:Crazy Idea by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Cultural Marxism is a Nazi conspiracy theory about Jews trying to destroy their culture. Frankfurt School and all that.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    7. Re:Crazy Idea by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Ugh. anti-Semitic mods out today.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    8. Re:Crazy Idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why do you talk about "developed countries" and then give a list of specifically American conditions? As for birth rate itself, it has been declining in developing countries as well.

    9. Re:Crazy Idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is silly, houses have been getting bigger, were is the problem with small apartments if it allows to save up more?
      Also you mention the 30s but my grandfather would have said "Back in the day we were 2 families living in a single room, separated only by a curtain" and he still ended up with a dozen siblings.

    10. Re:Crazy Idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Energy's got nothing to do with it. People used to shoot out 8 - 12 kids before industrialization because there was a good chance only a few of them would make it to adulthood. There was another reason to have kids: many of the older generations were homesteaders. By having kids, you decreased the amount of labor you needed to do to provide for yourself and your family. If you had a career back then (e.g. lawyer, banker, etc) that career was your part time job. Full time you were a farmer unless you were stupidly rich (in which case you'd hire other people to run your farm).

      These days, everything is easy. You got to a store and get plentiful nutritious food cheap. Can't pay for food, society can help out! Without working every waking hour ensuring you won't starve, leisure time is abundant (relatively speaking) which leads to dedicated objects for leisure. Every moment spent interacting with a leisure object is time not spent making more children (for the most part.) Sex ed also helps people connect action A with consequence B although this effect is somewhat dilute in overly religious communities who prefer not to talk about it.

    11. Re:Crazy Idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Population sizes are declining in first world countries because the toxic culture of the post modern era puts forth the philosophy that the pleasure and self-worth of the individual is the most important thing. Concepts like self-sacrifice, family, cultural identity, religion have all been systematically destroyed by the post modern culture so that all that remains is the individual, who can be easily controlled by the state.
      Note that despite what has been put forth that individuals at the top end of society marry, have multiple children, live in close family groups, etc. At the bottom end men father lots of children across various mothers but no family units result, and the children of these unions primarily end up in poverty dependent on the government for survival. Those in the middle have been taught to look out fro themselves and spend their lives in self gratification. Look at Japan where young people don't even bother to date any more. Date? They don't even have an interest in members of the opposite sex, at least no real members of them.
      Don't worry though. Religious people of almost all stripes are procreating just fine. They have big families and often close knit ones. When all the post-modern 'me first' individuals have died off they will be glad to replace them.

    12. Re:Crazy Idea by Dragonslicer · · Score: 1

      Solar is still insignificant on a global scale, especially where it concerns transportation fuels. Tesla is only producing a few thousand fully electric cars in a week, while we have a billion cars driving around using fossil fuels. It's going to take more than 'the next few' years to catch up.

      So Tesla is manufacturing 150,000 electric vehicles per year. Let's say that that number (total for all manufacturers) doubles every year, which may be difficult, but it isn't impossible to get pretty close to that. 10 years from now, the total number of electric vehicles manufactured would be 150,000,000 per year, which is already easily enough to be replacing over a billion existing vehicles as they reach end of life.

    13. Re:Crazy Idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      cultural Marxism; all are perceived by the primitive layers of our brains as the kind of resource scarcity and adverse social conditions that make having kids unwise.

      The poster is probably confusing the vocabulary of neo-nazi rhetoric with the arguments of the fringes of the environmental movement. Internet, with its meme tumbler and all that.

    14. Re:Crazy Idea by argStyopa · · Score: 1

      I think it's much simpler than that.

      https://www.smithsonianmag.com...

      In the Calhoun experiments mice were put in an enclosed pen, provided ample resources including nesting space, with the expectation they the would breed to the limit of their space. Instead, they bred to a certain point, then collapsed:

      At the peak population, most mice spent every living second in the company of hundreds of other mice. They gathered in the main squares, waiting to be fed and occasionally attacking each other. Few females carried pregnancies to term, and the ones that did seemed to simply forget about their babies. Theyâ(TM)d move half their litter away from danger and forget the rest. Sometimes theyâ(TM)d drop and abandon a baby while they were carrying it.

      The few secluded spaces housed a population Calhoun called, âoethe beautiful ones.â Generally guarded by one male, the femalesâ"and few malesâ"inside the space didnâ(TM)t breed or fight or do anything but eat and groom and sleep. When the population started declining the beautiful ones were spared from violence and death, but had completely lost touch with social behaviors, including having sex or caring for their young.

      Sounds pretty familiar to me. The original premise - free food and housing - sounds like an LBJ project.

      --
      -Styopa
    15. Re:Crazy Idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Every moment spent interacting with a leisure object is time not spent making more children

      My leisure objects are perfectly capable making children, thank you very much.

    16. Re:Crazy Idea by Raenex · · Score: 1

      a Nazi conspiracy theory

      Nazis? Weren't they defeated in World War II? Oh wait, do you believe the conspiracy theory that they survived and have a base on the moon?

      about Jews

      While it's rather curious that the "Frankfort school" consisted of so many Jews, Marxist sympathizers are not limited to Jews.

      trying to destroy their culture

      More like trying to remake it along the lines of social "justice".

    17. Re:Crazy Idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nazis? Weren't they defeated in World War II? Oh wait, do you believe the conspiracy theory that they survived and have a base on the moon?

      It's typical AmiMojo projection. He does the very things he accuses others of doing.

      In this case, he says other people are believing in a conspiracy theory about Jews and everybody to the left of Hitler is part of the "Cultural Marxists" (or SJWs, or leftists, etc)

      But then here he blames "Nazis" (alternatively, alt-right, far-right, etc), which these days is a conspiracy theory too, believing that basically anybody to the right of Stalin is part of some new fascist attempt to take over.

    18. Re:Crazy Idea by Solandri · · Score: 1

      In developed countries we've seen the birth rate decline over the last several decades. I suggest that young people are reacting to negative conditions for having kids, by having less kids. Student debt, declining real wages, the rising cost of housing, expensive medical insurance, politics, religion shown to be empty, cultural Marxism; all are perceived by the primitive layers of our brains as the kind of resource scarcity and adverse social conditions that make having kids unwise.

      And you'd be wrong. Birth rate and income are inversely correlated within the same age group (that is, after controlling for older people tending to have higher incomes). You'll also note that fertility rate (birthrate divided by number of women aged 15-44) is higher in lower income races like black and hispanic. The opposite of what you'd expect if the factors you listed were the cause.

      The difference is probably due to ease of access to contraception. Wealthier people have better access to more effective (long-term) contraception. But its cost has come down and the taboo against it has mostly disappeared, so even poorer and younger people have more access to it.

    19. Re:Crazy Idea by micahraleigh · · Score: 1

      A combustive mixture of truths and falsehoods here.

      Your phrase "religion shown to be empty" is like saying "marriage shown to be empty". Well, yes, marriage does get shown to be empty in many examples. But it depends entirely on the individual. Subjective studies show the happiest people are old, white, republican, and regularly attend church. The happiness of a person depends on the subject. If you look at the general case (i.e. mediocrity) you are going to get sad results.

      I have no idea what you are referring to about the decline in energy cost to extract or whatever. We haven't reached peak oil yet, so supply has only increased and price reflects demand right now not supply. Lots of wells in N Dakota are shutting off until they can make money again off it (a pendulum aspect independent of the R or D in the White House). In other words people are not in a malaise about gas prices.

  17. Re:The Trump Effect by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No, you are perfectly right.
    Still trying to work out that the hell 'Trump' has to do with it though, but I know he is what spins your tyres, so hey, why not.

    Feminists, like most people, generally have plenty of sex, with people who fit in to their world view.

    Most younger (non lesbian) feminists I see around tend to choose 'victim' males who are both easy to control, and show several of the negative male stereotypes that they like to use to beat them over the head with. These males often start out pandering to their 'betters' until it gets too much, then get all angry and do something 'forbidden' thereby proving the feminist right and allowing her to discard them as the trash they are - often immediately moving on to the next almost identical copy, rinse, repeat..

    This tends to eventually work itself out when they realise that actually normal society is a pretty good place, and an endless succession of train wrecks does not make a good life plan - at which point most of them climb down from their 'men are all pigs' position and settle down in to a more or less normal relationship.

    Some never make that transition, and blame men for having ruined their lives, stolen their right to happiness, a loving family, and pretty much everything else.

    Is it only slightly different from the women who choose an endless succession of 'meat head jocks', thereby proving that they are able to tame the beast, and their sexuality and self value is therefore unquestionable (right up to when the meathead is caught down the pants of their best friends, or pawns their jewelry for a weekend in vegas with his mates, or tells her to shut the f*%# up because the game is on one too many times), and then rinse, repeat..

    Thankfully there is a nice big middle ground where sensible men and women go about actual productive and reasonably happy lives.

  18. Disaster in the making by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Either we return to a maintenance level of births, bring in about 740K net immigrants per year, some combination of the two, or be crushed by the weight of our elderly.

    Luckily, we're going to be able to see the results of Japan's experiment with the being crushed option before we experience it - and possibly before it is too late to avoid. Even so, the concept of banking on robots to care for the elderly may not fly as well in the US. There's always euthanasia.

  19. Self-rectifying problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Most of these people are exactly the kind that should disappear. This include the hipster-goatee-latte fags who are excited to get a vasectomy, because their homely "progressive" girlfriend is giving them a new Nintendo game, like a complete fucking child.

    Less of these people is great news. Both of them are ugly pieces of shit and the only reason they have each other is because nobody else wants them.

    1. Re:Self-rectifying problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If I had a progressive girlfriend thoughtful enough to give me Nintendo games, my life would actually get a lot better.

    2. Re:Self-rectifying problem by RhettLivingston · · Score: 1

      Since the lowest birth rate is amongst the educated white establishment, you're 100% correct.

    3. Re:Self-rectifying problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Did you miss the part about "IN EXCHANGE FOR A VASECTOMY"? or you hit "Nintendo game" and everything else seemed insignificant?

  20. Its Greener by wolfheart111 · · Score: 1

    Unless your having little green men you shouldn't be having kids.

    --
    [($)]
  21. Re: The Trump Effect by TheReaperD · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Feminists normally like to have sex, just on their terms, not when/how men tell them to. I can't say that I blame them.

    --
    "Be particularly skeptical when presented with evidence confirming what you already believe." -
  22. Complex issue by Hognoxious · · Score: 0

    It's a complex issue. There's a TED talk here that explains it pretty well.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  23. Re: The Trump Effect by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If I were Mao, I would certainly try to infest a competing nation with feminism. Makes the competition weak.

  24. Re: The Trump Effect by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So according to you, non-feminist women are incapable of saying no to sex where only the superior 3rd wave feminists can??? I think you will find a ton of real feminists will disagree with you along with the majority of women in general.

    I'd like to see you say such a thing to my highly educated wife, who graduated top of her class with full honors, and earned her bachelor degree in a little over 3 years.

    Here's a hint, She would love a good laugh before she would slap you upside the head and tell you to wake up. BTW, we have 5 kids so yeah.........there is still playtime in our marriage.

  25. Birthrate low? Copy the Aussie model. by AbRASiON · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Just import people, import an insane amount of people, just keep importing people over and over and over, hundreds and hundreds of thousands a year.

    Increase your population by over 1% a year, we do! It's fantastic.

    Well, it's fantastic for employers and people in government, road toll and public transit operators.
    I mean the roads are packed, houses have maintained insanely high prices for over a decade, wages are suppressed super low and employers have their pick when it comes to choices to hire. The government is raking in fantastic money from the high visa fees, more tax payers and the GDP is going up which makes them look great on paper! (But don't discuss GDP per capita, oh no no no, shhh that doesn't exist)

    It's the Aussie model, just import import import, prop up a housing bubble, forget about sustainability or quality of living for the people living here now, fuck em! More money folks.

    So, open those floodgates, what could go wrong?

    1. Re:Birthrate low? Copy the Aussie model. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you_seem_upset.jpg

    2. Re:Birthrate low? Copy the Aussie model. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The bit you missed is that it drives construction, which drives economic demand in the 85% of the Australian economy that isn't mining related.

      There'd have been less need for immigration if the shock jocks and Tony Abbott hadn't killed the tax on the mining part of the economy. Twerps.

    3. Re:Birthrate low? Copy the Aussie model. by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Increase your population by over 1% a year, we do! It's fantastic.

      The Aussie model? You mean this one:

      “I encourage people who can, if you have the opportunity, if you’re young enough, to have one for mum, one for dad and one for the country” - Costello in May, 2006, after introducing the baby bonus.

      By the way sustainability is precisely why a lot of western countries are desperate to keep their population growing. Or did you forget what happened post war, and just how close those people are getting to retirement at which point they cease becoming productive members of society beyond paying GST on the food they consume?

    4. Re:Birthrate low? Copy the Aussie model. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is traditionally also the US model.

      Give me your tired, your poor,

      Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

      The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

      Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

      I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

    5. Re:Birthrate low? Copy the Aussie model. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      California would be the 35th most populous country in the world if it were not a US state. The floodgates are open, we have had a steady stream of Californian immigrants clogging up roads and driving up housing costs across the nation since at least the 80s.

  26. Re: The Trump Effect by Reverend+Green · · Score: 1

    Feminism is a weapon of memetic warfare. All these NGOs with endless millions to spend on Feminist propaganda... just where do they get all that money?

    America funds Falun Gong to weaken Chinese culture. China funds Feminism to weaken American culture. Sounds plausible, at least.

  27. The myth of overpopulation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Developed countries are in demographic collapse. Most governments are using immigration to cover the shortfall but they know it isnâ(TM)t helping. It is accelerating the damage. Causes are multiple. Only the Japanese arenâ(TM)t using immigration. Have a look at their demographics. The other countries demographics are similar or will become so without immigration or actual useful intervention.

    Deny this at your leisure but Japan is chasing robots for a reason. Western democracies are ramping up immigration for a reason. Itâ(TM)s not about mobility of a workforce - itâ(TM)s about covering a massive shortfall. They are hoping the immigrants donâ(TM)t believe in âoeoverpopulationâ. There will be some nasty surprises for societies with current immigration levels as they find they have replaced what made their countries the way they are. Societal norms will change and a lot of what is taken for granted will change and in a lot of ways disappear. Most big business right now doesnâ(TM)t care because they donâ(TM)t want to see anything beyond 5 years but the changes will hit their bottom line in interesting ways. The smart ones are pivoting to take advantage.

    The irony of all this is that people who believe that overpopulation is real will become extinct and be replaced by people who donâ(TM)t.

  28. I'm curious to know what percentage are mgtow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As an old timer I'm curious to know how many of you young men are mgtow or know about it and why it's on the rise (I think based on the falling interest in marriage of young men.)

    1. Re: I'm curious to know what percentage are mgtow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Marriage is toxic for most men. It is good for bankruptcy and homelessness but not much else. Women are actively incentivised to divorce and never remarry. Why are people surprised about divorce rates and low birth rates? Most women are only good for having either one child, no children or if dirt poor: many children and thatâ(TM)s only due to welfare benefits.

    2. Re: I'm curious to know what percentage are mgtow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You need to find an intellectually elite woman who's humble and not arrogant selfish cunt. They can turn your revenue from millions to multi-millions.

      Think beyond child bearing and think how the great houses of the world maintained their power. Or do simpletons not think that way?

    3. Re:I'm curious to know what percentage are mgtow by ErichTheRed · · Score: 2

      I guess I'm an old-timer at 42, but I work in a place that skews older. Because it's IT (yes, seriously,) we have lots of men who are divorced or on their 2nd/3rd wife. I think the MGTOW thing is mainly because so many of them got taken to the cleaners by their wives' divorce attorneys. And, I think a lot of them just picked the best-looking woman they could find with zero regard to long-term compatibility. So, they're telling everyone who will listen that all women are manipulative fill-in-the-blanks who do nothing but take all your money. Some are, and I've heard lots of examples that make me shake my head...but it's not a universal truth like they'd have you believe.

      It sounds incredibly corny, but I got very lucky in the spouse department. What does the MGTOW crowd think is going to happen if they marry someone who is rock-stupid, has nothing in common with them, and is often equally unhappy about their situation? My wife is very smart, independent and there's nothing keeping her trapped in our relationship; she could kick me out at any time and be just fine. My opinion is that you shouldn't get married "just because" --because you'll just end up divorced and bitter in the end.

    4. Re:I'm curious to know what percentage are mgtow by micahraleigh · · Score: 1

      Rock stupid people are often the happiest. Socrates noted this.

      The misery of the modern condition is being crushed by one's own plans, ideas, and cerebral shackles.

      This is the setting one hears the very, very quiet inner divine whisper: "do not lean on your own understanding".

      The problem with scaling this understanding is that you cannot go any faster than one person hearing this voice at a time. And it has to be allowed from within. There is no chance of coerced understanding when it comes to happiness. Not in this life.

      The day will come when clarity will be compelled on people, but here people are condemned to be free, thus saith Jean Paul Sartre. (Here is a strange case of a Sunday school teacher appealing to a 19th century athiest, but in his defense he was in many ways very foolish -running from visions of lobsters etc).

    5. Re:I'm curious to know what percentage are mgtow by micahraleigh · · Score: 1

      Oops ... 20th century

  29. No prob.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Don't worry ladies... here i come !!

  30. A fix in the making by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    No worries, they are already working on disallowing rape victims to abort pregnancies. Once they get that through everything will be back to normal in good 'ol 'murrica.

  31. Fortunately... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nothing of value was lost.

  32. A band thing? by SJ · · Score: 1

    Thanos would be pleased.

    A decline in population is a good thing every once in a while. It would solve a vast number of the worlds problems.

  33. This entire story is meaningless by Karmashock · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Are there more people in the US, Japan, Italy, the UK, Germany, etc than there were 100 years ago?

    Yep.

    After this population decline will there still be more people?

    Yep.

    Was the US, Japan, Italy, the UK, Germany under populated 100 years ago?

    Nope.

    so... Problem?

    Constantly we get "because there are too many people the EARTH is going to die"... then we get this stupid shit with "Because there are fewer babies freak out."

    Which is it? Seems like the newsies just want to turn anything into a story. Numbers go up and the world will eat itself to death... numbers go down and the world will empty of all people.

    Both narratives are stupid.

    There is no under population or over population issue in the industrialized Western world. We have HOUSING shortages... stressed schools... stressed water and power infrastructure. So... under population? Not really possible.

    The story out of Japan is that they have a big problem with low birth rate. Have you seen Japan? Does it "look" under populated? And here you might say "but in 30 years it will be"... no it won't. The trend would have to continue for several generations to actually cause a problem. And whilst it is fun to just take a trend line from a statistic and project it out 500 years a projected statistic gets increasingly less reliable the farther you project it.

    Populations are going to go up and down in the future as our societies, our economies, our cultures change.

    I mean, who wants to be packed into a coffin apartment in Mega City 1? I don't. Fuck that noise. I want a lawn and a dog. I want a garden where I can putter around in my old age growing tomatoes or something just for fun. If you want to die in a tiny apartment, that's great. Everyone should have what they want. But I think a lot of people want a little space.

    I want to spread out a bit. Big concentrations of population have all sorts of statistical problems. The worst schools, the worst crime, the worst corruption, the least political agency, the highest stress... there are reasons to not want it. There are also good things. The best hospitals, the best schools, the most economic opportunities, wonderful museums, concerts, plays, wonderful shops, etc.

    Just let what is going to happen happen.

    We have a lot of stuff that has changed in our society. The entry of women into pretty much every profession. The changing notion of when you have a family. The changing notion of what it means to be married in the first place. All of that. How could it not have an impact on birth rates? Of course it will.

    And this is just going to play out. Probably the most aggressive career seeking women that spend the least energy on trying to get a family will statistically have fewer children. That will play out in time in the population. With the cultural tropes that push that below replacement rate becoming less and less common such that AT LEAST there is replacement. Who thinks that when we made all those changes we got everything 100% right? Of course we didn't. This is an experiment.

    We'll see what happens. But there's no population problem up or down in the modern industrialized West. We're fine. And that's before even talking about immigration which is its own little shit show.

    --
    I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    1. Re:This entire story is meaningless by Daralantan · · Score: 1

      This is sort of what I was thinking when I read the story. Why does it matter if this year, or for the past 10 the reproduction rate is slightly lower? I'd only think it would be a problem if it dropped down to a small percent of families, so that numbers massively dropped in the next 2-3 generations. 1.86 would be what... a small dent? Not really a problem that needs solving.

    2. Re:This entire story is meaningless by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      There is a problem. The poor, undereducated, disadvantaged will still have kids at the same old rate. So we shift our population towards failure.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re:This entire story is meaningless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I like this comment.

      I mean, it's crazy, meandering, do-nothing nonsense.

      But I like it.

    4. Re:This entire story is meaningless by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      After this population decline will there still be more people?

      Yep.

      Was the US, Japan, Italy, the UK, Germany under populated 100 years ago?

      Nope.

      so... Problem?

      The problem is not a problem providing the population is evenly distributed. Unfortunately there was an event of sorts around the 40s which reduced the population. Shortly after there was a birth rate so high that it became the defining name of a generation. When that slug of population hits retirement it places an incredible strain on the government which suddenly supports a chunk of a population contributing few taxes, very little GDP, all while putting upwards pressure on social care.

      Looking at something in absolute numbers is the single worst way to make a decision about anything.

    5. Re:This entire story is meaningless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's called welfare.

    6. Re:This entire story is meaningless by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      It's called welfare.

      No, I mean the general dumbing-down proceeds apace. Undereducated people are easier to control.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    7. Re:This entire story is meaningless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The issue is what happens to the economy with different population levels:

      Too high population levels and there's not enough resources to go around. Resource War breaks out.

      Too low population levels and the Capitalist economies tank because their growth shrinks beyond whats needed to maintain them. Class / Wealth War breaks out.

      Neither is palatable to those in power, so you see stories for both sides pop up now and then depending on which side the writer is seeing the pendulum swing towards on a given day.

    8. Re:This entire story is meaningless by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      It will only be an issue until it forces welfare reform which will be reformed one way or another eventually.

      Furthermore, the idiocracy concept of the smart people not having kids doesn't go away if they DO have kids. Because you'll still have a lot of dumb kids in that concept.

      However, they're not even dumb kids in reality. They're just kids with really shitty parents. Most of those kids if taken out of that crap and put into a healthy environment would do just fine. They're not genetically stupid but rather culturally crippled.

      And yes, I put that entirely at the feet of culture because I can show many different cultural groups put into the same neighborhoods with fewer opportunities that through hard work and good values work their way out of poverty. That large numbers of people that share a common cultural background can't pull themselves out can ONLY be put at the feet of culture.

      If it were circumstance, then other groups wouldn't pull themselves out and they do. If it were one of the various racist arguments then the racially mixed people would show some proportionate improvement and they don't. Its culture. Logically it can't be anything else.

      We don't have a genetic problem with stupid people out breeding smart people. We have an issue of bad cultures getting subsidized by foolish government programs.

      --
      I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    9. Re:This entire story is meaningless by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      That's not a population problem but a badly designed welfare system.

      Look, when the system was set up, people said it was badly designed.

      They said, "hey why not have individual accounts where people have actual ownership over their retirement savings in the government safety net?"

      The government hand waved that mostly because they wanted to put all the money into a giant fund they could loot when they wanted zero interest debt.

      Keep in mind, I'm not disparaging the concept of a safety net just the way all these ponzi scheme welfare programs were set up. They require that every subsequent generation pay for every previous generation. That's silly. Have every generation pay for itself the exact way we do retirement accounts now. You put your money away in an account you own and when you retire you draw from that account. We could social security the same way.

      What we're seeing with this population problem is chicken's coming to roost. People were told. They didn't listen. They said the detractors were idiots or hated old people or some other bullshit and here we are now.

      The men that set this system up went to their graves with smug smiles on their faces because they prevailed over people that tried to correct their bullshit.

      Well, now "we" have to deal with the consequences. And if I'm to have literally any sympathy what so ever for the people complaining about the issue, then I want at the very least some honesty.

      This isn't a population problem. This is a "the system was designed by idiots" problem. And once we acknowledge that, we can fix it. But if we pretend it isn't badly designed, then its going to fail and there is nothing you can do to stop it.

      Honestly or failure? *opens hands palms up in surrender to the whims of fate*

      We can fix it and future proof it but only if the deception and delusions are put to bed.

      --
      I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    10. Re:This entire story is meaningless by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      Low population isn't really a problem for the "capitalist economy".

      What do you really care about here? Your personal standard of living and the security of your nation.

      Well, is Switzerland a poor country? It has a much smaller economy than the US but I think most people would be pretty happy to have the Swiss economy despite its much smaller population.

      Why? Because what matters is PER CAPTIA income and per capita life style. If our population halves for example and our GDP halves... per capita we still have the same income. You still have the same house, the same car, the same everything. Nothing will have changed for you. The national economy will be smaller but like switzerland, you won't care. Because on a per person level you'll be pretty happy.

      As to the population going up and us having shortages, not an issue in the west. You really only have problems iwht that sort of thing in war torn hell holes. If you aren't shooting your farmers then generally you won't starve.

      I'm telling you... its a non-story. Don't worry.

      --
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    11. Re:This entire story is meaningless by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      Thanks, I more or less rant in the comments the way I think... this is sort of my internal monologue.

      --
      I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
  34. Please stop talking about reproduction on Slashdot by cristiroma · · Score: 1

    And how bad it is, we already know that and this is a sensitive subject here (well, at least it used to be)

  35. ooh ooh i know why by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's all those abortions!

  36. Cue the freakout and recriminations in by Hallux-F-Sinister · · Score: 1

    five... four... three...

    --
    Our reign has gone on long enough. Indeed. Summon the meteors.
  37. I predict a resurgence down the road a bit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Crunching the numbers properly definitely proves the correlation between the drop in childbirth and the development of the useful TV remote, lessening the need for a continual stream of children to get up and change the channel.

    Further, the rapid turnover in media technology and the decline of "regular" TV in favor of on-line, streaming, etc is slowly creating a new demand for tech-savvy youngsters willing and able to find that Matlock rerun series for the aging population. We should be OK unless something like Roku obtains a monopoly level penetration of the idiom.

  38. Re: The Trump Effect by Barsteward · · Score: 1

    you sound bitter towards women, whats caused the problem?

    --
    "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
  39. Re: The Trump Effect by DamnOregonian · · Score: 0

    You really are a disgusting fuck, you know that?
    That's not intended as an insult. It's just a fucking observation.
    You're labeling a group of historically marginalized humans who struggle to better their lot in an unarguably male dominated world a weapon of the Chinese state to "weaken" us.
    They don't weaken us you fucking chimp-brained asshat. They make us stronger. You and your ilk are our weakness and our baggage.

  40. Yes, exactly. by Qbertino · · Score: 1

    Since wealth of a society is pretty much defined by women being powerful enough to decide by then selves on their reproduction, you're pretty much spot on.

    Future societies will most likely pay women to be mothers. .. if society in general recognizes children as something valuable that is.

    --
    We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
    1. Re: Yes, exactly. by Reverend+Green · · Score: 2

      "Future societies will most likely pay women to be mothers."

      Interesting. So you believe in the future we will return to the traditional working father and stay at home mother model of parenthood. Personally I'd bet more on Confucian extended family model - but who knows!

    2. Re: Yes, exactly. by painandgreed · · Score: 1

      "Future societies will most likely pay women to be mothers."

      Interesting. So you believe in the future we will return to the traditional working father and stay at home mother model of parenthood. Personally I'd bet more on Confucian extended family model - but who knows!

      OP makes no mention on who will raise the kid or the family model, just that women will probably need economic reason to have children, at least till we can grow them in vats.

    3. Re:Yes, exactly. by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      Current societies already pay women to have children.

      In Quebec, there's a cash payment per baby, and it goes up for second and third kids. I think Italy has something similar.

      It's very rare to find a western nation that doesn't have tax breaks or some benefit for parents.

    4. Re:Yes, exactly. by Mips+the+Cat · · Score: 1

      I think Japan is doing this for some time too.

    5. Re:Yes, exactly. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All current societies pay women to be mothers, have a look at tax code sometime.

    6. Re:Yes, exactly. by micahraleigh · · Score: 1

      "wealth of a society is pretty much defined by women being powerful enough to decide by then selves on their reproduction"

      What? Am I getting wooshed?

      I thought having kids was an expensive process.

      An expensive process that steals from those poor government overlords who just want to line their pockets.

  41. Re: The Trump Effect by Reverend+Green · · Score: 0

    Oh look, a butthurt concern troll!

  42. Re: The Trump Effect by Reverend+Green · · Score: 0

    You sound angry, bro. I guess the Chinese propaganda is working.

  43. Birth is suffering by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Birth is suffering

  44. Re: The Trump Effect by brantondaveperson · · Score: 1

    In what sense is this woman a "non-feminist?"

  45. Re: The Trump Effect by brantondaveperson · · Score: 1

    I do have to admit, blaming the Chinese for feminism is at least one I haven't heard before.

  46. So you prefer to Japan model? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You can try the Japan model. Very little immigration, watch your population peak and go into decline, then watch your *entire country* becoming a retirement village, with all your young people working to service the old (those who are rich) while paying heavy tax to support old (those who aren't rich).

    Enjoy looking forward to a lifetime of work, and then no one to take care of you when you got old.

    1. Re:So you prefer to Japan model? by qaz123 · · Score: 1

      You are exaggerating Japan's problems very much

    2. Re:So you prefer to Japan model? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Japan’s population has just passed its peak and is going into decline, the age distribution in the next 20 years is entirely predictable. Unless something change drastically soon, there is no way to turn this around. It doesn’t take a genius figure out how life would be for a now newly born Japanese hits his 20s.

    3. Re:So you prefer to Japan model? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "no one to take care of you when you got old"

      robots

  47. Great Replacement in action. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Feminism to trick women into thinking working their asses off like a man is more rewarding than having and raising kids. Taxing the most productive people to death to discourage having kids while welfare encourages the least competent to have more. Interrupting natural cycles of Darwinism.

    Just imaging if the borders were closed! The population still dieing out.. Jobs would be in such demand salaries would raise to the extremes and there would be such a level of prosperity and wealth for the common classes that the women(who are happiest(seriously look it up) having and looking after kids) would start having families again.

    But no, import unskilled mooches to support forever and their kids.

    Intelligence is hereditary (on a general population scale), Geniuses can popup anywhere but there is a return to the mean over time... Once the population becomes a majority of another race it will 'become' the nation like from once they came.

    1. Re:Great Replacement in action. by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 2

      There isn't much proof that intelligence has a racial component. Remember, all of the things being said about current immigrants were also said about Italians, East Europeans, Irish, etc, etc in the 1800s and 1900s. OMG, "those people" are ruining American kultshah.

  48. Good! by DaMattster · · Score: 1

    The world is getting overpopulated so any drop in the birthrate is a good thing.

  49. You ignore automation. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Continual population replenishment means nothing if they have no jobs to keep pumping money.

    1. Re:You ignore automation. by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      Continual population replenishment means nothing if they have no jobs to keep pumping money.

      And there will be no jobs if there aren't young people earning money and spending it.
      While I approve of checks on population through people making the choice to have fewer children, there are definite economic effects of a greying society. Having a larger percentage of society in a non-working/retired role can lead to economic drag as savings are spent and services are used, but without those people contributing to the workforce. The opposite is also true, with a growing society of work-active young people spending and investing. The Aging of Japan is an interesting look at a 1st-world society that has rather quickly had its average age rise, as the Japanese live longer, and had low fertility rates. To counteract those economic declines, Japan is considering relaxing restrictions on immigration to keep the population higher, as well as raising the retirement age to keep people in the active work force. They've already raised the age at which you can start withdrawing pension funds just to deal with labor shortages.

  50. Nation of immigrants by sjbe · · Score: 1

    Births are dropping because Americans are becoming less religious

    Might be a portion of it but I doubt that is the primary reason. The US is still quite religious compared to other peer countries. The most effective form of birth control is educating and raising the standard of living for women. As women get more education they choose to have fewer children and have them later. As their standard of living and participation in the labor force goes up the number of children they have goes down. And to your point as they get the right to control their bodies and reproduction they tend to have fewer children or have them later.

    To be honest the solution right now isn't to pay us more, it's to bring in more labor from overseas. It's hard to argue with that since it's working. It just sucks if you're a member of the working class.

    We've always been a nation of immigrants. We just have too many folks who are in denial about that fact and think that because they got here first it somehow makes them special and entitles them to be xenophobic.

  51. So, in other words, our population would fall somewhat if we stopped importing people. (Why are we still doing that again? Empty prairies we still need to tame? Plentiful menial jobs? No? Then why?)

    We'd have less crowding, pollution, and cheaper real estate.

    As quality of life ticked up, birth rate likely would too. Almost like most processes are self-balancing and not runaway.

    Not seeing the immediate problem.

  52. Ok to say you don't know by sjbe · · Score: 1

    One that is sustainable.

    Sustainable can mean a lot of things. Clarify the conditions you consider to be sustainable ones.

    I don't know the exact number, but I'm pretty sure we're at least an order of magnitude too high right now.

    You should have put the period in that sentence after "I don't know". You have no objective basis for your claim that that the global population should be 700 million people instead of the ~7 billion it currently is. Furthermore there is no evidence that our current population is unsustainable. Some of our activities probably are unsustainable but that is a separate issue and not contingent on the population size for the most part.

  53. If this is true by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Than our immigration numbers have been skewed beyond imagination. It's getting downright crowded in a lot of formerly mid-sized cities, and large cities aren't thinning out. The people are all coming from *somewhere*, and a great many of them are younger people. I trust my own eyes over statistics, any day.

    1. Re: If this is true by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The small towns and Rust Belt cities are depopulating as people move to a handful of megacities.

      Native population is still dropping; it's just flocking to a small number of places now and those places ARE getting evermore crowded.

    2. Re: If this is true by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And yes, a small number of midsized cities (example: Nashville, TN) are now experiencing large inflows because the megacities are too crowded and competitive.

      Notice that the growth came from people who MOVED FROM SOMEWHERE ELSE. It's not a result of high birthrates in those growing towns!

  54. Electrification by sjbe · · Score: 1

    Solar is still insignificant on a global scale, especially where it concerns transportation fuels.

    What's your point? Yes it's a small percentage today but it is also rising very quickly. Nobody (rational) is under the illusion that solar dominate within a decade.

    Tesla is only producing a few thousand fully electric cars in a week, while we have a billion cars driving around using fossil fuels.

    Tesla is just the tip of the spear and other companies actually sell more EVs and hybrids. Nobody is arguing that ICEs are going to disappear and time soon. Just that they are going to gradually lose marketshare as electrification happens.

    It's going to take more than 'the next few' years to catch up.

    Depends on where you set the goal posts and exactly what sort of time scale you are talking about. I don't think saying "next few years" is out of line if you think big picture. You'll (probably) see widespread and increasing electrification of cars (EVs and hybrids) over the next 2 decades with a reasonable approximation of full electrification happening in key markets in probably 40-60 years. Possible it could happen quicker but I doubt it. If you think big picture that's a pretty short time scale. Similar with grid scale solar and wind. They will likely steadily increase as a portion of our power portfolio over the next several decades probably peaking somewhere between 20-40%. I could see them getting higher but that would take a coordinated government policy to get distributed storage (prob batteries) for it to really work and it's unclear that the political will will be there for that.

    1. Re:Electrification by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      Depends on where you set the goal posts and exactly what sort of time scale you are talking about. I don't think saying "next few years" is out of line if you think big picture.

      I took "next few years" to mean 2 or 3 years, maybe 5, not 40 to 60.

      Big question is whether we have enough oil to keep ICE cars on the roads until then.

    2. Re:Electrification by sjbe · · Score: 1

      Big question is whether we have enough oil to keep ICE cars on the roads until then.

      We have plenty of oil. Current reserves are estimated at about 50 years and it's understood that is a very conservative estimate with the real number being notably higher. The big question is how much damage we are going to do to the environment before we can transition away from ICE powered cars. I'm worried we are watching a slow motion train wreck. If we actually pump and burn all the oil that HAS to have some pretty major effects on the global ecosystem none of which are going to be good news.

    3. Re:Electrification by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      Current reserves are estimated at about 50 years

      The problem isn't just a matter of reserves. The problem is that we need to keep production volume high, or even increasing. A lot of the reserves, like the Canadian tar sands, are very big, but only have low production rates.

  55. Doesn't work like that by sjbe · · Score: 1

    The poor, undereducated, disadvantaged will still have kids at the same old rate. So we shift our population towards failure.

    If that were actually a valid argument then no country could ever improve its standard of living. It doesn't actually work like that as long as there is a reasonable amount of social mobility. Disadvantaged people don't have to remain so forever and as the saying goes a rising tide lifts all boats.

    1. Re:Doesn't work like that by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      If that were actually a valid argument then no country could ever improve its standard of living. It doesn't actually work like that as long as there is a reasonable amount of social mobility.

      So what does that have to do with the USA, where wealth is being ever-more-concentrated in fewer and fewer hands?

      --
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  56. Fearmongering. We're not actually loosing people by JustNiz · · Score: 2

    > The results put the U.S. further away from a viable replacement rate -- the standard for a generation being able to replicate its numbers. ...and yet the US population is still rising year on year.

    http://www.multpl.com/united-s...

  57. Come to UTAH! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Even though Utah has slowed slightly in the last few years, the uh, fecundity here is off the charts.
    I have co-workers in their early 30s who already have 5+ children.

    There are lots and lots of young people here, which is strange when I go to the US and see how the average age of people is much higher.
    Here in Zion I bet the average age is like 19-21.

    The Mormons are planning their takeover, and don't be surprised if they pull it off.

  58. the document looks more like 15-24yr old dropped by rbgnr111 · · Score: 1

    so? this looks good. young kids aren't getting pregnant like hey had been in the past.
    all of the categories other than 15-24 year old show that there had been an increase. The ages that declined, at least in my opinion, set you up for a rough life when you have a kid that young.

  59. Re:Fearmongering. We're not actually loosing peopl by rbgnr111 · · Score: 1

    you need to look at the data in the doc... there was a huge drop in 15-18 year olds... thats probably good. 18-24 year olds dropped too, though not by much... that is probably good also. All other age groups increased.

  60. Semites are the answer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How could we possibly survive unless we import semites as Europe has? /s

  61. Wrong. by mjwx · · Score: 1

    While they called themselves "communism", they actually fall under fascism in most respects that matter.

    First of all, it doesn't matter if they were "really" communist or not, you left them out. They were certainly atheists, so maybe you should have called them "organized atheism".

    Second, we could play the same "Are they really X?" game with religion. The people who did the worst atrocities in the Crusades, as with Islam extremists today, often clearly violated the teaching of the leaders in whose name they claim to be acting. So either those people don't count as "organized religion", because they weren't "really" Christians / Muslims / whatever; or, Stalin and Pol Pot and Mao do count as "communists" (and "atheists"), because whatever Marx would have thought of them, they did see themselves as trying to follow his teaching.

    You can't have it both ways: You can't tar me with the Crusades without accepting the black mark of the Killing Fields.

    So you're saying that Pol Pot committed his atrocities in the name of atheism?

    If not, I don't see what your point is. Its like saying that the Okhlahoma Bridge collapsed because it's designer didn't collect stamps.

    Also, by definition all Buddhists are atheists, as Buddhism has no gods. Cambodia was and is, to this day, devoutly Buddhist even if Pol Pot plundered the Angkor temples to fund his state. You need to stop treating "Atheism" like some kind of organisation.

    Also it is a huge misnomer (closer to a bald faced lie) to say that Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany were atheist states because they were secular states. Both had a great deal of religious people, even amongst the leadership, some of whom thought that gassing Jews was gods work (to which I do not blame the catholic church for, I'm capable of splitting out a nutter from the mainstream). Russia was mainly Russian Orthadox, Stalin ran to the Russian Orthadox church for support when the Nazis invaded and Nazi Germany, they were 54% prodestant, 40% catholic, 3.5% "gottglÃubig" (literally "believers in god", what is called Agnostic in modern parlance) and 1.5% atheist.

    --
    Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    1. Re:Wrong. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      all Buddhists are atheists, as Buddhism has no gods.

      Uh huh. So despite how pissed off it would have made the original Buddha, people have deified him. It not exactly the same sort of deity that you believe in, but it's honestly close enough that the differences don't matter. Also Jesus himself would have been hella pissed that Paul turned him into a god.

      And religious states also have a people that only say they believe in god so they don't get burned at the stake.

      But the USSR had a state religion, and it was atheism. Because of the teaching of Marx. Hey man, that sucks. But

  62. Maybe in Blue states by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    but I'm in a Red (got dragged here by my parents when I was young and been stuck here ever since) and I'm paying $11k/yr for the first two and then it goes up to $16k/yr for the last at my kids State college. I get a few thousand in grants and a few in tuition waivers (and you lose the tuition waivers if you have to take a break, which if your GPA is
    Also, add a car to that. Colleges don't have everything on one campus anymore. At least my Kid's doesn't. Classes are a two hour bus ride apart and you don't get to pick your schedule. If you don't have a card you're not going to school. They'll kick you out in favor of a kid who does.

    --
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    1. Re:Maybe in Blue states by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1

      Which is why urban schools are great -- small campus means a short walk between classes and there's public transit. BTW, I'm not sure if this is strictly a red vs blue state fight... Texas and North Carolina are hardly blue states and they have well funded public uni systems.

  63. Sure you can by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    they do it in the American South all the time. Do away with Sex Education, ban or make birth control unobtainable. Hammer into kid's skulls that masturbating is a crime (or like they did in Texas make it literally a crime for girls) and blamo, problem solved. Well, except for all the kids people can't afford. But you can take care of that with brutal oppression and a bit 'o the old "Opiate of the Masses" like we and every other civilization's done for centuries

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  64. Meh, just a troll by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    don't feed them. They bring the whole discourse down.

    Also, "Progressive Capitalist"? I suppose it's possible but the folks who sold us out are anything but. Bernie Sanders and Liz Warren would be Progressive Capitalists. Guys like Tim Cook & Bill Gates not so much (and no, donating a tiny fraction of your money to whitewash all the bad things you did does not make you "Progressive" Bill).

    Sorry, had to vent. I hate seeing the word Progressive misapplied. I don't think you mean anything by it, but it's easy to pick up negative connotations on the word because there's a constant hum of anti-worker sentiment in this country and Progressives are the pro-worker wing of most parties, so we're always under attack.

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  65. Re:Fearmongering. We're not actually loosing peopl by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

    > The results put the U.S. further away from a viable replacement rate -- the standard for a generation being able to replicate its numbers. ...and yet the US population is still rising year on year.

    http://www.multpl.com/united-s...

    Amazing. How could that be? It's almost like we are importing huge numbers of people.

  66. Re: The Trump Effect by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sure it makes us stronger. That is why we exhibit all the characteristics of a dying civilization. If it makes us any stronger, we will be extinct.

  67. Re:Fearmongering. We're not actually loosing peopl by JustNiz · · Score: 1

    Of course. Are you suggesting that is worse than breeding the numbers up?

  68. Future by gobbligook · · Score: 2

    Its not about money with me, maybe I'm pessimistic, but I am ashamed of what society has become, what my generation has failed to do to improve the global community and the lack of political will to correct the wrongs of our generation. While I'd love that kid and strive to do the very best for him, every single day I look at him I would ask him to forgive me for bringing him into this world. I think the responsible, conscious adult chooses not to have a child for many reasons, and I think economics probably is a big factor, but for me it's my child's future and what his generation will be left to face.

    I think the more modern a country is, the more the citizens are connected and the more messaging they are subject to and influenced by. We are inundated every day with hate, disaster, climate calamity, politics, etc. Someone living in a place disconnected from global affairs will have an entirely different outlook on the future - their world won't know about the big trash area in the pacific, or the growing CO2 issue, or trashing the rain forests, war in Afghanistan, nuke bombs in north korea, NAFTA, gas prices, how you need crippling debt to afford a quality education that everyone must get etc.etc.. It'd be interesting to know what the birthrate in rural america is vs. urban america.

    1. Re:Future by micahraleigh · · Score: 1

      Maybe the real person you should apologize to is yourself ... for frittering your days away worrying about circumstances the Almighty is in perfect control over.

      Make your life the personal property of Jesus Christ and your outlook will improve immeasurably.

  69. You are your oen Orphanage? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Government pays you to take care of ot's children, and put their children into another simulated family if they don't like your politics or lifestyle.

    That isn't a family.

  70. Why would you? by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 2

    What responsible human being would subject an innocent child to the dystopian world we're living in today?

    1. Re:Why would you? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Today's world may be unpalatable for a number of reasons, but if you judge it to be unacceptable, you're an utter pussy by historical standards.

      Or maybe you're just going through an emo phase.

    2. Re:Why would you? by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

      Just because we're not in the middle of a World War (yet), or worldwide famine (yet), or worldwide plague (yet), doesn't mean we aren't living in some version of a dystopian hell-dimension, and by the way fuck you.

    3. Re:Why would you? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nah. He's a known idiot.

    4. Re:Why would you? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What responsible human being would subject an innocent child to the dystopian world we're living in today?

      Dystopian? Well, I admit that there's been a slide for white middle class America since the early 70s, but overall humanity is probably as close to utopia as it is ever going to get.

      However, 50 years from now? Yeah, Mad Max territory. The only way to avoid is if the US republican party is completely devastated in the elections for at least the next 20 years (so that climate change mitigation can be developed, rather than deniers getting paid off) ... and that seems unlikely to happen. (Even if it happens later, it'll be too late to avoid the real dystopia that's coming.)

      Well I'll be dead before the stuff hits the fan. God help today's children.

  71. Yes! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hopefully they will drop more.

  72. Umm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That can't possibly be correct. Children don't boost the economy as they do not contribute to production. Production and investment contribute to the economy, not consumption. How about this: How much better of a house could two people afford if they didn't have children?
    The tricky part is how to quantify "quality of life". It can easily be argued that children increase quality of life much more than a house can.

  73. You are so overcomplicating by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Check out the facts.

    Birth rates go down as wealth goes up. Its a very simple fact that transcends all cultural, racial, and historical barriers.

    People SAY things like "I can't have a kid due to too little time and money," but the FACT is, statistically speaking, if you give that person more time and money, then they are LESS likely to have kids. And if you put that same person in a lower class, the chances that they will breed go up dramatically.

    The economic notion of "implicit cost" is key to understanding this phenomenon. Wrapping your head around this economic mindbender helps too: one's money becomes more scarce the more of it one has. The exercise of explaining this is left to the student.

  74. Re: The Trump Effect by jeff4747 · · Score: 1

    Naw brohamley, feminists just love having sex. Kinda like Quakers love to drink, environmentalists love pollution, and Orthodox Jews just can't get enough pork.

    Feminists love having sex. Just not with you.

  75. Re: The Trump Effect by jeff4747 · · Score: 1

    So according to you, non-feminist women are incapable of saying no to sex where only the superior 3rd wave feminists can???

    Does your wife help construct your strawmen, or is that something you do all on your own?

  76. Idiocracy predicted this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Idiocracy predicted this - yes, that movie.

    Smart people manage their reproduction.
    It doesn't mean we aren't "practicing" 10x a week, a few times with another person.

  77. It's society/behaviour shifts by ErichTheRed · · Score: 2

    The US is going through some big structural/societal changes. It's not some, "I don't want to bring a child into this horrible world" thing -- it's the fact that more people have choices or feel they have choices than they did in the past.

    - Fewer women are voluntarily deciding to spend their entire work life raising children. They are better educated overall and the workforce is more open to them. When you go this route, you just can't in good conscience have a huge number of kids because something has to give between work and family. Most good parents I know would rather err on the side of family, but they also know they have a responsibility to work.
    - People are less religious: I grew up in a very Catholic area of the city, and I'm not shocked that so many priests and bishops got away with crimes against kids. Back in the day, priests were likely the only people in the neighborhood who went to college, and many people felt they were the representative of God and the Pope, and totally beyond question. Birth control is not allowed in Catholic doctrine and Catholic families used to be HUGE as a result. I know people who have 9 siblings...and I think a lot of it is due to people adhering strictly to their religion's rules.
    - Women as a whole aren't just looking to find a husband and take the first situation that comes their way, so they're starting to have kids later in life. And even if they do get married early on, they're way more likely to delay having kids until they're more financially secure.

    The interesting thing is whether the expected replacement rate is still too high. We need fewer people, not less, if we want to keep the whole employment cycle going. The thing that will probably keep this from becoming a catastrophe is the US' diversity. For every hard-charging single-by-choice female executive that's 110% dedicated to their career, there's a traditional, religious woman who gets married when they're 21 and has a kid every 2 years until they're 35. This is different in places like Japan where they have almost no immigration and a very homogeneous society...in their case the birth rate is too low and they're going to have to have some huge shifts in the next few decades to deal with it.

    We have 2 kids, we both work and that's way more than enough for us. We've done our evolutionary duty IMO and would rather concentrate on turning the kids into people who will contribute something to society. You can't do that when your attention is spread between 2 jobs, your living situation and 5 kids.

  78. No its not by voss · · Score: 1

    The USA during the 19th century EAGERLY recruited immigrants. The homestead act of 1862 allowed immigrants, former slaves and single women to apply.

    1. Re:No its not by Karmashock · · Score: 0

      Nothing you're saying contradicts anything I said. Make a complete argument.

      --
      I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
  79. Abortions? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is the number reflective before abortions or after abortions?

    Ruth Ginsberg did say it was effective at ridding of the undesirables. Statistically blacks are the highest aborters.

    Yay to low birth numbers! /sarcasm

  80. Good for environment by TJHook3r · · Score: 1

    Next generation struggling to afford kids will be bad for pensions but good for the environment. The UK is also doing their best to make conditions difficult for parents.

  81. Re: The Trump Effect by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Keep tellin' yourself that, broseph.

  82. Re: The Trump Effect by Barsteward · · Score: 1

    You must have been looking in the mirror when you posted that.

    --
    "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
  83. Excellent! by MerlTurkin · · Score: 1

    Less little bastards running around yelling and screaming! Kids annoy the hell out of me.

  84. Why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The low numbers in 2010 were likely due to the uncertainty created by the global financial crisis. But, what explains last year?

    The economy was/is on a tear. We aren't engaged in any major wars. So, what gives?

    And, don't say Trump was to blame because for every liberal hater there is a conservative lover out there. In fact, many people are saying that woman's ovaries are working in overdrive in response to The Donald's virility (@00:01:45 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWuc18xISwI).

  85. People can't afford to have kids. by LinuxLuver · · Score: 1

    Pay is low. Rent is high. Medical costs are high. More people work longer hours. Many people have big student debts. A lot of people just can't afford to have kids. So they don't. This is neo-liberal economucs' natural outcome. It was all predicted decades ago.

    --
    Only boring people are ever bored.
  86. Book "Factfulness" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The book Factfulness has a good, evidence-based write up on the global falling birth rate.
    https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/hans-rosling/factfulness/

  87. Young people can't afford kids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Interesting how many of you blame things on feminists. Saddling young people with exorbitant college debt, giving them low-paying jobs and having expensive housing seems to me to be a better explanation.

  88. Re:Please stop talking about reproduction on Slash by micahraleigh · · Score: 1

    Ha ... makes me laugh to think of anyone on slashdot reproducing.

    The basement dwellers here can't live with themselves ... let alone kids.