Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Sapphire on September 29, 2005, 09:14:23 am
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:drevil:
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I think all first-world countries have this problem.
It's really bad. I'll have to pay for many old people, while I won't get much money when I'm old.
It's really unfair.
Anyway....
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“have one for your husband, one for your wife and one for your country.”
[...]
:lol:
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First world countries don't have a high birthrate due to the fact that in an industrialized society, having many children is a negative survival trait, as opposed to in an agricultural society, where having many children means you have more unpaid labor.
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Maybe they should start giving out F**king for Freedom T-shirts in maternity units :D
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It's not like any sort of plea to the masses will end the infertility problems of industrialized society over the long term. It just makes no sense to have many children.
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Originally posted by Grey Wolf
It's not like any sort of plea to the masses will end the infertility problems of industrialized society over the long term. It just makes no sense to have many children.
Well maybe not for YOU, but when the pure, trained, ruthless military machines and young men of Greater Finland overrun you you'll propably think otherwise!
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It's not like there's a shortage of people to the North of Oz looking for living space............
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Janos, Finns will propably have even more problems with the aging population than other 1st world countries thanks to our magnificient (in other words, costly) welfare system so you might better just be silent (and move out from the country).
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Originally posted by Wanderer
Janos, Finns will propably have even more problems with the aging population than other 1st world countries thanks to our magnificient (in other words, costly) welfare system so you might better just be silent (and move out from the country).
Combined with out superb (read: ****ty) immigration system ("A-ha! You're actually useful! Go back to USA or something!") and soaring healthcare costs, I am considering all viable options. After careful consideration, my choices would be:
1. Former Somalia. True anarchocapitalist wonderland - no taxes!
2. Prisoner in Russia.
My options don't seem too good right now.
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Option #1 works well if you go in with a prefabricated robot army or somesuch.
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Birthrate is a big problem though...
the fact that the county is industrialized is not the issue. It's the fact that people are less and less willing to sacrifice time and money for family, insted they sacrifice time and family for money :(
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Originally posted by TrashMan
Birthrate is a big problem though...
the fact that the county is industrialized is not the issue. It's the fact that people are less and less willing to sacrifice time and money for family, insted they sacrifice time and family for money :(
It's not, really. What BW is referring to is the simple issue of manual work; in a 3rd world country, the tendency is to have as many kids as possible so they can support you in later life - both in terms of their use as labourers, and also in terms of old age. It's beneificial - or at least perceived as - to have a large family.
Whereas removing that pressure in industrialized societies simply means that people don't feel the necessity to have 5, 8, 10 kids or so on. A secondary factor in this is, of course, child mortality; because it's higher in the 3rd world, it again raises pressure to have as many kids as possible, because it's likely several will die.
I don't think there are many people who sacrifice their family (time) for personal gain; it's more the case of sacrificing their own time to feed their family. I think a lot of people - in the UK in particular, but I believe it's observed in the rest of europe too - have noticed that the culture of 'live to work' is becoming less and less prevalant, with flexible options like flexitime being increasingly favoured.
(of course, the birthrate problem in Oz - same as in Scotland - has nothing to do with any sort of decrease in childbearing but the increasingly long lives of the retired elderly, and the issues that presents to the social welfare system supporting them. The pensions systems devised 50 years ago were almost certainly not intended to support the ration of elderly people we're seeing now)