Old people in Japan should commit mass suicide says Yale professor
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Aha. Before committing mass suicide, they might want to use the next 75 years to invent robot caregivers. That'd be another option to deal with old people.
Who's paying for it? All the old people going to work?
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Well it would free up a lot of resources that could be redirected to free child care.
but it seems more like people are being over worked and underpaid. They just can't afford to spend time or money on kids
My wife and I make decent money and could afford a kid, but we do not have the time.
We are both working over 40 hour weeks.
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My wife and I make decent money and could afford a kid, but we do not have the time.
We are both working over 40 hour weeks.
We have the time and money but we don't like kids. Most of the population decline is because more and more people realize they don't need kids to be happy.
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Counterpoint: Everyone who ever attended yale should commit mass suicide
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Well it would free up a lot of resources that could be redirected to free child care.
but it seems more like people are being over worked and underpaid. They just can't afford to spend time or money on kids
Grandparents are a major source of free childcare
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We have the time and money but we don't like kids. Most of the population decline is because more and more people realize they don't need kids to be happy.
My wife and I mainly worry about what will happen to us when we are very elderly.
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My wife and I mainly worry about what will happen to us when we are very elderly.
I think having kids as a retirement plan is pretty selfish. I would rather save money so that when I'm old I can afford proper assistance. This of course is not a valid option everywhere but where I live nursing homes are good and affordable and euthanasia is legal.
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Counterpoint: Everyone who ever attended yale should commit mass suicide
I know this is meant to be a joke but it is incentive.
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I think having kids as a retirement plan is pretty selfish. I would rather save money so that when I'm old I can afford proper assistance. This of course is not a valid option everywhere but where I live nursing homes are good and affordable and euthanasia is legal.
I think the problem is that there might not be people to staff those nursing homes.
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These people should sacrifice themselves in service of an economic system's growth I.operative.
Capitalism is the atheists religion.
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Who's paying for it? All the old people going to work?
Well, for one, the people who are old in 75 years, haven't even all finished school as of today. They're going to have to pay for it and manufacture them themselves while they're young (which is today), or it won't be a thing once they're old.
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Just asking out of curiosity, but if that occurred, would that actually solve the problem of population decline?
To be clear I’m not advocating for this, I’m just trying to understand the what’s going on.
No. This would have lots of weird impacts. In the countryside, a lot of employees are quite old. A lot also do childcare for their grandkids at least some of the time. A lot of farmers would be gone as well. There's also a lot of paperwork that suddenly needs to be done grinding a lot of government to a halt. A lot of businesses as well since, from what I've seen form friends' older relatives dying, a lot of people do NOT have their shit in order and Japan has lots of small businesses and sole proprietorships.
Depending upon the wording of the policies and suicide, life insurance companies might have big issues or families might have huge monetary issues. I guess we can pretend they don't all die at once and clog up the whole morgue and funeral infrastructure which is a whole other thing.
The religious and political implications could be interesting. Bhuddist gravesites in Japan for family graves tend to be very expensive to buy and maintain.
I could actually keep going for a while, but the short version is that, at least in the short term, it would likely do more harm than good. This says nothing of the actual emotional impact on people.
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No. This would have lots of weird impacts. In the countryside, a lot of employees are quite old. A lot also do childcare for their grandkids at least some of the time. A lot of farmers would be gone as well. There's also a lot of paperwork that suddenly needs to be done grinding a lot of government to a halt. A lot of businesses as well since, from what I've seen form friends' older relatives dying, a lot of people do NOT have their shit in order and Japan has lots of small businesses and sole proprietorships.
Depending upon the wording of the policies and suicide, life insurance companies might have big issues or families might have huge monetary issues. I guess we can pretend they don't all die at once and clog up the whole morgue and funeral infrastructure which is a whole other thing.
The religious and political implications could be interesting. Bhuddist gravesites in Japan for family graves tend to be very expensive to buy and maintain.
I could actually keep going for a while, but the short version is that, at least in the short term, it would likely do more harm than good. This says nothing of the actual emotional impact on people.
Thanks, it’s seemed that his “solution” was off.
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Oh yes! Anything but immigration!
But seriously, I feel like this is the broad sentiment of Japanese and the non-Japanese alike. Anti- immigration right applaud Japan for "keeping their country theirs" (as if ethnic Japanese aren't the ones who came later and displaced the local Ainus already living there), and not going on supposed national suicide, unlike the West. Not having enough babies is tantamount to suicide anyway. The narrative then becomes: either allow immigration and go on national and cultural suicide; or don't allow immigration and not have enough babies, which is still considered national suicide. Either way is committing national suicide.
I am not naive to think that immigration has no baggage; but at the same time, if countries want to increase birth rate, then increase the wages and standard of living for young people and families to encourage more people to marry and raise families. However, the elites aren't going to do the former because they don't want to disappoint their shareholders. If they don't want to do that, then allow more immigration, which they also don't want to do.
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Well, for one, the people who are old in 75 years, haven't even all finished school as of today. They're going to have to pay for it and manufacture them themselves while they're young (which is today), or it won't be a thing once they're old.
Well, sure. But they don't have time to pay for it or manufacture them right now, because they need to work hard to make sure the current old people get their pensions.
Nothing wrong with the system - if people die young enough and there's enough young people. But a nationalized pension system like most developed countries have is a huge burden once the population ages too much, and the fact that people are regularly living to be over 80 isn't helping it.
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I think old people in the US should do this too. I actually think it would have a net positive impact.
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Actual Japanese here, even within the dark humor context, I wholeheartedly agree with Yusuke Narita.
It's precisely the gerontocracy in Japan why the nation is heading extremely far right. The aging oppressive population needs to retire, vacate, and leave the younger generation capable of making their choices. We are the lowest GDP first nation because of elders oppressing.
I'm glad Yusukeさん is in the 🇺🇲, but I’m afraid he’ll be deathcamped soon.
I'm thankful 28 folks read the article correctly. Fuck oppression.
Thanks for the added opinion and context.
When I read he actually used the word "seppuku", I immediately knew that it wasn't just suicide he was talking about. He's also saying that the oldest generation needs to admit they screwed everything up beyond repair, and answer for it.
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Oh yes! Anything but immigration!
But seriously, I feel like this is the broad sentiment of Japanese and the non-Japanese alike. Anti- immigration right applaud Japan for "keeping their country theirs" (as if ethnic Japanese aren't the ones who came later and displaced the local Ainus already living there), and not going on supposed national suicide, unlike the West. Not having enough babies is tantamount to suicide anyway. The narrative then becomes: either allow immigration and go on national and cultural suicide; or don't allow immigration and not have enough babies, which is still considered national suicide. Either way is committing national suicide.
I am not naive to think that immigration has no baggage; but at the same time, if countries want to increase birth rate, then increase the wages and standard of living for young people and families to encourage more people to marry and raise families. However, the elites aren't going to do the former because they don't want to disappoint their shareholders. If they don't want to do that, then allow more immigration, which they also don't want to do.
Orrrr (and this applies to most western countries in the near future too) they could maybe kinda consider not creating conditions in which its fucking impossible to have kids?
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He might have to talk about this with his universities ethics commission...
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Orrrr (and this applies to most western countries in the near future too) they could maybe kinda consider not creating conditions in which its fucking impossible to have kids?
For a lot of people, delaying to settle down and have family is a choice (like for myself), but you are right that conditions are being created to dis-incentivise raising a family.
I think South Korea could provide a model to encourage more birth rate. They created a new administrative capital city where it is more family oriented. The result? Explosion in birth rate. In the following years, other places replicated the model and South Korea as a whole experienced more birth this year for the first time in nine years.
