Japan ‘on verge of no longer functioning’ after birth rate plummets to record new low
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If you want people to actually be able to have a family, you need to enable that. My understanding of Japanese society is that you have medium to no personal freedom over how you spend your time, and meeting people is difficult. It feels like they are so intent on shooting themselves in the foot, and then complaining about their foot hurting.
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Warning: swear language ahead
Da fuck "productive" is, for fuck's sake. Anyone thought of not running human intelligence into fucking ground over a period of... what? Roughly 60 - 20 = 40 years?
Or what, humans can't think after retirement age because <insert some bullshit>?
You absolutely can have any percentage of <insert random age group>, provided human wellbeing is being taken care of, constantly and in all aspects
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While I do not share the sentiment of "let them finally die", I am very curious what will win: wanting to survive as a country and society or that bullshit worldview they are known for by anyone who learns anything more about Japan than just cool tech-anime-sake combo
I do hope they will change and survive. Ikkyu Sojun has earned a very special place in my heart (the one, who was a monk, son of emperor, who got a particular letter from his mother that is now famous among anyone who learns anything about Buddhism in Japan)
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they are literally killing their own population growth with their racist national policies, I'm not killin em, but hey, sucks to suck
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South America in general. Peru even had a president named Fujimori not that long ago.
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Oh, you mean like Karoshi? The term that translates to "overwork death"? Good times. Good times.
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Yeah, can't deny that. That's a shame, they did and still do have some wonderful people, but the you're-not-japanese-so-fuck-you-one-way-or-another mindset is a disgrace. If even I know that granting Japanese citizenship to someone who is not Japanese by blood is something extra-extra-extraordinary, it means things are - ok, I am tired of swearing - very bad
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Cultural norms around marriage and work-life balance are strangling Japan’s future. Good article, minus one for not exploring innovative or radical solutions to the crisis.
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If population is decreasing because of decreased birthrate, then the population is aging. And all else equal, an aging population is less productive because fewer people are working.
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Sure, but that still sounds like a self-correcting problem.
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How do you put price caps on houses? They vary so much in price depending on location. A shack in San Francisco costs the same as a mansion in the middle of nowhere.
No this kind of centralized approach is doomed to fail. We’re much better off with Georgism with a land value tax and the total repeal of zoning laws. People should be able to build what they want, where they want, and the land value tax captures the increases in property values as a result. When a neighbourhood becomes too expensive to afford for single family households it gets converted into apartments.
All of our housing problems come from meddlesome local politicians, their NIMBY supporters, awful zoning laws and easements, and a terrible property tax system which disincentivizes development. A very simple land value tax system along with the total removal of local politicians’ power over housing development solves all of these issues.
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Well, that's why Western right wingers look to Japan. But the difference is that, Western right wingers are looking to regress back into the olden days when women were baby-churners, whereas I don't hear from Japan wanting the same (there are some but they are not significant enough to sway public opinion).
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And that's a problem, how, exactly?
It means things change, because that's what humans do. We adapt. There are still 750k children born in Japan in 2024, vs 1.6m that died.
To me, it sounds like the obvious solution is to make life better for the young. That doesn't have to come at the cost of the old, but that's what the wealthiest will choose.
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one finger on the monkey's paw curls
Millennials are ruining the marriage industry!
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In most places, because the economy needs to grow so it stays ahead of its growing loans and debt (overly simplified). To grow, you need more workers and customers. If population doesn't grow, and you don't have immigrants to do the producing and buying instead, things stagnate, very lower interest rates that the system can't really handle, government keeping the economy together with duct tape, general welfare not doing great what leads to even less population growth. But every place is a bit different and its own challenges of course.
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I don't think climate change will prevent reaching that number, but it will increase the suffering. If we don't start reversing climate change I believe we will try to adapt to it until we reach the limit of our ability to adapt before we perish. If we are lucky, a small fraction of the species will survive long enough for something to be able to change, but I'm talking a really long time.
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Yeah, I can think of people of many different colors and varieties who would jump at the chance to go over there and help with whatever work they need doing for a decent wage.
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I agree with you 100%. Capitalists need to complete the logic loop: we’ve built amazing tech, machinery and processes to get incredible productivity gains and production of goods with less labor. So we should be able to get by with less labor, right?…
