That’s an American point of view

There's still a lot of downsides to taking off work for one of the parents: not getting career progression, smaller pension, etc. Those are things that should also be fixed in an equitable manner, and as far as I know, no country does that. Basically treat raising children as the full time job it really is.

precisely, they want the valley to flood because the fields will be fertile and there will be less mouths to feed while they hold all the power.

I blame the people for ignoring their responsibility towards humanity. just because you achieved success does not mean you get to stifle the progress of the world.

as the quote goes, "A rising tide lifts all ships." when one person installs a levy and only allows their friends access, progress ends and the town(world) will die.

success is not greed, and these people are greed.

Except climate change is a flood that won't go away for 10,000 years. There is no 'after' for the rich to benefit from.

So we should be able to get by with less labor, right?…

Sure. Or everyone gets more stuff for the same amount of labor.

Suppose your boss told you, "You've been doing a great job at work. We could give you 10% raise, or we could keep your salary the same and cut your hours by 10%." I don't know which you would choose, but most people would take the raise.

Agree so much with this perspective. I'll never forget idly watching some financial section on the news with the newscaster, ashen faced, reporting that growth in some industry had slowed, as though someone had died. Then I thought about it... So wait, it's still profitable, and that profit is even still increasing, but the rate of increase is slowing!? And little are still going to work and product is being made, yes? But the greedyy of those at the top aren't being completely fulfilled!?? Well bless my blessing heart... Crock of shit.

It did for a few hundred years before they became a vassal state of the US .. and wouldn't you know it the US is also in a birth rate crisis.

Isolationist culture is fine, you just can't mix it with the crushing reality of capitalism and it's negative effects on the ability of people to raise families.

I'm here to spread my seed.

Oh? You could optionally expand instead of just stopping at what the problem isn't.

I'm not sure why all the sarcasm. I mean, America's problems have all been solved.

I mean, Japan is one of the more isolationist countries on earth. And racism is a massive issue. Christianity isn't a major factor, but traditional views on the roles of women and the set up of the household are a major challenge.

This is an interesting point. So apparently the problems of having that terrible working culture are solved for (ish) to promote procreation, but it's not helping. Gee, I wonder if possibly creating a society of miserable people and making it easier for them to create more people they presume will be miserable doesn't work because they just don't want to do that.

If you didn't notice, those aren't Christian values.

Dude, Japan is so safe the cops are largely overglorified tourist and traffic guides. The kids run around alone all the time.

Japanese don’t. Unless it’s one of them in blackface.

Seriously, the racism there is painful.

Ah yeah I assumed you meant the extreme interpretations of Christian values.

The problems over there are the same problems Americans are starting to rekon with. That's why you see Vance and his ilk push for this fetishize version of the American dream where every MAGA male gets their own concubine.

Other comments had it so I didn't think it was necessary. Immigration can prop up a low birthrate but that can't last forever. Need to actually have a culture that supports procreation. And Japan doesn't really have that. Their work culture is directly responsible for it. I don't think that's something easily fixed. Financial incentives could help, but unless it's pretty hefty it probably wouldn't be enough.

And also, new technology is still being developed

So it's not even that all progress has stopped, things are still moving forwards