The US needs more immigrants...supposedly

Chew Toy McCoy

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Well, this isn't going to go well. I'm not a complete isolationist, but I feel like this is only needed if we want to continue to feed the machine as it currently exists today. We're pretty good at seeing problems decades ahead and then not doing a damn thing about it because we insist on keeping the current systems in place.

I don't know what an alternative solution to an aging population might be, but it seems the only solution being offered is toss more younger people into the mix. It reminds me of "It's too expensive" as a default deflection to a lot of solutions to major problems. Money is a completely manmade concept. It's not a finite resource. It's a ridiculous excuse to obstruct desperately needed advancement. In that same vein start thinking about how to care for an aging population that allows for the possibility (likelihood) of low population growth.
 

SuperMatt

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I don't know what an alternative solution to an aging population might be, but it seems the only solution being offered is toss more younger people into the mix.
This is nature’s solution. It’s called reproduction. Having babies = tossing younger people into the mix. :)

Seriously though:

Our society’s cost of living keeps going up. Wages do not. Women are pursuing careers, and the way promotion works in many fields, if they have children, they end up years behind their male (or female without kids) peers. The current system is disincentivizing having children. If they raised wages enough that just one person in a couple had to work, that could lead to more children. If they reduced the penalty in the job market for women who took off time to have children, that could lead to more babies too. Since the government seems loathe to do either, it seems like immigration is what they have left...?
 
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User.45

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This is nature’s solution. It’s called reproduction. Having babies = tossing younger people into the mix. :)

Seriously though:

Our society’s cost of living keeps going up. Wages do not. Women are pursuing careers, and the way promotion works in many fields, if they have children, they end up years behind their male (or female without kids) peers. The current system is disincentivizing having children. If they raised wages enough that just one person in a couple had to work, that could lead to more children. If they reduced the penalty in the job market for women who took off time to have children, that could lead to more babies too. Since the government seems loathe to do either, it seems like immigration is what they have left...?

Well, this isn't going to go well. I'm not a complete isolationist, but I feel like this is only needed if we want to continue to feed the machine as it currently exists today. We're pretty good at seeing problems decades ahead and then not doing a damn thing about it because we insist on keeping the current systems in place.

I don't know what an alternative solution to an aging population might be, but it seems the only solution being offered is toss more younger people into the mix. It reminds me of "It's too expensive" as a default deflection to a lot of solutions to major problems. Money is a completely manmade concept. It's not a finite resource. It's a ridiculous excuse to obstruct desperately needed advancement. In that same vein start thinking about how to care for an aging population that allows for the possibility (likelihood) of low population growth.
The math is super simple:
$20,000 / year. That's the cost of having 1 small child in the USA. (included tax breaks)
$60,000 / year. That's the median household income in the USA.
 

Thomas Veil

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I wonder how much of that, too, is young people looking around and deciding they don’t want to bring children into a delusional, authoritarian-worshiping country in a climate-threatened world.
 
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User.45

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I wonder how much of that, too, is young people looking around and deciding they don’t want to bring children into a delusional, authoritarian-worshiping country in a climate-threatened world.
German (physician friends):
1. Year maternity leave
2. Stopped working in the second trimester
3. >3 mo paternity leave
4. AFAIK free daycare
------
USA
1. 6 week maternity leave + 4 week's PTO + 2 weeks unpaid vacay
2. Work until week of delivery
3. 2 weeks paternity leave (if you're lucky)
4. Daycare >$1800/mo
But, at least breast pumps are covered by the insurance, LOL.
 
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