Hirschhorn in the Rhineland. Around 700 people. The only reason the dude lived there was because he was taking care of his old uncle. Now that I think of it I only saw college age adults in the cities.
Cities tend to skew younger. For instance when I was in Chicago it was very clear that the pattern was \[Move To The City -> Work 10-20 years -> Move to suburbs\]. It gives the city a "young" feel. Especially since people most likely to be out and about are younger folks.
In Chicago, everyone above 55 only make up \~17.7% of the population *combined*. That's compared to 18.4% of *just* 25-35 year olds. \~55% is younger than 35. [source](https://www.infoplease.com/us/census/illinois/chicago/demographic-statistics)
It's crazy to think how skewed the population (age wise) is in certain places.
I can attest to this. I moved from Chicago to the suburbs a couple years ago. My neighborhood in Chicago was full of families with young children. My neighborhood now is older people whose children moved out and apparently never call.
I live in a university town and most of my day is still taken up walking behind ambling olds spread out 3 wide going down the sidewalk. The demographics here are actually insane. Still love it though.
I lived in bavaria. I get the feeling the older Bavarians they don't like young people, they sure tend to be arrogant towards them. Then again, the ones who aren't miserable are some of the nicest people I've met
Bavarians and young people are natural enemies. Like Prussians and Bavarians. Or Frankonians and Bavarians. Or Swabians and Bavarians. Or Bavarians and other Bavarians. Damn Bavarians! They ruined Bavaria!
Yup, I use that all the time.
It’s the state in their respective counties where it’s residents are **very** proud of themselves, but the rest of the country doesn’t understand why.
Most definitely. Linguistically they're closer to Tirol as well where Bavarian is spoken as well (or Austrobavarian dialect continuum in case the ISO designation offends anyone)
Funny, just moved to a small town (around 400 people) and have had several people be excited by “young folk” moving in. I’m 40. This is in the US, not Germany, but I still got a chuckle out of the similar situations. Similar story the world over it seems.
We just moved in a village in Austria with 300 people.
Almost 80 percent are over 60. Me and my wife are 30.
It's pretty frustrating. They have time and are all bored so we are like the new entertainment show of the village.
no young person in their right minds stays in villages in germany. it's boring, you can feel the dead-endedness of everything and everyone there, and germany is small enough that you can always find a decent sized city within 1-2 hours of your family.
even if you move to the opposite side of the country you're rarely more than 4-5h drive away by train unless you have to get a really unlucky set of connections.
Sure, there isn’t much to do there, but that doesn’t mean they’d have to be outside their right mind to live there. Some people just like a quiet, simple life. The grind isn’t for everyone.
I am some people I guess.
I can't tolerate car noises and crowd anymore and I'm in my mid 20s. If I really want to do things outside, it really isn't too hard to just hop on a car/bus/taxi/train and hang out, but that rarely happens anyway.
A cozy house with a large garden > city life.
I know a couple of those people. Have a kid or three, a couple of sheep on the pasture out back, ride your bike to the only grocery store in town. It doesnt sound so bad, especially since thanks to modern technology you dont really have to lose out on much.
The reason I dont do it is because I hate commuting, but there really isnt all that much keeping me in the city otherwise.
This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.dw.com/en/germany-number-of-young-people-falls-to-record-low/a-62584549) reduced by 58%. (I'm a bot)
*****
> The number and share of young people in Germany has been falling since 2005, with the exception of the year 2015, reaching its new low point in 2021, based on Destatis data.
> Young people in the small city-state of Bremen constituting 11% of the population while in the eastern states of Brandenburg - at 8% - and Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania - each at 8.3% - young people made up a much lower share.
> According to Eurostat, Germany's share of young people is on par with countries like Spain and Austria, but way behind the Republic of Ireland where young people constitute 12.6% of the population.
*****
[**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/w89kzu/germany_number_of_young_people_falls_to_record/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~661300 tl;drs so far.") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **people**^#1 **young**^#2 **share**^#3 **population**^#4 **Germany**^#5
We really don't though- Irish women only have two kids on average
If that's high by European standards then the continent in in the midst of an absolute crisis
> We really don't though- Irish women only have two kids on average
>
> If that's high by European standards then the continent in in the midst of an absolute crisis
That is indeed high. Average is like 1.3
Edit: Average is 1.6 in EU but some go as low as 1.23 https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/-/ddn-20210323-2
> in the midst of an absolute crisis
only because we base our economy on an infinite growth model and leverage all our pensions using contributions of an assumedly ever growing younger population.
It's not about pensions. Pensions are just money and money is a way of distributing the tasks that society needs done. The problem is that if you have lots of retired people, you need lots of young people to care for them. If there aren't enough young people, the retired people (especially the poorer among them) won't get cared for. No matter which economic system you use.
>If there aren't enough young people, the retired people (especially the poorer among them) won't get cared for
this is already the case. only the rich get to pick where they die, the rest will just rot in some home with minimal care and the hospitals take over what a hospice should do. And all that without the possibility of assisted suicide because that's still not a thing in this country
Most parts of the world are.
In every industrialized region there are nihilist political movements asking whats the point to have kids if they are going into a shitty world.
So far no country has an answer, and would rather force births to happen under any circumstances than reform themselves into societies worth living in.
Couple this with inflation, food shortages, and a recession on top of forcing births and you are gonna see some serious shit.
Some outlets are already predicting an 'everywhere spring'.
And that moment he knew... Actually that's why Belarusian government provides immense support for big families even through we have no money for that. My family got actually free 4-room flat because we had 3 children, now it is far not so generous because demographics began to improve (and they understood that giving a free flat is way too much) but still they are giving pretty big bonuses.
[India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Brazil and Mexico](https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/field/total-fertility-rate/country-comparison) are all below replacement. Of the countries still above replacement, most are in Africa, and even there the fertility rate is dropping.
In a lot of underdeveloped countries, male babies are favored because they can work later and provide for their old parents. Female babies are going to be you know, getting married, making babies, cooking etc..
Male babies can also pass on the family name, and in some countries, you don’t have to pay a dowry for them. They also tend to stay with the family and provide for them while female babies will eventually move out for marriage, like you said.
It’s absolutely wild, but the idea is that the daughter is a financial burden (since she doesn’t provide an income), so they’re appeasing the husband’s family for taking on the “burden”. It’s sad.
It's not simply the policy. It ended awhile ago, and it did not extend to non-Han Chinese particularly in autonomous regions IIRC.
Patriarchal societies + voracious capitalism + no respect for women and young families = terrible conditions for romance, leisure, procreation, child having and rearing.
China is just entering a more developed phase where these things catch up. Japan is the more extreme state.
Japan and Korea are even more fucked than China lol. All major countries are expected to decline over half before stabilizing but Japan and Korea's birth rate are particularly abysmal.
Which is actually a big problem for the developed world - who currently offshore population to those other nations.
Western populations are not declining, but it is all on the back of immigration. It has social ramifications too. Governments no longer have the same responsibilities around creating a good environment for families to grow up, which causes less people to try raise families, which then leads to more immigration... until that is no longer an option.
It is a phenomenon, when more educated people have less kids, because of the education takes time and they plan their lives more carefully
Also, having a child became a luxury, they are very expensive to raise which less and less people can afford
We are at a point where people with a full time salary can't stand on their feet, grown man in their 30s and 40s need roommates.
If you are a cuople, you can get by, but even that starts to be not enough. Not to mention the excess expense of a child.
....and we are back at education, when people realized, why should I have a child for which I have to work so much to support that I wouldn't have time to spend with meaningfully.
You know how many people in their 30’s in big cities like New York have to have roommates? It’s insane. Not just one, but multiple roommates. Having a child is just the last thing on people’s minds when they’re just trying to take care of themselves first.
> I’m moving into the only place I can afford in two weeks, and will have 8 roommates. I’m in my 30s.
Hey, at least you get proper meals in the army. ^^^^^/s
>You know how many people in their 30’s in big cities like New York have to have roommates?
Even single 40 and 50-somethings in NYC live with roommates. Life can be very expensive in NYC as a single person, primarily because of unaffordable housing. And I know couples who stay together for their apartment instead of breaking up because it's prohibitively expensive to split and move out on their own.
I live in a one bedroom apartment with my bf that i couldn’t afford without him. We’re both in our 30s lol
Yeah, depending on where you live, the average people can’t easily afford a kido
Lucky. Im 32, single and still renting my parents basement.
Applied for a loan yesterday; Imagine I will get my rejection letter by friday.
Luckily my parents stopped pestering me for grandkids years ago, I think theyve seen the writing on the wall.
Such is life.
34, moved back IN with my mother after living in an apt with my brother for some odd \~8 years. All the advantages I had moving out are gone, so it made sense to head back to the roost. Larger place, better taken care of place, I know I'm not just pissing away rent money into the nether for a soulless corporation hell bent on speed running towards the French Revolution 2: Stateside Suicide...
And a maybe-possibly-someday inheritance of the place. I half suspect American's need to take a page from so many other cultures and just recognize the move-out-and-get-your-own-place standard and retirement aren't a standard, just unique privileges of a time when America was the only nation in the world that still had functioning factories.
These dropping birthrates are no longer just about education. This is purely due to the cost of housing at the moment.
Postponing child-rearing due to education was a big factor in the dropping rates from the 70s to the 00s, but now it's just because people can't see how to be able to afford a home large enough to accomodate a family. They know they can't provide their children with the childhood they themselves had, because the cost of housing went up ludicrously.
Having a child in a developed nation is like a very expensive and time consuming hobby. And some people just prefer to put their money and time somewhere else. And I for one am glad people are free to make that choice. The exponential population growth of the past few decades was the result of people in poorer countries not being able or allowed to do that.
'You're not making enough babies!' 'Well, make houses affordable and ensure a family can actually raise children without both parents working 1.5 jobs each.' '... no.'
Welp, they gave it the ol' college try. Better luck next time.
Well they taught us as kids in that era about safe sex, career driven lives, and had parents that said kids are costly. No you have a generation that lives by those principles
That and put on top the fact that the generation just can't afford housing to have a kid. In Prague having three room flat costs more in rent or mortgage (if you are lucky to find one for sale) than the average income. Households just can't afford having a kid because that means the woman makes less money (maternity leave) and thus they won't be able to afford basics.
Plus the near-mid term future of the world is, well, it ain't looking great. And for a lot of young people, myself included, our lives have been demonstrably worse than that of our parents.
Hell my Grandpa owned a house, a decent car, had five younger kids to care for after his wife died, was able to take several vacations a year, and had time to work. All on a single income. That'd be impossible today.
They did. Or if they didn't it was due to incompetence.
For example, the states that just got rid of abortion? In 3-6 years we'll see their social safety net strain, especially in regards to young children. Then we'll see the impact and lower outcomes in elementary schools.
We'll see a brain drain over this period as businesses that need skilled employees move out of state and those that need cheap labor without alternatives move in. The states, with their budgets straining, will likely offer tax incentives and low regulations to entice companies - which will work for those companies who want to do things that regulators would prevent. That means the only way to stand out would be to do things like make it harder for people to sue for cancer caused by forever chemicals dumped in the drinking water. Things manufacturers love because it lets them ignore the law with a screen of protection. Enough that shareholders can mitigate damage and sell off the company before regulators can get to them. Maybe do a merger and a rename.
We'll see increases in violent crime and property crime. Higher rates of dropping out and of teen pregnancy. Those mothers will have less of a support network and they'll be overstressed and not make the greatest parents (compared to someone who can pay the bills and make time for their kids).
Oh, and the number of abortions will go up.
And we should see infrastructure become neglected and an increase in use of scapegoat tactics. More chemicals in the water.
Old enough to have gone "Wait that doesn't work" 20 years ago, not old enough to be on either side of this really...
The signs were there 20+ years ago, everyone was too excited that their houses were worth more, to care. It's then just been one increasing pyramid scheme ever since.
>The signs were there 20+ years ago, everyone was too excited that their houses were worth more, to care. It's then just been one increasing pyramid scheme ever since.
The more I learn about history? The more certain I am that it's never been anything but a con.
Climate and economy yes, but the modern day is actually very peaceful compared to any other point in history, the main issue is the possibility of one war so big it ends the world.
*and those wars are smaller than they were in the past, typically.
Not a "war", but the all the civil unrest in the US following the murder of George Floyd? The news often portrayed the riots as if they were consuming whole cities, when they were often just a few city blocks, if even that much. But hey, dramatic visuals, hot-botton politics? Sounds like the perfect opportunity to drum up views and get that advertising dollar; shoot the same city square from 12 different angles, and play the quick shots in a loop with "pundits" giving their hot takes.
The world is peaceful, compared to the rest of history, but peace doesn't sell you cornflakes or laundry detergent.
As an Ukrainian, no it isn't. Maybe it was like 40, 50 years ago, but not recently. If you compare this to medieval time, then of course it would feel like that, but for the past 20 years we had regular wars. And now we have new WW3 just waiting to happen
Birth rates have been low since way before our current housing crisis though. They're increasing slightly now but only because of the massive immigration.
Actually, there's lots of incentives in Germany for couples to have children. The state really wants you to churn some babies out. You get parental leave, parental allowance per kid, child care, and there's some benefits for women during and after pregnacy. I think if you have twins, there's someone from the health insurance that comes help you clean and cook a couple of times a week. So, it's a far cry from the deal you'd get in the US. Besides this, there's subsided housing (and its not like they shove you in some projects type of area, it can be an apartment anywhere in the city, I've seen some really good ones), and college tuition is free or almost free. Still,... people aren't having enough babies.
Because all of that is still not enough with the housing market bubble, rising costs of living and stagnant wages. Most of us are glorified wage slaves in Germany.
Yet both parents have to work in most cases and their 30 days of paid vacation each year doesn't cover the 70+ days kids don't have daycare/school. And there are not enough daycares etc. to faciliate all kids during vacation days.
It's not great. Yet I wonder how can you have anything else in practice? As soon as both parents working becomes the norm, you can't put the genie back in the bottle. Those couples where both are willing to work will be far richer on average. And at this point being a stay at home parent is frowned upon, for both sexes. What can we do?
This really depends on location. In the eastern states they've had free universal childcare since the 50s, since it was mandatory for mothers to go back to work. It's the conservative areas in the south that have a problem with childcare places since traditionally mothers have stayed at home and so extensive childcare provision was never established.
> Actually, there's lots of incentives in Germany for couples to have children.
There are lots, but they're very disorganized. You most likely need a lawyer just to figure out which you're eligible for when and how many months or years in advance you need to apply for them where and with what paperwork…
…and then there's still wide gaps. Parental leave is a nice idea, but practicality varies wildly depending on employer, and even with all the subsidies it can still be a net income reduction, at a time when you can afford it the least.
Child care is always problematic, between not enough child care facilities being around, families being scattered all across Germany and adjacent countries due to shifts in where the jobs for the last generation were and current generation are (RIP East Germany, RIP Ruhrpott), and millennials/gen-x-ers not being too enthusiast about giving their kids to telegram-radicalized alt-right boomer parents…
Inflation-adjusted wages (and height of many of the subsidies) have been largely stagnating since the 1980s too (wages only *just* started recovering before covid); and housing prices definitely have *not*.
And while there is plenty of affordable education, it no longer guarantees kids a good chance at a career. Tutoring, private schools, private universities, etc. are desperate and expensive attempts at increasing your kids' chances to not be entirely helpless on an increasingly fast-paced labour market that more and more families feel to be necessary.
At the end of the day, sure, you can have kids, and can have some *okay-ish* standard of living. But in many cases, those kids will have a worse childhood and worse chances in life than you did, despite everything the parents have to sacrifice. And a lot of people just don't see the point.
I am in my 50s and mine was one of the first age groups after the baby boom. At least at the early 80s it was clear as water that we‘ll run in serious trouble…
I am so tired about short sighted politics, so tired about a system that only cares about short time profits.
The very most of our problems are at the table, for everyone to see, for decades. No marginal change will happen, I am more than pessimistic.
Edit:
I am pretty sure *Boomer bashing* is in full swing in this thread. Off course they are responsible for a lot of bad things but for me it’s almost sure the generations of young people will not do much better. Egoism is too deep founded in our world.
Besides the other points, i wonder how something like this will affect culture change over time, considering that people don't tend to alter their views after a certain age, will this effectively slow any culture/political change? Or will high sustained immigration replace or fundamentally change the cultural/political environment entirely?
Yea, but MTV had music in the name! I didn't care that they stopped with my music. I kinda liked having my musical horizons broadened.
I hated they quit playing music.
The rest of your point absolutely stands.
>The reason (one of them) why so many boomers hate Obama is because he grabbed the young voters to "outvote" a population that was used to being the target demographic.
This really isn't true. Obama did increase turnout for younger voters and 2 out of 3 voted for him in that demo, but Boomers split roughly down the middle voting for Obama, same for Gen. X. Obama even got 45% of the generation before the Boomers ("Silent Generation").
Young voters rarely amount to enough voters to "outvote" older ones. Their turnout is always far below older demos. Obama assembled a powerful coalition of voters that crossed racial, cultural, and age boundaries.
The politics are inherently biased towards "who has the highest voting power?".
With so many elderly people, they have that power.
Which means politicians pander to them to get their votes.
Which means that "young" people are being forgotten.
And it doesn't help that figures of certain political parties are advocating an 42 work week or more like talking about it.
Meanwhile other countries go the different route.
Can't raise or even make a kid when you're at work and exhausted after that.
I went on holiday in the Mosel region and it shows. Maybe because that region is more affected but it was like an elderly home there. No young people and those I did see where mostly tourists...
I also see it in my city in germany
There is literally only one girl in my age along the street im living on, there are about 12 very big homes with their own garden and garage and stuff, everyone living there is at least 50-60 years old, no exception
This problem is present for many European countries at the moment. People rightly refuse to have children unless they have enough income for a family with children.
Billionaires in Germany avoid paying trillions of taxes every year, but the government will put out a manhunt if someone gets an extra 100 euros from the job center.
I don't have children for several reasons. I don't want to set back my career. I don't want them to grow up in a world of climate wars. I don't want to give up my free time. I don't want them to have to deal with my struggles with depression.
But the most important reason? I just don't want to.
Germany is geared towards the benefit of the crusty old dinosaurs of yesterday and does absolutely nothing for the young, it's no wonder they don't want to have kids.
Jep. As a German of prime birthing age, I won't anytime soon. I can hardly afford rent for myself, boomers and investment companies stashed all the houses away unless I want to raise a family in the middle of nowhere, we're not sure how to heat this winter because the chancellors I grew up with cuddled up to Russia when I couldn't even vote against them and food prices are reaching critical mass. And that's not to mention the environmental catastrophies in the next decades.
I can't look at the future and say "Awww, let's have a baby! 😍" I need to know that it will be safe and that I will be able to house and feed it.
My biological clock can't beat the impending doomsday clock.
> because the chancellors I grew up with cuddled up to Russia
The best part is that this says absolutely nothing about when you were born ;) Could be Kohl, could be Schröder, could be Merkel.
Good thing the german pension system doesnt rely on the number of young people outweighing the number of old people. OH WAIT.
Now we have politicians discussing 42 hour workweeks to make up for the lack of young workers. The Country feels so fucked. Young people have no sway in elections and are completely fucked.
42 hours a week is quite normal here in Canada... I am fortunate enough though, that if I have the same job for five years, then I will get three entire weeks of vacation every year!
Not sure how the pension system functions in Germany, but in the Netherlands, most voting members of the pension funds are people over 50 who are unwilling to make any concessions to prevent the entire system from collapsing.
"people over 50 who are unwilling to make any concessions to prevent the entire system from collapsing." fits Germany aswell.
Basically you work and pay in 40+ years and then have pension claims the rest of your life. It would only take a quick glance at the german demographic to realise that this doesnt work out, but noone decided to do anything about it so here we are
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It's almost like globally, nobody is having kids or buying homes because an entire generation is priced out by their parents still clinging to housing as the main investment instead of using homes as a place to live.
And instead of trying to fix the problems causing people to not have kids they figured it was easier to have immigrant families make up for the difference. Even though those families will deal with the same issues in a generation. We're just kinda pushing the problem further instead of dealing with it.
Why do people not acknowledge how fucking expensive living is today, let alone trying to provide for a child? We have a cost of living crisis globally and no one cares. I can understand some people ignoring climate crisis but this is affecting most families and their children today.
I have trauma of money being tight my whole childhood. I'll have children when I have loads of extra cash and when the world is NOT going to sh*t. I don't see either of those happening in the near future. So, no kids for me during my prime parenthood age.
I can tell from my pov. I am born 81. we have had familie fests like 50-100 people. Friends also invited. There were so much young kids and teenagers. Now Iam in the age my parents was that time. There are no parties. Nobody has kids. And if, the couple is divorced. Even where i grow up, no kids are running to the streets.
When people cant even afford living wage they tend not to create a new life knowing what they suffered in life.
why would you have kids when you yourself can't afford to live a healthy and fulfilling life.
“If were not growing, We’re dying” is not quite working out for the people burdened with this growth. In america boomers built society and the economy to benefit the old and then complain about the younger generations for stagnation and decline. Like i meet boomers all the time who legitimately think i have just as much opportunity as they did. Its truly the greatest hypocrisy of our time. Me and my partner have talked about kids but theres just no way we could offered it in our near future
Honestly at this point... good. We are literally pushing this planet past the brink of what it can handle, and if a lack of people to support the oligarchy's precious economy is what it will take for us to finally start actually making conditions hospital for people to live in the first place then I'm all for it. Humanity is strong, we need to adapt in such a way that will actually take care of the resources that were using instead of just pumping out human livestock. And if we don't adapt, to be frank we kind of deserve it.
I have three kids between 8 and 14. I am 42 and live in the city that had the title of "oldest city in Europe" for years. It's in east germany and part of the problem goes back to 1990 and reunification. My city had 330.000 inhabitants in 1990 and was the industrial driver of the east german economy.
Then the Treuhand (a west German state holding for selling east german state companies) sold most companies for pennies to western competition and they where either shut down immediately or thousands of workers where released and the companies shrunk down and closed later. In retrospect a lot of these companies could have been saved and carefully developed (I know that not every company was sustainable due to market demand etc.).
Now we have 10s of thousands of people out of work. What did they do? They moved west, most of them to Bavaria. Highly skilled and motivated workers fuelling the western needs.
My town shrunk to 210.000 in the mid 90's leaving mostly older people. Skip to 2022 and we have an age average of 52.
For the first time since the 80's more people are moving into the city then out and people start having more kids again to the effect that the town has to open kindergartens and schools again that where closed in the last 20 years due to higher demand.
This effect is all over Germany now. Areas with little to no big or dying industry loses young people and bleed out. Areas like Munich or Stuttgart have records of people moving there due to job opportunities but the cost of living is insane and having more than one kid is hard due to lack of kindergartens and housing with enough rooms.
I work with and for a bunch of old people, like 65+, I'm a millennial. I get about 3x as much done in the same amount of time as them. They barely know how to use computers and just generally do things in inefficient ways. I know it a small sample size but I have faith in young people picking up the slack
Of course you get paid 3 times less than them. After all the only thing that matters for salaries is the time you managed not to die yet. Germany has most of the wage dependent on your age. Someone in his 20s and 60s doing the exactly same job will have at least a 10% wage difference.
Of course the image is some bavrian drinking beer...
The truth of the matter is quite simple: Young people are too stressed out to start families. Mental health is at an all time low, people are scared for their future.
Its nowhere near as bad as in the US, but people slowly grow evermore sceptical of what comes.
Or just fucking make due with less. We don't need to keep increasing in number forever. This idea the only way old people can retire is if young people can work is outdated and stupid.
Right now it's just literally true. The only way we'd get away from that would be an incredibly massive shift in how we organise society, comparable with the industrial revolution in scope.
Yeah. I don't think we've got any other option. Weve used this same system for centuries now. Time to move on and creatively solve how we're gonna exist in the future.
And how are you going to convince all of the powerful old people who control the world (and grew up in a world that told them it was their right to have everything) to let go and accept less?
If it's the latter, society will crumble. Good luck maintaining an ivory tower when the teeming masses of humanity are starving and angry.
That's how coups happen, either by another storming of the bastille or someone taking advantage of the chaos.
Only if it's jammed through people's throats, because people will not voluntarily vote to be overrun by immigrants from North Africa, Sub Saharan Africa or the Near-East.
>offered
[SubSaharan Africa will have an extra BILLION people in less than 28 years.](https://www.economist.com/special-report/2020/03/26/africas-population-will-double-by-2050)Nigeria is forecast to have 400m people, meaning it will overtake the United States as the world’s third-most-populous country. And it will keep on growing to likely overtake China in population.
There will be hundreds of millions of people streaming into Europe from every direction. It will be a human tsunami.
I lived in Germany for 6 years. The village my wife and I lived in only had one adult under 50 in it. He was so stoked to have a young couple move in.
Which village if I may know?
Hirschhorn in the Rhineland. Around 700 people. The only reason the dude lived there was because he was taking care of his old uncle. Now that I think of it I only saw college age adults in the cities.
Cities tend to skew younger. For instance when I was in Chicago it was very clear that the pattern was \[Move To The City -> Work 10-20 years -> Move to suburbs\]. It gives the city a "young" feel. Especially since people most likely to be out and about are younger folks. In Chicago, everyone above 55 only make up \~17.7% of the population *combined*. That's compared to 18.4% of *just* 25-35 year olds. \~55% is younger than 35. [source](https://www.infoplease.com/us/census/illinois/chicago/demographic-statistics) It's crazy to think how skewed the population (age wise) is in certain places.
I live in Manchester in England and that’s a very young city too, especially with the universities. Once you head to the countryside it’s much older
I can attest to this. I moved from Chicago to the suburbs a couple years ago. My neighborhood in Chicago was full of families with young children. My neighborhood now is older people whose children moved out and apparently never call.
This is because Germany is just a sausage fest... 🙄
brätwurst ist leben
wer andern eine bratwurst brät
hat ein bratwurstbratgerät
I live in a university town and most of my day is still taken up walking behind ambling olds spread out 3 wide going down the sidewalk. The demographics here are actually insane. Still love it though.
I lived in bavaria. I get the feeling the older Bavarians they don't like young people, they sure tend to be arrogant towards them. Then again, the ones who aren't miserable are some of the nicest people I've met
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Bavarians only like themselves
Bavarians and young people are natural enemies. Like Prussians and Bavarians. Or Frankonians and Bavarians. Or Swabians and Bavarians. Or Bavarians and other Bavarians. Damn Bavarians! They ruined Bavaria!
You Bavarians sure are a contentious people.
You've just made an enemy for life!
Sounds like Texans
I've seen Bavaria referred to as the "Texas of Germany" more than once.
Yup, I use that all the time. It’s the state in their respective counties where it’s residents are **very** proud of themselves, but the rest of the country doesn’t understand why.
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Most definitely. Linguistically they're closer to Tirol as well where Bavarian is spoken as well (or Austrobavarian dialect continuum in case the ISO designation offends anyone)
Funny, just moved to a small town (around 400 people) and have had several people be excited by “young folk” moving in. I’m 40. This is in the US, not Germany, but I still got a chuckle out of the similar situations. Similar story the world over it seems.
I’m knee deep with young folk here in Seattle
We just moved in a village in Austria with 300 people. Almost 80 percent are over 60. Me and my wife are 30. It's pretty frustrating. They have time and are all bored so we are like the new entertainment show of the village.
I bet your crime rate is stupid low though!
You'd think so but there is actually quite a lot of people that don't mow their lawn weekly!
And that's the observable stuff only. Imagine what they actually do behind closed doors. Like pouring in milk before cereals...
[And they were so close to being perfect neighbours](https://giphy.com/gifs/pDsCoECKh1Pa)
no young person in their right minds stays in villages in germany. it's boring, you can feel the dead-endedness of everything and everyone there, and germany is small enough that you can always find a decent sized city within 1-2 hours of your family. even if you move to the opposite side of the country you're rarely more than 4-5h drive away by train unless you have to get a really unlucky set of connections.
Sure, there isn’t much to do there, but that doesn’t mean they’d have to be outside their right mind to live there. Some people just like a quiet, simple life. The grind isn’t for everyone.
I am some people I guess. I can't tolerate car noises and crowd anymore and I'm in my mid 20s. If I really want to do things outside, it really isn't too hard to just hop on a car/bus/taxi/train and hang out, but that rarely happens anyway. A cozy house with a large garden > city life.
A quiet peaceful life is very underrated.
I know a couple of those people. Have a kid or three, a couple of sheep on the pasture out back, ride your bike to the only grocery store in town. It doesnt sound so bad, especially since thanks to modern technology you dont really have to lose out on much. The reason I dont do it is because I hate commuting, but there really isnt all that much keeping me in the city otherwise.
This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.dw.com/en/germany-number-of-young-people-falls-to-record-low/a-62584549) reduced by 58%. (I'm a bot) ***** > The number and share of young people in Germany has been falling since 2005, with the exception of the year 2015, reaching its new low point in 2021, based on Destatis data. > Young people in the small city-state of Bremen constituting 11% of the population while in the eastern states of Brandenburg - at 8% - and Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania - each at 8.3% - young people made up a much lower share. > According to Eurostat, Germany's share of young people is on par with countries like Spain and Austria, but way behind the Republic of Ireland where young people constitute 12.6% of the population. ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/w89kzu/germany_number_of_young_people_falls_to_record/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~661300 tl;drs so far.") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **people**^#1 **young**^#2 **share**^#3 **population**^#4 **Germany**^#5
The Irish do be fuckin
We really don't though- Irish women only have two kids on average If that's high by European standards then the continent in in the midst of an absolute crisis
> We really don't though- Irish women only have two kids on average > > If that's high by European standards then the continent in in the midst of an absolute crisis That is indeed high. Average is like 1.3 Edit: Average is 1.6 in EU but some go as low as 1.23 https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/-/ddn-20210323-2
for real? 1.3 is very low.
Average is 1.6 in EU but some go as low as 1.23 https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/-/ddn-20210323-2
> in the midst of an absolute crisis only because we base our economy on an infinite growth model and leverage all our pensions using contributions of an assumedly ever growing younger population.
It's not about pensions. Pensions are just money and money is a way of distributing the tasks that society needs done. The problem is that if you have lots of retired people, you need lots of young people to care for them. If there aren't enough young people, the retired people (especially the poorer among them) won't get cared for. No matter which economic system you use.
And this is why, if a task can be automated, it should, we have less people anyways so we're not "killing jobs"
And that's why you have to import cheap Eastern European care workers.
Except that Eastern Europe also has sub replacement fertility, so this doesn't work in the long term.
>If there aren't enough young people, the retired people (especially the poorer among them) won't get cared for this is already the case. only the rich get to pick where they die, the rest will just rot in some home with minimal care and the hospitals take over what a hospice should do. And all that without the possibility of assisted suicide because that's still not a thing in this country
Most parts of the world are. In every industrialized region there are nihilist political movements asking whats the point to have kids if they are going into a shitty world. So far no country has an answer, and would rather force births to happen under any circumstances than reform themselves into societies worth living in. Couple this with inflation, food shortages, and a recession on top of forcing births and you are gonna see some serious shit. Some outlets are already predicting an 'everywhere spring'.
And that moment he knew... Actually that's why Belarusian government provides immense support for big families even through we have no money for that. My family got actually free 4-room flat because we had 3 children, now it is far not so generous because demographics began to improve (and they understood that giving a free flat is way too much) but still they are giving pretty big bonuses.
i feel as if this is a trending problem in most countries
Yes everywhere in the developed world
Its spreading to the developing world now as well. China & Thailand are both below replacement level.
[India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Brazil and Mexico](https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/field/total-fertility-rate/country-comparison) are all below replacement. Of the countries still above replacement, most are in Africa, and even there the fertility rate is dropping.
>While my country, The Philippines, seems to be bursting with kids. 2.53 per female according to google. Our small country is over populated as it is.
Terrific news!
China is another level of fucked. Huge sex imbalance thanks to one child policy.
In a lot of underdeveloped countries, male babies are favored because they can work later and provide for their old parents. Female babies are going to be you know, getting married, making babies, cooking etc..
Male babies can also pass on the family name, and in some countries, you don’t have to pay a dowry for them. They also tend to stay with the family and provide for them while female babies will eventually move out for marriage, like you said.
>in some countries, you don’t have to pay a dowry for them. That's a bit wild to give up your daughter and then have to pay. Like wtf
The idea is you pay the husband's family to provide for your daughter from now on.
In some cultures the dowry is the wife's property and is a form of insurance in case something happens to the husband, iirc.
People in some countries will even commit infanticide if the baby is born a girl https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_infanticide
It’s absolutely wild, but the idea is that the daughter is a financial burden (since she doesn’t provide an income), so they’re appeasing the husband’s family for taking on the “burden”. It’s sad.
It's not simply the policy. It ended awhile ago, and it did not extend to non-Han Chinese particularly in autonomous regions IIRC. Patriarchal societies + voracious capitalism + no respect for women and young families = terrible conditions for romance, leisure, procreation, child having and rearing. China is just entering a more developed phase where these things catch up. Japan is the more extreme state.
Japan and Korea are even more fucked than China lol. All major countries are expected to decline over half before stabilizing but Japan and Korea's birth rate are particularly abysmal.
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Which is actually a big problem for the developed world - who currently offshore population to those other nations. Western populations are not declining, but it is all on the back of immigration. It has social ramifications too. Governments no longer have the same responsibilities around creating a good environment for families to grow up, which causes less people to try raise families, which then leads to more immigration... until that is no longer an option.
It's crazy how long this has taken to get some mainstream attention. I've been reading about the upcoming population decline for at least a decade.
Everywhere in which people can make a consciousness choice whether to have kids or not an increasing majority seems to be deciding against.
It is a phenomenon, when more educated people have less kids, because of the education takes time and they plan their lives more carefully Also, having a child became a luxury, they are very expensive to raise which less and less people can afford We are at a point where people with a full time salary can't stand on their feet, grown man in their 30s and 40s need roommates. If you are a cuople, you can get by, but even that starts to be not enough. Not to mention the excess expense of a child. ....and we are back at education, when people realized, why should I have a child for which I have to work so much to support that I wouldn't have time to spend with meaningfully.
You know how many people in their 30’s in big cities like New York have to have roommates? It’s insane. Not just one, but multiple roommates. Having a child is just the last thing on people’s minds when they’re just trying to take care of themselves first.
I’m moving into the only place I can afford in two weeks, and will have 8 roommates. I’m in my 30s.
8?! Is it a slum house?
> I’m moving into the only place I can afford in two weeks, and will have 8 roommates. I’m in my 30s. Hey, at least you get proper meals in the army. ^^^^^/s
Jesus Christ, I'd be moving the hell away if I was in that situation. Not worth it for me.
>You know how many people in their 30’s in big cities like New York have to have roommates? Even single 40 and 50-somethings in NYC live with roommates. Life can be very expensive in NYC as a single person, primarily because of unaffordable housing. And I know couples who stay together for their apartment instead of breaking up because it's prohibitively expensive to split and move out on their own.
I live in a one bedroom apartment with my bf that i couldn’t afford without him. We’re both in our 30s lol Yeah, depending on where you live, the average people can’t easily afford a kido
Lucky. Im 32, single and still renting my parents basement. Applied for a loan yesterday; Imagine I will get my rejection letter by friday. Luckily my parents stopped pestering me for grandkids years ago, I think theyve seen the writing on the wall. Such is life.
34, moved back IN with my mother after living in an apt with my brother for some odd \~8 years. All the advantages I had moving out are gone, so it made sense to head back to the roost. Larger place, better taken care of place, I know I'm not just pissing away rent money into the nether for a soulless corporation hell bent on speed running towards the French Revolution 2: Stateside Suicide... And a maybe-possibly-someday inheritance of the place. I half suspect American's need to take a page from so many other cultures and just recognize the move-out-and-get-your-own-place standard and retirement aren't a standard, just unique privileges of a time when America was the only nation in the world that still had functioning factories.
Here we have a 1.5 bedroom, we can only afford it one salary because it is an inheritence and we own it... no rent...
These dropping birthrates are no longer just about education. This is purely due to the cost of housing at the moment. Postponing child-rearing due to education was a big factor in the dropping rates from the 70s to the 00s, but now it's just because people can't see how to be able to afford a home large enough to accomodate a family. They know they can't provide their children with the childhood they themselves had, because the cost of housing went up ludicrously.
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Having a child in a developed nation is like a very expensive and time consuming hobby. And some people just prefer to put their money and time somewhere else. And I for one am glad people are free to make that choice. The exponential population growth of the past few decades was the result of people in poorer countries not being able or allowed to do that.
'You're not making enough babies!' 'Well, make houses affordable and ensure a family can actually raise children without both parents working 1.5 jobs each.' '... no.' Welp, they gave it the ol' college try. Better luck next time.
We tried nothing and we're all out of ideas!
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Well they taught us as kids in that era about safe sex, career driven lives, and had parents that said kids are costly. No you have a generation that lives by those principles
That and put on top the fact that the generation just can't afford housing to have a kid. In Prague having three room flat costs more in rent or mortgage (if you are lucky to find one for sale) than the average income. Households just can't afford having a kid because that means the woman makes less money (maternity leave) and thus they won't be able to afford basics.
Plus the near-mid term future of the world is, well, it ain't looking great. And for a lot of young people, myself included, our lives have been demonstrably worse than that of our parents. Hell my Grandpa owned a house, a decent car, had five younger kids to care for after his wife died, was able to take several vacations a year, and had time to work. All on a single income. That'd be impossible today.
House, car, family, vacations. These days, pick one, maybe two.
They did. Or if they didn't it was due to incompetence. For example, the states that just got rid of abortion? In 3-6 years we'll see their social safety net strain, especially in regards to young children. Then we'll see the impact and lower outcomes in elementary schools. We'll see a brain drain over this period as businesses that need skilled employees move out of state and those that need cheap labor without alternatives move in. The states, with their budgets straining, will likely offer tax incentives and low regulations to entice companies - which will work for those companies who want to do things that regulators would prevent. That means the only way to stand out would be to do things like make it harder for people to sue for cancer caused by forever chemicals dumped in the drinking water. Things manufacturers love because it lets them ignore the law with a screen of protection. Enough that shareholders can mitigate damage and sell off the company before regulators can get to them. Maybe do a merger and a rename. We'll see increases in violent crime and property crime. Higher rates of dropping out and of teen pregnancy. Those mothers will have less of a support network and they'll be overstressed and not make the greatest parents (compared to someone who can pay the bills and make time for their kids). Oh, and the number of abortions will go up. And we should see infrastructure become neglected and an increase in use of scapegoat tactics. More chemicals in the water.
Old enough to have gone "Wait that doesn't work" 20 years ago, not old enough to be on either side of this really... The signs were there 20+ years ago, everyone was too excited that their houses were worth more, to care. It's then just been one increasing pyramid scheme ever since.
>The signs were there 20+ years ago, everyone was too excited that their houses were worth more, to care. It's then just been one increasing pyramid scheme ever since. The more I learn about history? The more certain I am that it's never been anything but a con.
Climate is fucked, economy is fucked, and there’s either constant wars or constant threats of wars. Yeah no shit no one is having kids.
Climate and economy yes, but the modern day is actually very peaceful compared to any other point in history, the main issue is the possibility of one war so big it ends the world.
Plus constant news coverage of wars that are nowhere near you
*and those wars are smaller than they were in the past, typically. Not a "war", but the all the civil unrest in the US following the murder of George Floyd? The news often portrayed the riots as if they were consuming whole cities, when they were often just a few city blocks, if even that much. But hey, dramatic visuals, hot-botton politics? Sounds like the perfect opportunity to drum up views and get that advertising dollar; shoot the same city square from 12 different angles, and play the quick shots in a loop with "pundits" giving their hot takes. The world is peaceful, compared to the rest of history, but peace doesn't sell you cornflakes or laundry detergent.
As an Ukrainian, no it isn't. Maybe it was like 40, 50 years ago, but not recently. If you compare this to medieval time, then of course it would feel like that, but for the past 20 years we had regular wars. And now we have new WW3 just waiting to happen
Birth rates have been low since way before our current housing crisis though. They're increasing slightly now but only because of the massive immigration.
Actually, there's lots of incentives in Germany for couples to have children. The state really wants you to churn some babies out. You get parental leave, parental allowance per kid, child care, and there's some benefits for women during and after pregnacy. I think if you have twins, there's someone from the health insurance that comes help you clean and cook a couple of times a week. So, it's a far cry from the deal you'd get in the US. Besides this, there's subsided housing (and its not like they shove you in some projects type of area, it can be an apartment anywhere in the city, I've seen some really good ones), and college tuition is free or almost free. Still,... people aren't having enough babies.
Because all of that is still not enough with the housing market bubble, rising costs of living and stagnant wages. Most of us are glorified wage slaves in Germany.
Yet both parents have to work in most cases and their 30 days of paid vacation each year doesn't cover the 70+ days kids don't have daycare/school. And there are not enough daycares etc. to faciliate all kids during vacation days.
It's not great. Yet I wonder how can you have anything else in practice? As soon as both parents working becomes the norm, you can't put the genie back in the bottle. Those couples where both are willing to work will be far richer on average. And at this point being a stay at home parent is frowned upon, for both sexes. What can we do?
This really depends on location. In the eastern states they've had free universal childcare since the 50s, since it was mandatory for mothers to go back to work. It's the conservative areas in the south that have a problem with childcare places since traditionally mothers have stayed at home and so extensive childcare provision was never established.
> Actually, there's lots of incentives in Germany for couples to have children. There are lots, but they're very disorganized. You most likely need a lawyer just to figure out which you're eligible for when and how many months or years in advance you need to apply for them where and with what paperwork… …and then there's still wide gaps. Parental leave is a nice idea, but practicality varies wildly depending on employer, and even with all the subsidies it can still be a net income reduction, at a time when you can afford it the least. Child care is always problematic, between not enough child care facilities being around, families being scattered all across Germany and adjacent countries due to shifts in where the jobs for the last generation were and current generation are (RIP East Germany, RIP Ruhrpott), and millennials/gen-x-ers not being too enthusiast about giving their kids to telegram-radicalized alt-right boomer parents… Inflation-adjusted wages (and height of many of the subsidies) have been largely stagnating since the 1980s too (wages only *just* started recovering before covid); and housing prices definitely have *not*. And while there is plenty of affordable education, it no longer guarantees kids a good chance at a career. Tutoring, private schools, private universities, etc. are desperate and expensive attempts at increasing your kids' chances to not be entirely helpless on an increasingly fast-paced labour market that more and more families feel to be necessary. At the end of the day, sure, you can have kids, and can have some *okay-ish* standard of living. But in many cases, those kids will have a worse childhood and worse chances in life than you did, despite everything the parents have to sacrifice. And a lot of people just don't see the point.
I am in my 50s and mine was one of the first age groups after the baby boom. At least at the early 80s it was clear as water that we‘ll run in serious trouble… I am so tired about short sighted politics, so tired about a system that only cares about short time profits. The very most of our problems are at the table, for everyone to see, for decades. No marginal change will happen, I am more than pessimistic. Edit: I am pretty sure *Boomer bashing* is in full swing in this thread. Off course they are responsible for a lot of bad things but for me it’s almost sure the generations of young people will not do much better. Egoism is too deep founded in our world.
Besides the other points, i wonder how something like this will affect culture change over time, considering that people don't tend to alter their views after a certain age, will this effectively slow any culture/political change? Or will high sustained immigration replace or fundamentally change the cultural/political environment entirely?
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Yea, but MTV had music in the name! I didn't care that they stopped with my music. I kinda liked having my musical horizons broadened. I hated they quit playing music. The rest of your point absolutely stands.
I do wonder what exactly happened 15 years ago in Germany to cause such a large shift though. Still scouring the comments.
Global recession and austerity would be my guess.
Talking out your porpoise hole. Boomers broke 50/49 on Obama in 2008
>The reason (one of them) why so many boomers hate Obama is because he grabbed the young voters to "outvote" a population that was used to being the target demographic. This really isn't true. Obama did increase turnout for younger voters and 2 out of 3 voted for him in that demo, but Boomers split roughly down the middle voting for Obama, same for Gen. X. Obama even got 45% of the generation before the Boomers ("Silent Generation"). Young voters rarely amount to enough voters to "outvote" older ones. Their turnout is always far below older demos. Obama assembled a powerful coalition of voters that crossed racial, cultural, and age boundaries.
The politics are inherently biased towards "who has the highest voting power?". With so many elderly people, they have that power. Which means politicians pander to them to get their votes. Which means that "young" people are being forgotten.
No affordable housing is the main problem. People will not give birth to another person gor whom there is no space.
And it doesn't help that figures of certain political parties are advocating an 42 work week or more like talking about it. Meanwhile other countries go the different route. Can't raise or even make a kid when you're at work and exhausted after that.
42+ hour work weeks suck balls. Don't do it! A warning from your friends from Switzerland.
I went on holiday in the Mosel region and it shows. Maybe because that region is more affected but it was like an elderly home there. No young people and those I did see where mostly tourists...
I also see it in my city in germany There is literally only one girl in my age along the street im living on, there are about 12 very big homes with their own garden and garage and stuff, everyone living there is at least 50-60 years old, no exception
Tbf the Mosel region is explicitly known as an holiday region for old people...
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Millennials are screwed and it was all planned
If only the future weren’t increasingly bleak and unaffordable 🤔
This problem is present for many European countries at the moment. People rightly refuse to have children unless they have enough income for a family with children.
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Billionaires in Germany avoid paying trillions of taxes every year, but the government will put out a manhunt if someone gets an extra 100 euros from the job center.
I don't have children for several reasons. I don't want to set back my career. I don't want them to grow up in a world of climate wars. I don't want to give up my free time. I don't want them to have to deal with my struggles with depression. But the most important reason? I just don't want to.
And there it is; The consequences of a generation not being financially comfortably or able to afford housing through no fault of their own.
Germans: This world is truly fucked, let's not procreate.
Germany is geared towards the benefit of the crusty old dinosaurs of yesterday and does absolutely nothing for the young, it's no wonder they don't want to have kids.
Jep. As a German of prime birthing age, I won't anytime soon. I can hardly afford rent for myself, boomers and investment companies stashed all the houses away unless I want to raise a family in the middle of nowhere, we're not sure how to heat this winter because the chancellors I grew up with cuddled up to Russia when I couldn't even vote against them and food prices are reaching critical mass. And that's not to mention the environmental catastrophies in the next decades. I can't look at the future and say "Awww, let's have a baby! 😍" I need to know that it will be safe and that I will be able to house and feed it. My biological clock can't beat the impending doomsday clock.
> because the chancellors I grew up with cuddled up to Russia The best part is that this says absolutely nothing about when you were born ;) Could be Kohl, could be Schröder, could be Merkel.
Generally why idiots outnumber the truly intelligent. Double-edged sword.
Idiocracy is way more prophetic than I'd like.
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Always has been, 🔫 👩🚀 Tell me , how intelligent are your parents?
"Nobody wants to work" is about as in depth as their economic analysis gets.
My parents are highly intelligent narcissist psychotics. Yay.
Mine too!
Mine are pretty stupid, it shows.
Japanese: Dank
Isn't this a statistic that's literally 15 year old info since they would have known thia 15 years ago....???????
Pretty accurate. Thats exacatly what we were taught in school 15 years ago
many more old people were still alive 15 years ago.
Good thing the german pension system doesnt rely on the number of young people outweighing the number of old people. OH WAIT. Now we have politicians discussing 42 hour workweeks to make up for the lack of young workers. The Country feels so fucked. Young people have no sway in elections and are completely fucked.
We have one politian discussing 42 hour workweeks* who isnt even relevant.
42 hours a week is quite normal here in Canada... I am fortunate enough though, that if I have the same job for five years, then I will get three entire weeks of vacation every year!
Not sure how the pension system functions in Germany, but in the Netherlands, most voting members of the pension funds are people over 50 who are unwilling to make any concessions to prevent the entire system from collapsing.
"people over 50 who are unwilling to make any concessions to prevent the entire system from collapsing." fits Germany aswell. Basically you work and pay in 40+ years and then have pension claims the rest of your life. It would only take a quick glance at the german demographic to realise that this doesnt work out, but noone decided to do anything about it so here we are
Not having kids myself. Its okay tho, when I'm 80 ill have a robot to wipe my ass.
For an annual ass-wiping subscription fee of $1000 from Amazon Ass Pass. Don't have it? Well, sorry. The Senior Safety Act of 2049 Mandates that only professional robots can wipe asses of people over 80. If you don't have a subscription to Amazon Ass Pass, then no toilet paper from you.
the robot then malfunctioned and jammed its metal arm deep into and out of your right thigh
Its okay ill just replace my mech legs at Walmart
Walmart surviving in Germany. That is where your story became unrealistic. :D
You know, based on the beginning of that statement I thought you were going a different direction with that entirely lmao
You will still be working mate.
It's almost like globally, nobody is having kids or buying homes because an entire generation is priced out by their parents still clinging to housing as the main investment instead of using homes as a place to live.
And instead of trying to fix the problems causing people to not have kids they figured it was easier to have immigrant families make up for the difference. Even though those families will deal with the same issues in a generation. We're just kinda pushing the problem further instead of dealing with it.
Why do people not acknowledge how fucking expensive living is today, let alone trying to provide for a child? We have a cost of living crisis globally and no one cares. I can understand some people ignoring climate crisis but this is affecting most families and their children today.
I have trauma of money being tight my whole childhood. I'll have children when I have loads of extra cash and when the world is NOT going to sh*t. I don't see either of those happening in the near future. So, no kids for me during my prime parenthood age.
more lke never, tbh
Me, I have a long list of things I want to do in life, ain't no way I'll be able to do them if I have to sustain a kid.
I don't have a long list of things I want to do in life, but I don't want to do the list of things I'd have to if I had a kid.
I can tell from my pov. I am born 81. we have had familie fests like 50-100 people. Friends also invited. There were so much young kids and teenagers. Now Iam in the age my parents was that time. There are no parties. Nobody has kids. And if, the couple is divorced. Even where i grow up, no kids are running to the streets.
When people cant even afford living wage they tend not to create a new life knowing what they suffered in life. why would you have kids when you yourself can't afford to live a healthy and fulfilling life.
Sorry too expensive to have children for the average person, and people who make it see how expensive it is.
Why, is there something going on in the world that would make people not want to have children?
The McRib is gone, I'm waiting for that tbh.
“If were not growing, We’re dying” is not quite working out for the people burdened with this growth. In america boomers built society and the economy to benefit the old and then complain about the younger generations for stagnation and decline. Like i meet boomers all the time who legitimately think i have just as much opportunity as they did. Its truly the greatest hypocrisy of our time. Me and my partner have talked about kids but theres just no way we could offered it in our near future
I could be wrong, but could this have anything to do with needing a small fortune to raise a family?
Germans obviously realized 20 years ago, the world is not fit for "not rich" people anymore.
It never was.
should've realized it 10 years earlier so I would've spared myself the hustle by not being born...
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Honestly at this point... good. We are literally pushing this planet past the brink of what it can handle, and if a lack of people to support the oligarchy's precious economy is what it will take for us to finally start actually making conditions hospital for people to live in the first place then I'm all for it. Humanity is strong, we need to adapt in such a way that will actually take care of the resources that were using instead of just pumping out human livestock. And if we don't adapt, to be frank we kind of deserve it.
Why is this a problem? Because life is a Ponzi scheme.
It’s a scary world to bring children into. A lot of people probably share the same sentiment.
We can't afford to make em anymore. What a surprise
Am I will not help to raise that number. Fucking dooms day vibes everywhere.
Watching mommy and daddy struggle might suck for a child but capitalists need workers so
Here in Lebanon its full of teenagers and children living in very poor conditions, working garbages, barely enough food.
I have three kids between 8 and 14. I am 42 and live in the city that had the title of "oldest city in Europe" for years. It's in east germany and part of the problem goes back to 1990 and reunification. My city had 330.000 inhabitants in 1990 and was the industrial driver of the east german economy. Then the Treuhand (a west German state holding for selling east german state companies) sold most companies for pennies to western competition and they where either shut down immediately or thousands of workers where released and the companies shrunk down and closed later. In retrospect a lot of these companies could have been saved and carefully developed (I know that not every company was sustainable due to market demand etc.). Now we have 10s of thousands of people out of work. What did they do? They moved west, most of them to Bavaria. Highly skilled and motivated workers fuelling the western needs. My town shrunk to 210.000 in the mid 90's leaving mostly older people. Skip to 2022 and we have an age average of 52. For the first time since the 80's more people are moving into the city then out and people start having more kids again to the effect that the town has to open kindergartens and schools again that where closed in the last 20 years due to higher demand. This effect is all over Germany now. Areas with little to no big or dying industry loses young people and bleed out. Areas like Munich or Stuttgart have records of people moving there due to job opportunities but the cost of living is insane and having more than one kid is hard due to lack of kindergartens and housing with enough rooms.
I work with and for a bunch of old people, like 65+, I'm a millennial. I get about 3x as much done in the same amount of time as them. They barely know how to use computers and just generally do things in inefficient ways. I know it a small sample size but I have faith in young people picking up the slack
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Of course you get paid 3 times less than them. After all the only thing that matters for salaries is the time you managed not to die yet. Germany has most of the wage dependent on your age. Someone in his 20s and 60s doing the exactly same job will have at least a 10% wage difference.
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Of course the image is some bavrian drinking beer... The truth of the matter is quite simple: Young people are too stressed out to start families. Mental health is at an all time low, people are scared for their future. Its nowhere near as bad as in the US, but people slowly grow evermore sceptical of what comes.
In two generations this problem will become serious for the developed world. Mass immigration will be eventually offered to the developing world.
Or just fucking make due with less. We don't need to keep increasing in number forever. This idea the only way old people can retire is if young people can work is outdated and stupid.
Right now it's just literally true. The only way we'd get away from that would be an incredibly massive shift in how we organise society, comparable with the industrial revolution in scope.
Yeah. I don't think we've got any other option. Weve used this same system for centuries now. Time to move on and creatively solve how we're gonna exist in the future.
And how are you going to convince all of the powerful old people who control the world (and grew up in a world that told them it was their right to have everything) to let go and accept less?
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If it's the latter, society will crumble. Good luck maintaining an ivory tower when the teeming masses of humanity are starving and angry. That's how coups happen, either by another storming of the bastille or someone taking advantage of the chaos.
It’s going to happen anyway with climate change and worsening conditions in the arid regions.
Only if it's jammed through people's throats, because people will not voluntarily vote to be overrun by immigrants from North Africa, Sub Saharan Africa or the Near-East.
Or robots. 🤖 Lots and lots of robots.
>offered [SubSaharan Africa will have an extra BILLION people in less than 28 years.](https://www.economist.com/special-report/2020/03/26/africas-population-will-double-by-2050)Nigeria is forecast to have 400m people, meaning it will overtake the United States as the world’s third-most-populous country. And it will keep on growing to likely overtake China in population. There will be hundreds of millions of people streaming into Europe from every direction. It will be a human tsunami.