UK’s fertility rate falling faster than any other G7 nation | UK News

I am shocked!!!!! So let me get this straight, the price of everything has gone through the fucking roof and we are surprised to see less people having kids ????? What a revelation!!!!

I don’t even want kids, but I feel sorry for the people that do….. and if we are looking at this from a purely “economic” angle, if the government don’t make a genuine effort to reduce the cost of living this is going to get waaaaaaay worse.

Let’s face it we all know having kids has always been expensive, but even just the idea of having kids these days goes out the window when you realise you can leave home, because you can’t afford rent or a mortgage. That’s before you even get onto the conversation of childcare, which is essentially like paying a second mortgage.

And this is happening to a birth rate tht has already been sub replacement for decades. We are deeply screwed and at this point there is no possible fix.

Westminster: Welp, better crank up the immigration numbers again and hope that the third world countries we’re milking GDP inflators from don’t cut off the tap now that their own fertility rates are plummetting 

As I shit out on every thread I come across about this topic:

Richer nations tend to have lower fertility, and richer people within most nations tend to have lower fertility, too.

That is, the women who would once upon a time have N kids tend to prefer to have (say) N-1, even if they can afford to have more. Couples who have higher income tend to prefer to spend it having a higher quality of life with N-1 kids than having another.

It is not hard to see that motherhood is extremely taxing. Pregnancy is difficult, careers get interrupted, and responsibilities are added. In societies that encourage women’s independence, access to education and contraception, and that do not have intense religious pressures to grant massive social status to mothers, the point where the marginal utility from having an extra kid becomes negative is earlier. This is unavoidable unless we walk back centuries of societal progress, which will not happen (nor should it).

Every developed country has this problem. It is surely the single biggest domestic crisis that is shared amongst all of them. It is *the* driver behind immigration – naturally, no group ever has a preference to shrink as a proportion of the population of their ancestral homeland. Facing social liberalisation, urbanisation, and the ensuing fertility collapse, you must either accept that there will be some combination of economic stagnation/degrowth, reduction of pension support/duration, or increased immigration.

Each approach has its drawbacks. Japan chose economic stagnation, but even they are trying to increase immigration now, feeling the pain of their lost decades. Britain (dare I say, its politicians) chose immigration. The problem is, either immigrants will integrate with British culture and values, and in doing so, see their own fertility rates plummet, or they will not integrate, leading to a whole host of issues. So you’re either pushing the bomb back a generation or two and pray for massive productivity gains (that don’t appear to be coming…) or you’re slowly decreasing the proportion in the country that does hold British values.

Nobody has found a solution. Again, the fucking Japanese, who are infamously xenophobic (to their success or demise, we shall see) have resorted to immigration because despite all their efforts, they still failed to raise birthrates.

I’m all for trying to improve housing affordability and productivity so more couples can afford a 3 bed, have some extra income, and have all round better lives. But let’s not kid ourselves into thinking this will have any serious impact on TFR. We already know what people who already can afford a 3 bed choose, and it sure as hell isn’t popping out more babies. Unless the CIA and friends can pull off the psyop of all psyops to turn us all into natalists, dramatic population declines (across all but the poorest nations), and all their consequences, are here to stay.

Simple solution: Outsource the whole thing overseas, so your workers aren’t loosing productivity with things such as childrearing. Have the outsourced country foot the bill for raising your labor instead, then allow them to come here to work once they are of a productive age.

Bonus points if you can keep them here on a temporary permit, so by the time they retire they’ll have to return back to their country of origin for the latter part of their unproductive years.