News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on The case for national paid maternity leave. Parent comment

Re:The case for national paid maternity leave by GordonS on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @03:23PM (#23238986)
The point about Japan is not so much that it has a declining population, but that it has a decline population of working age people.

And my point about the US is the same[0]. Rather than aiming to keep the population size stable, I'd think goals should be around the size of the working age population, and around a level of growth that's required for the US economy to grow.

I do take your point about the number of people on the planet, but I don't think it's really an issue outside of developing nations.

[0] https://eig.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Heartland-Visas-R...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The case for national paid maternity leave by viklove on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @03:53PM (#23239360)
Can't grow perpetually, can you? So why should we try to hit the max before we stabilize?

Basing an economy on an ever-growing population is foolish. We should plan better than that.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The case for national paid maternity leave by GordonS on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @03:59PM (#23239436)
I didn't mean to grow in perpetuity; I meant firstly a growth rate that replenishes the working age population, and secondly that makes sense for the size, density and economic state of the country.
[ Parent | on HN ]