Re:France comes to standstill livid workers protest plan to ...
by tnel77 on Tuesday March 07, 2023 @08:22PM
(#35063934)
As a parent, you are 100% correct. I love my kids and I’m saving like mad for them, but the future is, frankly, bleak for young people.
Re:France comes to standstill livid workers protest plan to ...
by fxtentacle on Tuesday March 07, 2023 @10:10PM
(#35064719)
There's also the aspect that old people will feel bothered by your kids and complain if they have to endure hearing happy kids after 6PM. Even though they were the ones who bought the house next to the playground...
Re:France comes to standstill livid workers protest plan to ...
by gruez on Tuesday March 07, 2023 @10:55PM
(#35065029)
>This is a huge departure from almost all of human history except the last 100 years in the developed world, where the family formerly was the safety net so these kind of investments and arrangements stayed in the family leaving a much stronger economic incentive for children.
except the evidence seems to point towards kids being a net drain, even in preindustrial societies.
https://www.econlib.org/archives/2009/10/was_having_kids.htm...
Re:France comes to standstill livid workers protest plan to ...
by jjoonathan on Tuesday March 07, 2023 @11:33PM
(#35065280)
When options are thin, hope commands a premium. See: lottery tickets.
Would you give up planning for retirement just because all of the options were unreliable? I wouldn't, I'd pick the least bad and try anyway.
Re:France comes to standstill livid workers protest plan to ...
by emodendroket on Tuesday March 07, 2023 @11:46PM
(#35065375)
I think it is at least worth considering that there may have been reasons other than economic reasoning that people chose to have children.
Re:France comes to standstill livid workers protest plan to ...
by zeroonetwothree on Wednesday March 08, 2023 @01:31AM
(#35065928)
And apparently that results in people having 1.8 children instead of 5.6.
Re:France comes to standstill livid workers protest plan to ...
by emodendroket on Wednesday March 08, 2023 @11:59AM
(#35071519)
I’m not sure what you’re saying. There are other factors that have changed between now and then, such as the general acceptability of being unmarried, family planning tools, reduced religiosity, and woolier stuff like people’s idea of what a good life is.
Re:France comes to standstill livid workers protest plan to ...
by gruez on Tuesday March 07, 2023 @11:55PM
(#35065432)
Except the linked article argues that in hunter gatherer societies, kids were a net drain even when their parents were approaching retirement, and in agricultural societies there were "retirement" options in the form of land ownership and financial instruments.
Re:France comes to standstill livid workers protest plan to ...
by notch898a on Wednesday March 08, 2023 @12:07AM
(#35065490)
Some of the calculations they made were utterly bizarre. Like assuming the child wasn't paying anything forward until "retirement" of the parent. All adults being net positive is not the same as the elders not benefitting from in-kin capture of investments in a scheme that almost resembles taxation moving benefit upwards in in-kin seniority.
Re:France comes to standstill livid workers protest plan to ...
by jjoonathan on Thursday March 09, 2023 @01:15PM
(#35084615)
So if you were living in an agricultural society, you would trust their financial instruments and institutions governing land ownership more than you would trust your own family? Really?
Re:France comes to standstill livid workers protest plan to ...
by magicalhippo on Wednesday March 08, 2023 @01:02AM
(#35065782)
Feels a bit like saying the compressor is a net drain on a jet engine. Sure, if you disconnected the compressor while running, the engine would make a lot of power for a very brief moment. But the compressor is needed to keep the engine running.
Re:France comes to standstill livid workers protest plan to ...
by emodendroket on Tuesday March 07, 2023 @11:43PM
(#35065349)
> Purely economically, only a total moron would have a child.
OK but nobody is making that decision "purely economically." Returning to a world of filial piety laws and no real social safety net sounds nightmarish.
This is a huge departure from almost all of human history except the last 100 years in the developed world, where the family formerly was the safety net so these kind of investments and arrangements stayed in the family leaving a much stronger economic incentive for children.