Re:Don't worry about global population collapse
by slothtrop on Saturday September 30, 2023 @05:21PM
(#37719948)
Fair enough, but the low hanging fruit I see is not a lack of money, but a lack of time. The expectations placed on workers, on top of raising a family, is ridiculous, but they won't budge. For all alarmist rhetoric, the government certainly isn't behaving as though it's an emergency.
Re:Don't worry about global population collapse
by zeroonetwothree on Saturday September 30, 2023 @05:57PM
(#37720300)
To be fair those numbers are tiny. The NPV to society of a new baby is probably more like $500k. I would guess if we paid $500k for a baby it would be quite effective
Re:Don't worry about global population collapse
by lotsofpulp on Saturday September 30, 2023 @06:28PM
(#37720534)
The problem with that approach is a simple $500k payment does not result in a productive adult. It takes years and years of hard work and sacrifice to end up with the type of adults you want.
You will get the people you least want to be parents pumping out kids for $500k.
I don’t think this is a problem solvable with cash.
Re:Don't worry about global population collapse
by ivalm on Saturday September 30, 2023 @06:04PM
(#37720360)
Even if instead of NPV they simply paid lost wages/opportunity cost then it would be something. In Japan there is a lot of discrimination against young women because of fear they will go on maternity leave/not stick around. As a result, women don’t get promoted/hired, and if they do get pregnant are minimally accommodated. If we want to encourage women having children we need to compensate all the negative consequences they face in the workplace, and that’s tens of thousands of dollar per year.
Re:Don't worry about global population collapse
by ivalm on Saturday September 30, 2023 @06:01PM
(#37720336)
From what I understand the problem is discrimination in the workplace that young women, and especially mothers, suffer.
If a woman sees children as a block to her personal success then a little bit of money (and it is a little, compared to lost wages) won’t help.
Re:Don't worry about global population collapse
by Empact on Saturday September 30, 2023 @06:19PM
(#37720473)
Have you seen evidence that less discrimination at work leads to higher fertility?
Re:Don't worry about global population collapse
by EliRivers on Saturday September 30, 2023 @06:41PM
(#37720627)
Here's one paper about Poland; "These data reveal that discriminatory practices by employers against pregnant women and women with small children are decisive in women’s decisions to postpone or forego childbearing."
Re:Don't worry about global population collapse
by kweingar on Saturday September 30, 2023 @07:16PM
(#37720899)
And yet there is still widespread discrimination against immigrants. If Japan is consumed by this crisis, it will be by their own stubbornness
Re:Don't worry about global population collapse
by WD40forRust on Saturday September 30, 2023 @11:19PM
(#37722219)
>discrimination against immigrants
... aka not being demographically suicidal.
Re:Don't worry about global population collapse
by dron57 on Sunday October 01, 2023 @12:04AM
(#37722420)
Their current track is not demographically suicidal?
Re:Don't worry about global population collapse
by tuatoru on Sunday October 01, 2023 @12:34AM
(#37722583)
I think you mean favouring their own ethnicity (which is fantastically narrowly defined, socially, in Japan. If one of your grandparents was Korean and the other three Japanese, you're mostly treated as Not A Real Japanese Person by Japanese who know. Which affects promotion prospects, for a start.)
"Favouring your own ethnicity" has a simpler name...
Re:Don't worry about global population collapse
by cableshaft on Sunday October 01, 2023 @06:46AM
(#37724628)
I think you're suggesting racist, but they seem to be more xenophobic.
Totally false. It can be argued that they're not doing enough, but they are definitely trying.
December 14, 2022: "The Japanese government is planning to provide an additional 80,000 yen (€556, $592) to couples who have a child as Tokyo looks for ways to halt the alarming decline in the nation's birth rate."[1]
January 24, 2023: "Japan’s prime minister issued a dire warning about the country’s population crisis on Monday, saying it was “on the brink of not being able to maintain social functions” due to the falling birth rate.
...The government has launched various initiatives to address the population decline over the past few decades, including new policies to enhance child care services and improve housing facilities for families with children. Some rural towns have even begun paying couples who live there to have children."[2]
June 1, 2023: "Japan is investing around 3.5 trillion yen in a push to increase the number of children. The country's acute population problem is getting worse quicker than expected.
Parents will be entitled to a monthly allowance will of some 15,000 yen —about $107 dollars — for each child from newborn to two years old. There will then be 10,000 yen for children from the age of three and older, with the coverage expanded to include children in senior high school.
The government also plans to open up nursery school or day-care center places to children, even if their parents do not have jobs.
It will raise childcare leave benefits, starting in the fiscal year 2025, so disposable family incomes remain unchanged for up to four weeks even when both parents take leave.
The measures also include increasing paid parental leave and providing subsidies for fertility treatments. "[3]
[1]: https://www.dw.com/en/will-japans-new-plan-to-boost-birth-ra...
[2]: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/23/asia/japan-kishida-birth-rate...
[3]: https://www.dw.com/en/japan-to-channel-billions-of-dollars-i...