YWAK98alum

YWAK98alum t1_ixcvu8t wrote

Reply to comment by NYD3030 in ‘Without enough Latvians, we won’t be Latvia’: eastern Europe’s shrinking population | Latvia’s population is 30% smaller than it was in 1990 and by 2050 numbers will be in decline in over half of Europe’s 52 countries. by mossadnik

We can go in both directions on this: make raising a family more economically attractive, but also try not to condition people to think about everything in economic terms, or at least to think beyond mere GDP terms. I've known families that have belatedly come to that realization when they had a third kid (though of course fewer families are reaching that milestone), that it actually saved money for the lower earner (generally the wife) to stay home rather than pay for both daycare and all the other things that they had to pay for in order to support her working outside the home.

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YWAK98alum t1_ixcurjv wrote

Reply to comment by gingerisla in ‘Without enough Latvians, we won’t be Latvia’: eastern Europe’s shrinking population | Latvia’s population is 30% smaller than it was in 1990 and by 2050 numbers will be in decline in over half of Europe’s 52 countries. by mossadnik

>Can't think of a worse reason to have children.

Then you lack imagination. Unfortunately, there definitely are worse reasons than civic or religious duty to have kids. Having a child because you think that it will save a failing relationship, for example.

The upside of framing it as a civic or religious duty is that it helps build the village around the family. When the rest of the community (political or religious) accepts that raising the next generation is an important obligation, it changes the mindset about helping, and parents can't be islands. Extended social support networks matter. Those communities are more likely to help with something that's a duty than something that's a personal choice (kids as vanity possessions).

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YWAK98alum t1_ixcu17h wrote

Reply to comment by DividedContinuity in ‘Without enough Latvians, we won’t be Latvia’: eastern Europe’s shrinking population | Latvia’s population is 30% smaller than it was in 1990 and by 2050 numbers will be in decline in over half of Europe’s 52 countries. by mossadnik

Private equity can profit handsomely from owning daycares that have a steady stream of government contracts for a vital public function.

It has less opportunity to privatize stay-at-home parenting, though. At least as of now, you can't buy equity or options in a family.

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YWAK98alum t1_ixcspds wrote

Reply to comment by Effective-Dig8734 in ‘Without enough Latvians, we won’t be Latvia’: eastern Europe’s shrinking population | Latvia’s population is 30% smaller than it was in 1990 and by 2050 numbers will be in decline in over half of Europe’s 52 countries. by mossadnik

It's even more than that. Many developed countries are richer, at least on paper, because they reproduced less. It frees more women for work in the part of the economy that shows up in GDP statistics.

The fundamental challenge of states and nations trying to reverse demographic decline is to be able to offer a strong quality of life on a lower GDP per capita. One in which a lot of GDP goes "off book" as parents (probably mostly women) work for their families instead of their employers. (GDP is a bad measurement for this because a stay-at-home-mom who cares for three kids adds nothing to measured GDP, but if they send their kids to daycare and pay €3000/mo, then measured GDP increases by €36,000 for the year for the exact same child-rearing.)

And that's a tough challenge, and most developed countries' natalist solutions right now are only tinkering around the edges. We're not at the level yet where we would say, for example, "we will give you a small family-sized home in a good neighborhood when your first child is born and you can live there rent-free until your last child is grown, even if you have four kids spread out so much that that's a period of 30+ years."

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YWAK98alum t1_ixcr3gf wrote

Reply to comment by pcvcolin in ‘Without enough Latvians, we won’t be Latvia’: eastern Europe’s shrinking population | Latvia’s population is 30% smaller than it was in 1990 and by 2050 numbers will be in decline in over half of Europe’s 52 countries. by mossadnik

Even ignoring the possible ick factor of marriage tourism (obviously we'd be talking about here only about the self-selecting subset of people who see no ick factor), I don't see how that marriage-market dynamic would work unless there were a substantial gender imbalance in emigration, leaving more women than men. That's not what I'd bet is happening.

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