Germany's Birth Rate

[El_Machinae]

The problem is that education in Germany is so inefficient that most talents of most people are just wasted.
People who can't get a proper education because schools and universities are not sufficiently funded will no be able to support the old.
If Germany doesn't start to spend a lot more money for education than it does now, than more young people will jsut cost the state more money.

There is a LOT of free education now available on the internet, well enough that anyone with the least motivation can self-educate.

Stanford, MIT, Berkeley all have courses available for download on iTunes, for example.

This is why the One Laptop Per Child initiative is expected to pay dividends, because the kids need only be taught how to teach themselves, and so we'll rapidly boost their education levels

 

[Shadylookin]

Unless I"m mistaken the only developed country with a birthrate above replacement value is the US. So it's not just Germany's problem it's pretty much everyones.

 

[GenMarshall]

I guess the younger German adults dont like children. /shrug

 

[Thorbal]

Oh, I do. Not raw, though, they have to be cooked or roasted thoroughly.

 

[Desmond Hawkins]

Unless I"m mistaken the only developed country with a birthrate above replacement value is the US. So it's not just Germany's problem it's pretty much everyones.

Well, there is a big difference between a 1.8 fertility rate and a 1.2 fertility rate.

 

[Winner]

The other trick is to get people to live longer and healthier lives, and then continue working during those times.

When retirement was 'chosen' to be at 65, half of people died at that age and most of the living people were decently incapacitated by 65. Now the average 65 year old is likely to live until 85 and is quite capable of working into their 70s.

Well, yes, but working 65-year-old man will hardly be comparable to young and healthy 30-year-old, when it comes to efficiency.

And, of course, learning how to extend the healthy portion of life would have huge benefits.

That's the only good solution. We need to crack in to the DNA, isolate the hundreds, maybe thousands of genes which are responsible for aging, and learn how to modify them in order to prolong the productive age.

Today's women simply don't have enough time to have more than one/two kids and follow their career at the same time. It's either kids or career, and due to emancipation, women often choose the latter.

If they lived not just 80 years, of which almost half they are infertile, but say 120 or more years, 2/3 of which they could have kids, things would be very different. They'd have enough time to follow career and then have children.

Of course, we need to alter the way people look at parenthood. As of now, it is seen as some sort of masochism. "Instead of enjoying life while you can, those people have kids - idiots." That kind of thinking supported by the media doesn't help much either.

 

[Verbose]

I guess the younger German adults dont like children. /shrug

Oh, they like them fine. It's just that young German women don't like children to the extent that they are willing to sacrifice everything else to be mothers. Same thing with the Japanese women these days for instance.

The real problem is society's expectation that young, well educated women after years of education and effort to land interesting and well-paid jobs, should at some point throw in the towel and retreat into their bedrooms and kitchens to produce babies like their grandmothers, and still their mothers, did. Babies or work.

The French and Scandinavians no longer expect motherhood to be that special fountain of female bliss above and beyond everything else, and as a consequence their young females get the opportunity of using their uterus alongside their other skills and talents to a greater extent. Babies and work.

 

[El_Machinae]

Well, yes, but working 65-year-old man will hardly be comparable to young and healthy 30-year-old, when it comes to efficiency.

Maybe sometimes, but experience and specialisation do a LOT for efficiency. There are many, many careers where 30 years on the job is more valuable than a strong back and the ability to stay up late most nights.

Still, we agree that curing aging is still the game-winning strategy. That field of science needs more of a societal push.

 

[Godwynn]

One solution is importing immigrants.

Like they are products you can just order.