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this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2023
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United States | News & Politics
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Declining birth rate is directly tied to declining quality of life. There's no one cause but a bunch of interlinked ones. Dealing with climate change would address concerns about the future of the planet. A universal single payer healthcare like pretty much the entire rest of the world has would help with both health concerns and financial concerns. UBI would help with worries about future employment and job market as well as financial concerns. Straight outlawing first past the post voting and enacting some kind of proportional voting system would help address concerns around human rights and democracy. Just an across the board reevaluation of the way the government functions and replacing a number of things that are currently traditions or conventions with actual rules and policies would help with worries about future coup attempts.
At the local level, reevaluation of our approach to zoning and civil engineering would go a long way towards addressing a great many issues around transportation, housing, and the environment.
Pushing for much wider spread adoption of nuclear power would help with climate change, pollution, energy independence, and even international trade.
Industrialized countries are the ones with declining birth rates, though. South Korea, Japan, some EU contries, and the U.S. are all experiencing declining birth rates with high GDPs. And, if you buy the GDP-Quality of Life link, then they have the highest qualities of life.
So, I'm not so sure this bit is true.
GDP is a terrible measurement of quality of life, particularly with the rampant income inequality in the US. The average US citizens quality of life is significantly worse than it has been in decades.
I agree. I see little link between GDP and quality of life. Personally, I like the idea of fewer people, will never have kids, and am happy about it, so no problem with the issue here. I would, however, like to restructure the economy so it wasn't so dependent on an ever-increasing supply of young workers/consumers.