A prime example in real time of ‘statistics” being used to lie, lie, lie. From a self-described “investigative reporter”, claiming that “statistics” showing the Federal DC law presence is bad for business lol:
This is such a bullshit proposal.
The solution isn’t to make it more affordable to have kids at 40 years old, its to make it more affordable to have kids at 25.
How about we ban corporations from purchasing houses?
And we give them 10 years to sell them back into the market, requiring a minimum of 10% of currently purchased homes be sold per year?
God forbid we put profit restrictions on multi-billion dollar companies like Blackrock.
Maybe we de-tooth the EPA so its not such a financial burden to build new housing developments?
Start subsidizing first time home buyers (to encourage people to move out of apartments and inner cities)?
except increasing the rate of single motherhood with literal financial incentives.
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Fuck yes.
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You did read my statement like ”Satan reads the Bible” and completely missed the point. I know these. I also know about Chile etc. I’m not defending US here, I was a harsh critic of Iraq war and still are. I probably would have opposed Vietnam too if I would have lived then.
Russia has too done other crimes besides Ukraine. Helping Assad or Chechenya for example. If you look the history and how Soviets/Russia has waged a war, two things are clear: own casualties don’t matter and civilians are handled very badly, rapes are always widespread etc. I can give you reading recommendations, but A. Babtšenko’s One Soldier’s War is a interesting book to start.
You did not address my main point that others doing shitty things gives you to permission to do so. This is ”Pol pot was okay, since Hitler killed lot of people too” -level thinking.
I think most sources don’t pull the numbers out from thin air. But I agree that it takes time to have reliable data from this war (if ever, Russian archives aren’t exactly open fir historians).
What surprises me that over 100 000 casualties in 3 years (according to Mediazona) is not a lot by your standards?
That graph looks way too unrealistic though. If you look other source who uses also Russian data: the opposition media Meduza, besides Mediazona it paints grim picture of Russian losses.
I tend to believe higher losses to be true, since I roughly know how Russian military operates, and what their doctrine is like, and it’s not focused on keeping own losses at minimum.
I feel that you’re deep in unecessary dualism between Russia and the west, bringing up the notion that other side must be evil, so other side can do nothing wrong. I’ve met this kind of anti-westerness before.
And if we want to go that road: if you really know these societies, have spent time in them and know and how they act, do you honestly think Putin’s Russia equals to modern US for example?
If you honestly think Ukraine is somehow threat to Russia I could argue that you’re the revisionist here.
Unfortunately the wall is still not finished and we still have millions and millions of illegals in the country. All it’ll take is another democratic president to undo all of Todd Lyon’s work.
Who’s expecting this of parents? This sounds very WASP-coded. Look, if you don’t want to have kids then you don’t need to make excuses in front of us - it’s OK!
I agree with your sentiment, but no amount of tax breaks or payouts will fix this issue because Lord knows other countries tried. The real issue is culture as @BrickHead suggested in an earlier post. For example: when was the last time you heard of a new family sitcom coming to TV that’s similar to “Fresh Prince” or “Full House” and that has a wholesome family with normal social roles addressing classic family/childhood issues?
Responsible people also pay attention with their gut to what the future outlook is like because a family with kids is a commitment (ideally) for your whole life. And what is there to be excited about in the future?
- Prosperity? No. We just exited a bunch of economic turbulence and depending on how the tariff hammer falls we might be seeing more.
- Stability/peace? No. NeoCons and Europeans are itching to spin the war in Ukraine into a global conflict and America just bombed a sovereign nation that was not threatening US or US citizens.
Really can’t spend your way to more families with kids when things are so sketchy.
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You know that this proposition was all lies? Check out Molotov-Rippentrop -pact. The plan and results below:
It has been the same playbook with Ukraine.
”It’s a threat, fascist country and we need only the Eastern parts” = 100% bullshit.
Nobody sane wants this. Not in Russia or in the west. This statement tells a ton about your worldview.
uhh, no. Not entirely.
it very much is a financial decision for many, but im not going to act like culture doesn’t play a role.
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Kinda seems like the declining birth rate and the housing shortage will work each other out here eventually, no? Might take 20 years but the numbers arent gonna favor home sellers in a decade or two here.
As I look to my friend group, I dont think the ones who dont have kids (a surprising number now that I actually sit down and think about it. Less than half the couples I know have any kids, much less “replacement” numbers) have made that decision purely financially, although one guy for sure thats a big factor for him. The other one just doesnt want them at all, and the other one just barely found “the one” and I think theyre planning on it.
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Seems like one sets the stage for the if you want to, the other answers the question of if you can
The thought of not even wanting kids certainly seems to be on the rise, as does the reality than many people just simply cant even if they do want them.
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Some studies and data I’ve seen suggests that most will want/have kids at some point. It’s just less kids with older age.
If before people had 3-5 kids before turning 35. Now people will have 1-2 kids at the age of 30-40.
These facts are supported by the economical, societal and cultural reasons discussed before.
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Don’t worry folks, Lewiston strippers and bar flies are hard at work solving the birth rate crisis.
In national news, it looks like Elon has ditched The America Party and is putting his support behind JD Vance in 2028.
Maybe another billionaire will step up, or even a corporate conglomerate. Pepsi Cola and TD Bank Present: The People’s Revolution Party.
I’m not sure how prevalent this is, but I have noticed and heard talk from parents who have their kids constantly jammed up in formal activities. And summer camp, though I think it can be great, seems to be an expectation.
I agree, though anti-family, anti-father/husband, anti-male, pro-clown, pro-scumbag, gynocentric culture has been with us for some time despite some wholesome examples you mentioned.
Though I am married with children, I do not encourage or discourage legal marriage, specifically because of our divorce regime and industry. And yes, those are accurate terms to describe family law. It is an enormous problem that is not mentioned by politicians and MAGA/republican/conservative/tradcon talking heads who encourage family formation. Encourage men to marry in a system that can destroy their lives? No thanks.
So they want to encourage family formation while ignoring the following:
- An economy that doesn’t favor family formation.
- A family-wrecking divorce regime.
- Garbage culture.
- “Dating” and “relationships” (more accurately termed relationshits for many cases).
All changes in cultural/sexual revolution came with corollary changes in law. So to reverse it requires changes in law.
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Let’s add to what we were talking about: East Asian birth rates are low, in both their countries of ancestral origin and the U.S.
Do you know what “WASP” means? See @punnyguy’s post and my reply above.
We’ve talked about birth rates quite a bit on this thread, but what are thoughts about the death rate in America?
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Another win for housing costs 20 years from now 
No but seriously, if the conclusion the people who did the research came to was “We don’t know exactly why this is happening” (literally a direct quote from the article) Im not sure what analysis youre hoping to get from the people here
Answers will likely range from the systemic issues that result in people being in poor health in the first place and unable to seek out care when needed, or that woke is killing everyone.
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Way to lighten up the thread, Brant.
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I learned long ago to never trust anything I read from Slate, but if we assume everything they write is true (it surely is not), I can make a number of local observations.
The quality of general health care has severely declined in Lewiston, even though we have two hospitals. I used to have a primary care physician for the first five or six years I lived here. Other than a couple of specialists, I’ve only seen nurse practicioners for at least 6 or 7 years, and never the same one for more than a year or so before I get reassigned. The clinic I go to is run through one of the hospitals and the people working there are super stressed out, always running behind, and seem to have a lot of staffing difficulties.
Staffing is a big problem. I know a few nurses who could be working at the hospital but choose not to due to staffing ratios they feel are unfair. We seem to rely heavily on travel nurses and whatever placement system exists for young doctors recently out of medical school.
Woke is, in fact, having a bad effect on the health and wellbeing of young people especially. The pressure placed on all public institutions by unrestrained immigration is enormous, especially when combined with generous public welfare benefits.
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Hahah. This has been all fun and games so far.
Anyway, as I would know better than the US sosiologists/whatevers, but:
- Increased poverty.
- Increased obesity.
- More synthetic drugs around.
- Bad healthcare for poor.
I remember reading that live expentancy in US is way lower than in other developed countries.