La nostra popolazione sarà in una situazione di crisi nei prossimi decenni. Cosa si può fare per affrontare questo?
https://m.independent.ie/opinion/david-quinn-the-clock-is-ticking-fast-on-irelands-demographic-doomsday-so-why-is-no-one-talking-about-it/a878967087.html
di Brizzo7
41 commenti
We talk about it constantly, people can’t have kids if they can’t access secure housing, people can’t have kids if they can’t afford childcare, if they can’t afford food etc. etc. for the list of issues we natter about every day
I think you’ll find the demographics will look after themselves
Sure AI will have released us from all those burdens by then. Nothing to worry about.
This is a no brainer. Get rid of the current govt. Tax the rich. Make equality, diversity and inclusion a top priority. Tax the rich. Free education free of religious dogma for all. Tax the rich. Abolish billionaireism. Tax the rich. Invest in free health care and disease prevention. Tax the rich. Encourage green energy production. Tax the rich. Grow food seasonally and cut back on carbon emissions with imported goods. Tax the rich. Develop a resource based economy with marginalised growth patterns. Tax the rich. Oh and Tax The Rich.
Is this the same David Quinn that founded the Iona Institute ? I wonder if his solution to the problem will be that we reinstate the 8th amendment.
Be more sound to immigrants.
Great way to fight the climate crisis. 8 billion of us is too much to handle
All the things you listed could do with being addressed.
Basically, it’s making it cheaper to raise kids and making it economical for both parents to work throughout the early childhood of their children.
Next to free everything, bar food and clothing.
Most of my friends would have household income above 150K. All bar a couple stopped at 2 kids. Not sure how lower income households do it.
It’s not just cost either. It’s impact on life now and later. Things like career breaks and such.
Mortgages are more expensive here. That’s somewhat down to the protections afforded people in arrears. You could look at making repossession easier to lower risk or open up the Irish market to foreign lenders.
Cars are way more expensive than elsewhere while public transport is also terrible. That combined with somewhat inaccessible childcare means there’s huge expense. We have a ~15 drive to my son’s creche. Never had a shot of getting one locally (though the local ones are rubbish, so probably for the best). This requires us to have two cars.
Make it affordable to live again would be a start. If people can’t afford to live themselves without relying on their parents for a room then they can’t afford kids.
Well, we could discuss it on reddit
This comes after there was a protest for special needs children’s rights to education… so tell me what kind of country should be telling people to have kids when they don’t even support them.
More sex
We can’t afford to have kids, and we don’t have workforce to build houses. Revamp immigration to prioritise construction workers, grant apprentices an actual wage the second they start working, retrain career guidance councillors at schools to stop demonising trades, and flood the rental market with as many state owned high rises as possible. It’s a joke that there’s are thousands of 20 and 30 something year olds house sharing in developments that were supposed to be for families and are instead owned by vulture funds
We have one life. I’m not worrying about breeding to bring more people into a burning, decaying world that is already over populated.
This is a form of gaslighting.
People who have kids should pay the marginal/reduced rate of tax until the kids are X age.
They need to genuinely give incentives to people.
Housing healthcare and education for all. Sorted.
An impartial lottery…
I’m personally more worried about the climate and its impacts in the next few decades.
Incentivising people to have kids would be a start. Increase child benefit. Focus a lot of funding on education, youth etc .
Tax credits for having additional children and family friendly policies like longer paid maternity and paternity leave.
Fix housing crisis.
These are some things we could do.
Wil with do them?
Probably not.
I think cost of living is an issue but that’s not just it. People used to have loads of kids years ago because it was kind of a pension, they’d take care of you in old age. Now that necessity is gone.
In addition you also have a lot more freedom for women, people used to be trapped in marriages without contraception and no control. Now lots of women choose not to take the impacts a kid may have on their life, choose not to settle for a man for financial security etc.
It’s a massively multifaceted issue and one I can’t really see a resolution too short of some absolutely
massive financial incentives to have children (or more dystopian solutions)
This is a problem for the rich and powerful. One of the best things to ever happen in Europe was the black plague. When the population dropped suddenly the amount of cheap labour disappeared and people had to be better paid. This caused a huge surge in living conditions.
It’s incredible how our commentariat are only now waking up to this issue as if Ireland is encountering a never-seen before problem in the world. This is the inevitable outcome that every capitalist society faces, it’s even affecting poorer countries like Brazil, South Africa and Iran.
Germany in particular is far further down this road than we are, with an average age of 45 compared to our average of 37. Their workers are taxed much more heavily than ours are to pay for it, but even they are facing the prospect of eventually having to work into old age.
Why do people ever read anything by David Quinn? My dog has more intelligent opinions.
Seen it was written by David Quinn – so didn’t read it but can imagine it’s alarmist shite
The government will just do what a lot of other governments have done and miserably failed. Increase immigration. As has been seen elsewhere, this would mostly fail, and give rise to the far right.
I’ve seen a bunch of studies on this and financial incentives and reliefs don’t seem to make people more willing to have kids. The more educated and wealthy a nation becomes the less kids people have- this is a worldwide issue-it is not unique to Ireland. When women gain more freedom there are less kids. The declining birthrate in America is almost entirely down to the decline in teenage pregnancy…
Increasing productivity per worker using advances in ai and tech and then taxing and redistributing the wealth among the older population could be an option. South Korea and Japan are exploring this atm.
Rightwing lads like David Quinn and Elon Musk are always talking about this and scaremongering and it’s good to pause and ask why they’re obsessed with it. Look at Quinns views on women’s rights and how Musk treats the mothers of his 14 children.
It’s far from just Ireland too.
There are things that could be done, but they might have to be pretty extreme. Significant financial incentives to have children. Universally affordable housing. Childcare. Etc. Right now having kids is a mugs game.
At the rate things are doing demographically, the warnings from the Catholic church about the dreadful impact of birth control will turn out to have been valid. Not for the right reasons, but nonetheless. (and ffs, don’t read that as if I’m approving of the Catholic church’s view on anything)
Common issue in many countries. Ppl can’t afford kids, possibility of impending war, depression etc .. it’s a world over issue with few ways to fix it. Look at Japan..they’re in a far worse off situation, if you ask me.
Do not vote in the same wankers who have caused the housing shortage and emboldened greedy landlords and companies buying up properties.
Fuck all we can do, the people in charge this do things like buy scanners that don’t fit in the rooms they are intended for.
David Quinn is a fucking toolbag with a hardcore, ultra-catholic agenda. Please don’t post his crap here.
I would have liked to have kids in my early 30s but now that I’m 40 and just after securing a home I’m not too sure do I even want any at this stage of my life.
maximum turbo-immigration obviously. we need the irish economic zone increasing in GDP
Ride women
Sex
Expand towns and villages. We’ve loads of cheap land, yet we insist on building in the most expensive place possible. A site in a city costs as much as a site+house in a less pressurized zone
I’m going to be 100% honest and say this.
I don’t even think if we had all the shit that we say we need to procreate and have bigger families ot would happen. The problem isn’t financial or lack of resource, It’s the ideology we have created in the west. Individualism, materialism, deification of the self and a lack of genuine community. All these things have eroded what it means to be human. We worship money and end up alone miserable and suspicious
A bit heavy but it’s what I believe for what it’s worth
fix the housing crisis granted easier said then done but thats the start actually make it possible to own a home
Fix Housing first. Secondly fix access and cost of childcare. Thirdly improve leave provisions for new parents. If we are moving to a model of both parents working then leave provisions must be much better for parents.
Isn’t that why they are bringing everyone in? It won’t fix it though.
Cope and seeth, we can’t keep the baby boom going forever, its a miracle we’ve had it going for this long. We must move away from an infinite growth mindset, it will kill us all