Declining birth rate in

[Mermaidman]

I was surprised to read this. Taiwan? It seems that, regardless of culture, when a society becomes prosperous and culturally 'modern,' then birth rates drop. The people who have the means to support a large family are ironically not having children. Is this a recipe for disaster?

What are you seeing among your circle of friends and relatives--Are the economically successful ones having kids?

 

[slayer202]

good!

 

[ElFenix]

not enough earth to support the people we have, let alone if everyone had 1st world consumption patterns.

 

[lokiju]

This is exactly what Idiocracy the movie is about.

 

[spidey07]

That's what normally happens. The more educated/higher earners have less kids than poor people because they're too busy earning money to pay for all the poor people with 10 kids.

 

[SpanishFry]

by: Chuck Lorre
looking forward to insanely expensive private schooling, thousand dollar a week nannies and soccer is the new yuppie birth control.

Text

 

[miketheidiot]

very low birthrates are a problem mainly in developed asians countries, in other places it has happened, but not to nearly the same extent. There was an article on this (a closely related topic actually) in the NYtime a few months back, and allegedly something like 30% of all 35 year old Japanese are virgins. Similar trends have occurred in korea and singapore.


On the other hand birth rates are generally rising back toward replicating rates in western europe, and are actually higher in the united states and canada. Yes, higher incomes tend to cause lower birthrates, but what is happening in asia is pretty unique to those areas.

 

[mugs]

Idiocracy says it is a recipe for disaster... and yet we're getting more intelligent, not less intelligent.

 

[nonameo]

Personally I think we should be working to reduce the world population to 1b or less.

 

[dainthomas]

Originally posted by: mugs
Idiocracy says it is a recipe for disaster... and yet we're getting more intelligent, not less intelligent.

I'd say more knowledgeable about some things, but less intelligent. Look at the guy in the movie who has no problem operating his huge flat screen and other gadgets, yet spends all his time watching shows about guys getting hit in the junk (or maybe it was farting).

Either way, when stupid people reproduce more it can't end well.

 

[CPA]

Originally posted by: nonameo
Personally I think we should be working to reduce the world population to 1b or less.

Let's start with eliminating you.

 

[So]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
not enough earth to support the people we have, let alone if everyone had 1st world consumption patterns.

Yes there is, they just don't want to let us use the technology to do so.

 

[Train]

Originally posted by: mugs
Idiocracy says it is a recipe for disaster... and yet we're getting more intelligent, not less intelligent.

Got any evidence to that? When reading about the sliding scale of IQ tests, (the scale is modified yearly so that "average" is at an IQ of 100) And that this adjustment peaked in the late 80's (at least for the United States)

 

[Oceandevi]

Originally posted by: dainthomas

Originally posted by: mugs
Idiocracy says it is a recipe for disaster... and yet we're getting more intelligent, not less intelligent.

I'd say more knowledgeable about some things, but less intelligent. Look at the guy in the movie who has no problem operating his huge flat screen and other gadgets, yet spends all his time watching shows about guys getting hit in the junk (or maybe it was farting).

Either way, when stupid people reproduce more it can't end well.

One word: Velociraptors.

http://www.velociraptors.info/

 

[miketheidiot]

Originally posted by: Train

Originally posted by: mugs
Idiocracy says it is a recipe for disaster... and yet we're getting more intelligent, not less intelligent.

Got any evidence to that? When reading about the sliding scale of IQ tests, (the scale is modified yearly so that "average" is at an IQ of 100) And that this adjustment peaked in the late 80's (at least for the United States)

i blame reagan

 

[Mermaidman]

Originally posted by: dainthomas
. . . Either way, when stupid people reproduce more it can't end well.

It's not a matter of stupidity or IQ, it's that poorer people can't provide for children as well as richer ones. Then again, I question myself if that is a bad thing or not. Rich kids may become spoiled and grow up to be less productive than those who weren't spoiled.

Originally posted by: So

Originally posted by: ElFenix
not enough earth to support the people we have, let alone if everyone had 1st world consumption patterns.

Yes there is, they just don't want to let us use the technology to do so.

I'm sure the earth could support tens of billions of people, but I'm not sure if I'd want to live in that kind of world.

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: Mermaidman

Originally posted by: So

Originally posted by: ElFenix
not enough earth to support the people we have, let alone if everyone had 1st world consumption patterns.

Yes there is, they just don't want to let us use the technology to do so.

I'm sure the earth could support tens of billions of people, but I'm not sure if I'd want to live in that kind of world.

I think someone made a documentary about this; it was called Soilent Green. It solves the riddle of why Indian food tastes like people.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Train

Originally posted by: mugs
Idiocracy says it is a recipe for disaster... and yet we're getting more intelligent, not less intelligent.

Got any evidence to that? When reading about the sliding scale of IQ tests, (the scale is modified yearly so that "average" is at an IQ of 100) And that this adjustment peaked in the late 80's (at least for the United States)

You may be right. I recall reading news articles about this in the early 2000s, but a quick perusal of the well-sourced Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect ) indicates that
1. there is debate over whether the increase in IQ scores represents an actual increase in intelligence
2. scores may have stopped increasing, at least for the majority population in developed nations. IQs for minorities may have continued increasing, i.e. "blacks have gained 5 or 6 IQ points on non-Hispanic whites between 1972 and 2002."

I don't believe we have begun decreasing, at least not yet. It is disconcerting that poor people have so many kids. The population of the planet is rapidly increasing, and I don't want my kids (there will be no more than two) to be eating Soylent Green.

 

[JTsyo]

Taiwan: 1,730 ppl /sq mi
India: 943.9ppl /sq mi
China: 363.3ppl /sq mi


Might also be the population density. Also I imagine the island isn't rich in resources or crop land.

 

[Oceandevi]

Originally posted by: JTsyo
Taiwan: 1,730 ppl /sq mi
India: 943.9ppl /sq mi
China: 363.3ppl /sq mi


Might also be the population density. Also I imagine the island isn't rich in resources or crop land.

I am sure they have decent crop land, but acreage is a factor of course.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: miketheidiot

Originally posted by: Train

Originally posted by: mugs
Idiocracy says it is a recipe for disaster... and yet we're getting more intelligent, not less intelligent.

Got any evidence to that? When reading about the sliding scale of IQ tests, (the scale is modified yearly so that "average" is at an IQ of 100) And that this adjustment peaked in the late 80's (at least for the United States)

i blame reagan

I blame MTV and extended cable channels.

 

[sao123]

perhaps if we stopped giving ta breaks for children, the many poor people would reduce the number of children they are having.

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: sao123
perhaps if we stopped giving ta breaks for children, the many poor people would reduce the number of children they are having.

This would mostly hurt middle class families with the standard 1-3 kids and a standard income in the range of 40k per working adult. Trailer trash pieces of shit would not be affected by tax hikes since unemployed people already don't pay taxes.

 

[n yusef]

Having children is expensive and the added responsibility makes it harder to get an education or work long hours. I don't think it's just that poor people have more children; having children can make people poor.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: JTsyo
Taiwan: 1,730 ppl /sq mi
India: 943.9ppl /sq mi
China: 363.3ppl /sq mi


Might also be the population density. Also I imagine the island isn't rich in resources or crop land.

Yeh, they need to get back to work retaking the mainland.