Sweden has some of the best policies for having kids: doesn't cost anything, a year of maternity AND paternity leave for each kid you have, plus they straight up give you money. Birth rate is 1.45.
this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2025
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I find it funny to watch these countries having issues with people not wanting to have babies.
There are core reasons behind this, one large one being "raising a child is expensive and all the world's money is being sucked up by billionaires, there is nothing left for children". Another one (for certain countries like Japan and South Korea) is the "work 80 hours a week and never see that family you're supposed to raise"
And governments go like "sooooo, if we cover child birth, you're good, right? What? Still nothing? We tried nothing and we're all out of ideas, how oh how can we solve this?"
Fuck the rich, end the rich. That will get births back to a healthy 2.1
officials have already expanded maternity leave benefits and housing subsidies to encourage couples to have more children.
Seems like they’re trying multiple things. Meanwhile we’re over here trying to say middle school kids can be paid less than minimum wage, operate dangerous machinery and work late on school nights. If you can’t afford kids, might as well exploit them
Desperation?
People don't want to have kids. I wonder why. Remember the laying flat movement and the 996 culture.
I wonder why.
If only there was an actual solution to this LOLOL....
If I lived under an authoritarian regime, I would not want to bring a child into it.
The truth is that the strength of a democracy has little relation to the birth rate. If you live in the US, for example, you only live in a democracy if your income is in the top 10%. This has actually been studied. The opinions of the poorest 90% of the population have absolutely zero bearing on what government policy is implemented.
The US and China actually have similar levels of democracy. China forms all its policies from the CCP, an organization of about 100 million people. The share of the population in China that has any impact on policy is actually quite similar to the share that does the same in the US.
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Ehh, the character of the regime doesn't seem to affect birth rates a whole lot. Brutal dictatorships that make China seem like a gentle puppy could have perfectly ok birth rates. E.g. Nazi Germany had 2.5 fertility rate in 1939 and 1940, it was their highest since 1922: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Germany
I really don't think the average Chinese cares too much about how authoritarian their govt is when it comes to deciding on whether to have kids. The consequences of one-child policy, economic prospects, stability, general cultural optimism/pessimism, social habits (and the effects of technology on them), etc. are all likely to be much more important factors.
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I live in a democracy and don't want to bring children into this.
lived under an authoritarian regime
I mean... isn't that just most of history tbh?
Most people aren't antinatalists lol
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HCOL, many graduates are having impossible time of finding jobs, plus china trying to lure graduates/phd from the states has incensed them as well.
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Good. Can’t wait to beat this drum to hopefully shame the less than useless US congress to do ANYTHING.
I mean, shaming America's greatness against other countries has worked in the past. That's how we got:
- Universal healthcare
- Mandated paid maternity/parental leave
- More than two dominant political parties
- Cheaper or free college education
- High-speed passenger rail
- Mandated annual paid vacation time
Oh wait.
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BUT.
AT.
WHAT.
COST!
Yeah! Why would China spend that money on their people when they could spend it on their military and use their military to harass brown countries?
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It's great, but I had kind of assumed it was already in place.
China has a far weaker social safety net than a lot of people assume.
That also apparently depends a lot on the particular region's policies. Which aren't as centralized as everyone in the West imagines.
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From Bars, Pride and dating apps: How China is closing down its LGBT+ spaces
At the same time, China’s population growth and economy are slowing. “The current population growth couldn't support economic growth,” explains Hongwei, meaning there has been a push to encourage heterosexual couples to have larger families to ensure an abundant future workforce.
China: be less homo and breed more
The ban on Grindr could be put down to China’s wider dislike of Western apps, which are often accused of being vehicles for foreign influence. But removing Blued and Finka, which were both developed in China, represents a “seismic change in government attitudes towards homegrown LGBT apps”, says Hongwei.
Before targeting Blued and Finka, the Chinese authorities led a campaign against authors of the “Boy's Love”, or Danmei, same-sex romance stories, some of which feature explicit love scenes between men.
Several Danmei writers, most of whom are female, have reported being arrested and questioned by the authorities, and in recent months two major Danmei sites have either shut down, or drastically reduced and toned down their content.
Today, “officially, those Three No’s are still in place, but we are seeing evidence that the space for LGBT+ communities is starting to shrink”, says Marc Lanteigne, associate professor of political science at the Arctic University of Norway.
Shanghai Pride shut down in 2020, and one year later the government shut down student LGBT+ accounts for “violating internet regulations”. Grindr disappeared in 2022, and in 2023 the Beijing LGBT Centre closed its doors after 15 years.
In June 2024, the Roxie, Shanghai's last officially lesbian bar, was forced to close “under pressure from the authorities".
“The authorities have been slowly chipping away at those spaces that were open previously,” says Hildebrandt.
With the closure of so many physical spaces, online networks had become “really the only places in which many members of the LGBT+ community could express their sexuality openly” he adds.
But in contemporary Chinese politics, “the Maoist principles about equality have more to do with uniformity,” says Hildebrandt. “You gain equality by being more like everybody else. You don't gain equality by being diverse.”
In a bid to create greater conformity within the population, “there has been a push in China to reinforce traditional family values and, in some cases, traditional masculine values,” adds Lanteigne.
Since the Covid pandemic, “the Chinese government has endorsed nationalist discourse and LGBT culture is seen as very politicised siding with Western ideologies”, says Hongwei.
“There's the impression that LGBTQ communities are by default connected to the West and could be seen as destabilising forces,” adds Lanteigne.
Broader political and social forces may be at work, but the result is a real loss of liberty for gay and queer people in China. Hildebrandt says: “There is a real sense that it’s become a more difficult environment to be openly gay." older discussion
Anything to help people that want to have children is good.
that want to have children
As long as people who don't want to have children aren't pressured. Not everyone is interested in parenting, and that needs to be accepted.
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nah, disagree. not anything.
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