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21 sats \ 6 replies \ @028559d218 11h \ parent \ on: Is choosing not to have kids the most ethical act today? AskSN
I think we're talking past each other.
Countries that focus on economic development and education recognize... that it's hard to educate well very large populations.
Japan is a perfect example of this.
Asian families tend to have fewer children and educate/raise them very carefully. The people are very well educated - quality over quantity.
African societies are the exact opposite. Education and economic development take a huge backseat... and they have "lots of children." but when there's no education, no infrastructure and no government what difference does it make?
You have millions of poor people and in the worst cases starving people with awful outcomes.
Somalia, South Sudan, Niger, the Congo are all examples are this.
you're missing the point, I believe.
Looking not at a snapshot in time but over decades/generations, every country has lower fertility -- Africa is just lagging. While African women today have more kids than any other place, the observation/correlation that their nations are the poorest is immaterial... every country has made that economic journey from: high births, high mortality, low econ development, to low births, low mortality, high econ development.
I don't see what's gained by pointing to Africa being behind on that curve
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I understand what you're saying, but by that logic...
If higher birth rates means greater economic development, isn't the solution then for Europe and the US to have large amount of immigration from higher-birthrate continents?
For Europe the African continent, lots of immigration, and for the US, immigration from Central and South America?
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If higher birth rates means greater economic development, isn't the solution then for Europe and the US to have large amount of immigration from higher-birthrate continents? causality there is definitely iffie. Don't think the jury is out on that yet.
But yes, as a matter of patching over fiscal and retirement systems during this demographic chaos, yes, that is the answer. (but few people in Western countries want that, so... square that circle for me).
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America has historically had the highest intake of immigrants and America is the richest country on Earth. Is there a contradiction that I'm just missing somewhere?
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Well my point is that if 'more people' make countries wealthier... then more immigration should make countries wealthier too.
But if you listen to Mr Trump, immigration to the US is the cause of half the country's problems. It doesn't make sense
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Oh, I can explain that pretty easily: Trump is a complete ignoramus on economics.
It is possible, though, for the source of problems to also be the source of gains. That's consistent with the idea of tradeoffs.
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