AIBU The global fertility crisis is the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced?

@BoldGreenDreamer I don't expect state healthcare or pension if I have resources to provide for myself, not whilst young people suffer and live a worse life than me, even though they're getting up every day to work.

Retirement was not meant to be 30/40/50 years of cruising/holidays/eating out and endless piddling about.

Yet that is what some people have had - I know many people who retired early in their 50s and are still going at 90 and have been having a whale of a time of final salary pensions as well as state pensions, plus extra state benefits

I am absolute furious at the Winter fuel payment U turn.

It is time for pensioners to pay up. They are getting a far better deal than anyone else at the moment. (as a group - I'm sure everyone will reply with the mythical poor pensioner who can't afford soup)

Good.

Yes - significantly raising the retirement age now, then phasing out things lile the state pension in the and access to state healthcare for retirees over the next few decades.

But nobody will go for that, either.

I completely agree the population should fall naturally. Which it seems to be.

There are too many of us. And resources are stretched.

But I want people to continue in a better world, with say half the population or whatever is more comfortable.

YABU.

There will be a problem for a “bulge” generation where there aren’t enough workers to pay in to the state pension, but our island and world is overpopulated, climate change and industrialisation are destroying the planet, we don’t have enough housing and we can’t go on expanding the world’s population forever.

There are far more pressing issues which bother me.

The point is that the generation who might provide the offspring who’ll fund services aren’t living in relative comfort. They’re living with their parents or in godawful flat shares. That’s one reason why they aren’t knocking themselves out to procreate

The Earth's resources are finite. It's impossible to keep increasing the population without a massive decline in living standards.

@BoldGreenDreamer Can you really not think of any other solution to this problem than having more babies, though? Honestly?

Let it happen. Humans aren't the be all and end all. Let humanity die out, why the hell not? The planet will be better off without us.

My DC are not going to have kids. I am fine with that.

Could I ask the folks who think humanity dying out is a good thing expect to have access to state pension, state Healthcare and alike? Or should you get to live in relevant comfort, and have your kids or grandkids' generation take a bigger hit?

I do think the view that we need fewer humans is a valid one, but the people who embrace it should be particularly willing to forego state support in their old age.

The World's population got too big - THAT was the problem. Now we NEED a correction and hopefully it won't get too low. It was unsustainable to keep growing the World population, as ultimately, we WILL run out of water and food. In fact, the forecasts for water consumption over the next few decades are very worrying and could start wars!

But those young people will then grow old .... and more young people will be needed. It would never end.
There needs to be some kind of "one in one out policy" with everyone contributing to society.
I don't see much hope for future generations, but I hope my kids get some kind of life before it all goes tits up.

@EasternStandard

I have 2 DC and 3 DGC and love them all with every ounce of my being.
I'm not a doom person but I do feel humans are more destructive than any other creatures.

In the West, women in straight relationships are often paying 50% of the bills while doing more than 50% of the housework. There’s lots of stories on here where the woman is the breadwinner yet the man works fewer hours and does less than 50% of the child rearing and housework. I can see why younger generations of women (including my own dd) would stick to paying their share of the bills and not have kids. They’ve seen how men can leave, avoid paying child maintenance and if they are lucky, see the kids at Christmas and on their birthday. They see the trad wives being left and being fucked.

At the moment the elderly have a greater share of the wealth but instead of them using that wealth to pay for the resources that they need as they age, they are being given more by taxpayers with the ridiculous expectation that they can keep their own 'wealth' for their children, whilst other people's children who have paid for their retirement - their standard of living gets worse and they have no resources of their own in retirement.

The older population needs to be paying with it's wealth AND it's resources - their housing, their second properties for what they are using. They need to pay for other older people as well.

If they having nothing to pass on then good, wealth inequality is reduced. Yes I will personally suffer from this but it can't continue this way.

The real problem is that we need to somehow get hold of the very wealthiest's unearned income that they have unfairly taken and redistribute that - but individual government's find that very hard to do because they tend to live across several countries.

So no. We shouldn't have more babies to feed the old and rich. The old and rich can feed themselves or starve.

Amen to that.

I think our planet is perfectly glorious enough without our input.

It is possible that some of the factors causing the fertility rate to drop will find an equilibrium or invert.

For example, in lots of “developed” countries, we accept housing is far too expensive. Lots of young people can’t move out, that is a factor pulling down the fertility rate.

As the working population decreases, house price demand might drop, causing house prices to reduce. Wages might increase to attract the workers that are available. More people will be able to buy homes. The fertility rate might tick up.

It is all ifs, buts and maybes. Good long term policy around supply of labour/housing would also adjust our demographic fortunes.

I tend to think much the same!

I can’t help thinking that no rhinoceros or elephant is ever going to create anything to rival, say, nuclear weapons, or greenhouse gases, or leaded fuel.

That was immediate first thought!

The world is going to look quite different even in 25 years.

This is going to be the bigger problem, way, way bigger, it actually keeps me up at night sometimes.

I do think its a major issue, particularly because actions needed to help address it will not be popular.

Having the winter fuel allowance be means tested was such a source of outrage that Labour felt it needed to u-turn...slashing or scrapping the state pension is not going to down well, but it'll likely need to happen in our lifetimes.

Surely you're not implying that that creativity matters so much that it makes it justifiable for us to destroy the planet and all the other species on it?
Humans suck. When it comes down to to the survival of an ecosystem our ability to paint and write books doesn't mean bugger all.