I have mentioned many times how countries seeking to inspire people to have more children mostly fails. They offer too little to make a difference, their approaches are nowhere near bold enough. And too often they focus on short-term bonuses and benefits, rather than long-term. Free child-care is one of the best policies. Hungary has …
Author Archives: Rob Skelton
China Needs Some Shock and Awe
Incremental improvements to what China offers to their people to inspire them to have more children will never be enough. They need to think of what a decade’s worth of bribes will look like and put them all on the table, all at once, so people take notice and seriously consider it. Otherwise, it is …
How To Get More White Citizens
NOTE: I am a putting on my futurist hat, and making predictions based on current trends. I do not want these ideas to happen. GDP is evil and capitalism will fail… There is a trending opinipon and totally due to the racism of Donald Trump: the only good immigrants are white. Combine that with the …
721 Schools Close in Greece
Greece currently has a fertility rate of only 1.3, and the effects are already kicking in. This year more than 700 schools (out of 13,000 total) will close because they do not have 15 students to remain viable. To be fair, the minimum student requirement has been rising, meaning the huge numbers are a bit …
Wars hasten population decline – who knew?
Russia’s population is decreasing quite rapidly. WSJ says: At least 150,000 Russians are dead on the battlefield, according to Western estimates. Nearly a million fled the country after the war began. The number of births is at its lowest in more than two decades, with bigger-than-average drops in babies born in some regions closest to …
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Korean Government Encourages Blind Dates
As an experiment it was interesting, from 50 men and 50 women, just over 50% of them rated each other in the top 3 matches, for 27 couples who can now go on a date. But just like UBI, it is a limited experiment. There will be no desire to expand it greatly. And if …
Cuba down 18% in one year
Low fertility affects populations, but slowly, because people live for 80 years or so. Cuba doesn’t have a fertility problem, it has a “I don’t want to live here any more” problem. There can be a snowball effect – the more of your relatives have fled to Florida, the more appealing it becomes to go …
Russia goes Authoritative / Next Level on Fertility
It has been clear over the last few years that incentives and positive reinforcement are not helping stem reduced fertility levels in countries globally. At best they are making the decline less bad, but not stopping it. For counties with an iron grip over their citizens, unimaginable responses might occur. Keep in mind China’s historical, …
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11 Million Empty Homes in Japan
Japan has millions of abandoned rural houses for sale. The glut delights foreigners, who’ve been able to buy one for as little as US$23,000. But underlying the surplus are meaningful shifts in Japan’s culture. Demographic and economic patterns – including a shrinking population and migration from the countryside to cities – are combining to create a …
Nobody Wants 9 Billion People
There are plenty of individuals and communities who want more babies, and more people. I am an example of that – my former wife and I only stopped at three children because we had to – otherwise we adore them and would have wanted at least one more. Churches of course like a larger flock …