this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2023
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I'm pretty torn on this. On one hand you are right, the current demographics mean, fewer yougn people have to provide for a lot of older people, at least realtively speaking. Te ratio between these groups has seldomly (never?) been this bad. This does mean we do not have the money to build out or even maintain the infrastructure, education, basically everything the generation after us will badly need.
On the other hand by not having enough children to at least have a better ratio, the generation after us will be in the exact same situation as we are, or even a worse one. So they are pretty much fucked anyways, but by at least maintaining population the generation after that might be able to do better?
That‘s why I call it a pyramid scheme lmao, you need to recruit more people into it to keep it going basically. That or take money and resources from the top of the pyramid, which I doubt will happen and if it does probably not without a lot of violence like in communist revolutions, which usually comes along with more fascism too, bad times. So I won‘t recruit anyone to this mess myself, but if you want to do that to your descendants to help out the system, go ahead.
Maybe the lack of my descendants can make the labour of others worth a bit more overall, or they get screwed by climate change anyway, since this pyramid can‘t grow forever without exhausting the planet‘s resources. Either way, I sleep well knowing I won‘t drag any more people into it.
My point was, that by just existing you will be a burden upon the next generation when you are old. The only way of making this easier on the next generation is by spreading your own weight on more shoulders aka having more kids. We got screwed by the boomers because they stopped having as many kids, an by a large margin at that. But I get your point, if my imaginary teenager would ask me "Why did you even put me in this hellhole" I'd have no good answer for them.
Oh, I misunderstood sorry. Well I don‘t have any qualms about that either, if the society don‘t want to sustain me anymore I don‘t mind dying earlier, they can give me euthanasia if it‘s such a huge issue. I‘m honestly over this implied duty I‘m supposed to feel to sustain this scheme, let‘s just be glad I‘m channeling all my disdain for it into useless social media rants, while still following most of it‘s rules and duties as best I can anyway.
The one implied duty I simply won‘t follow is the one about dragging anyone into existence, if procreation were mandatory I‘d rather go to prison instead, that is how protective I feel of my non-existent kids.
I guess that's a fair point to argue. I personally don't think I have the strength to just off myself when I start becoming a burden though
Me neither, but if my body hurts and I‘d have euthanasia I would welcome it. I just saw a lot of suffering from my parents and grandparents before their deaths, so that is usually where my mind goes when discussing the topic.
I know it is pretty bleak and pessimist in my head and I already deleted another comment cause I think I‘m maybe getting too personal about myself now. I do hope everyone has as nice and painless of an existence as is possible. Let‘s leave it at that.