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Read the full article in Newsweek
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I always think that it’s interesting to hear about how people’s decisions are going to affect the economy as a whole, however I don’t feel as though this should have any kind of impact when it comes to people making their own decisions. For example, if “the economy” needs people to have children then you may have people giving birth and raising children who didn’t really want to, and this surely wouldn’t lead to the best quality of life for the child, would it?
I agree with this, and I always believe that things will work out. Sure, people may be having fewer children at the moment, but this is likely to change when the economy picks up again, I am sure. Plus, there are not enough jobs for the young people who are leaving school at the moment, so maybe fewer children now would give a little respite in 20 years time!
I don’t know about anybody else, but I doubt all that many people bother to think about the country’s economy before deciding whether they want children - the only exception being if they don’t feel as though the world is good enough to bring a child into. I am sure that it will be okay, because they have a whole generation to adapt to the changing population, so as long as plans are put into place ASAP everything should be fine, in theory.
You’re right. When having a child, people only think whether they can afford, they don’t think about the country as a whole. And rightly so, in a way, I think. Because if they made the decision not to have a child based on what they thought that it would do to the country, I very much doubt that there would be enough other people making that same choice, because the fact still remains that it is instinct, and there is no getting away from that.
I do agree that people do not take the decision to have or not have children with the economy in mind. Yes the fewer children people have in the West compounded with an ageing population can cause problems for the economy in the long term. However, in many cases, immigration is helping make up for it and so the future prospects for the economy in those countries might not be as dire. Having said that, if a country does not welcome immigrants then the predictions might come to pass.
It is interesting that you mention the positive aspects of immigration - as I’m sure you know that particularly in my country (the UK) there is a lot of negative backlash when things such as immigration are discussed. Because people only see that there are people from other countries - they don’t bother to stop and think about the good things that those people are bringing, and perhaps this is something that should definitely change.