Italians celebrate village's first baby in 30 years
29 points
8 hours ago
| 2 comments
| theguardian.com
| HN
homeonthemtn
1 hour ago
[-]
Here me out here:

We make wfh a right for all appropriate jobs

We improve fiber optic connectivity in rural communities

We incentivize young families to move to rural communities

---

The main thing here is we break the unnecessary chains of offices and commuting and allow families to build where they have the space and want for them.

Cities are inherently isolating - space is at a premium - which means there is constant pressure to not expand in many different ways.

reply
satyrnein
42 minutes ago
[-]
You need schools, pediatricians, daycare, other kids, etc. Cities (and suburbs) have those, not sure about every rural area. Certainly not the village in the article.
reply
xen0
34 minutes ago
[-]
An unfortunate reality is that you're never going to have such services until there are children for them to service.

Decline like this is difficult to reverse, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try.

reply
rekttrader
6 hours ago
[-]
Wow, this reads like dystopian science fiction. As I celebrate the holidays with my newly born human, I sure hope that more people start wanting to bet on brighter tomorrows and actually put some skin in the game.
reply
satori99
3 hours ago
[-]
My first thought was about Children Of Men

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0206634/

(Which is a harrowing, yet brilliant, film)

reply
Pooge
5 hours ago
[-]
Don't you think this is due to economical reasons and not necessarily pessimism?
reply
TylerLives
4 hours ago
[-]
No, poor people have more kids (I'm guessing you implied the opposite).
reply
voshond
3 hours ago
[-]
I guess a bit of both?

We live in such a capitalistic world by now, that most people’s happiness is, if they want it or not, tied to money. And I think society is moving further towards this.

Having kids would be a large financial burden and given my projection, would mean I wouldn’t be able to guarantee a decent living and the mental stability, because kids are brutal and societal pressures are very hard to free yourself from.

I grew up very poor and only very recently I was able to get out of debt i racked up just to survive (and sheer ignorance/living above my means, because I had nothing to lose and no perspective). I would hate myself of putting a child in that position myself.

If money wouldn’t be such a dominant force in current society, I’d very much consider having children.

reply
TylerLives
2 hours ago
[-]
>We live in such a capitalistic world by now, that most people’s happiness is, if they want it or not, tied to money.

This is how people feel, but that feeling has to be wrong. We know from history that people lived with much less and they were much more mentally stable than we are today. To be fair, if everyone is poor, it's probably very different than just you being poor in a rich society.

reply
whimsicalism
2 hours ago
[-]
social media means people have realized how poor they are relatively. otherwise we are not in a substantially more capitalist world in the west and people are only more affluent than in the past.

obviously social media cannot explain everything about fertility, but i suspect it explains a significant portion of modern economic discontent among the professional/middle+ classes

reply
Pooge
3 hours ago
[-]
Poor people tend to not understand the economical consequences of having kids. This and lack of contraceptive methods.
reply
theoreticalmal
2 hours ago
[-]
My kiddo is celebrating their second set of holidays this year. I have many friends who espouse some variant of “I don’t want to have kids because I don’t want to pass on my ‘messed up’ genes/the world doesn’t need more people/some other sad excuse”. It makes me wonder what their lives will look like then they’re 40-80 years old.
reply
ManuelKiessling
2 hours ago
[-]
Sad thing is, it’s affecting not just their lives when they are 80 years old, but ours too! Every childless old person is a person for which someone needs to take care of who isn’t family.

That’s not to imply people don’t have the right to choose if they have kids or not — but let’s not pretend that we are not all paying the price for that decision.

reply
clait
1 hour ago
[-]
I’d argue childless couples/people will have saved enough money to pay for their care.
reply
xen0
26 minutes ago
[-]
Looking at those in my extended family that have reached retirement, this does not appear to be a given.

End of life care* is highly variable in duration and costs and many people do not adequately prepare for expensive endings.

* this is true of more than just care post retirement

reply
satyrnein
31 minutes ago
[-]
If other people didn't have children who grew up to be doctors, nurses, etc, there would be nobody to pay.
reply
StefanBatory
1 hour ago
[-]
At least in Poland, the societal attitude for having a child when you're poor is that you're "stupid" for doing so and a burden for society.

You can't win either way...

reply
aeve890
15 minutes ago
[-]
>I sure hope that more people start wanting to bet on brighter tomorrows and actually put some skin in the game.

I'm optimistic about the future but I can't see how's that related to have children. In any case, having children is putting someone else skin in the game, not mine.

reply