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Comment by simbolit | Hacker News Reader

the "significant societal changes" are immigration.

as you can't change the birth rate overnight, and even if you could, it would take ~20years for the kids to begin earning, there needs to be a short-term solution. and that is immigration.

good thing immigration is so popular in rich western societies at the moment.

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The problem is when the country can- or does not have any influence of what kind of immigrants they get. Not every country can get the best. In the case of Denmark for example, the immigration has been shown a net negative[0]. And you have to admit it is weird to live in a society with a self destructing culture, where foreigners are used as breading rabbits.

[0] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00148-017-0636-1

If they aren't qualified, then you have to train them. If they don't have your values, you have to integrate them. That is complicated, takes a lot of effort and costs a lot of money. Everyone who thinks anything about the problem is cheap or easy is delusional.

What is the alternative? Just let the population age?

I would say change the culture to become self sustaining again. The best time to start was yesterday and the second best time is today.

> there needs to be a short-term solution

What is the long-term one then? Keep importing people and hope for the best?

a higher birth rate (aka make having children more attractive) is the only long term solution.

well, it normally would be, in our situation the climate likely will interfere with any long term plans.

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