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Comment by wanderingbit | Hacker News Reader

> Does the state try to incentivize the young to have children by offering state care for the new children?

From what I have read/listened-to, efforts by governments to incentive increased birthrates have little effect. This comes from data across different countries like Denmark/Norway & the USA.

Bronze Age collapse seems a little bit much ;D.

My bet is that the culture changes to adapt to the higher proportion of non-working age people. So more younger and older generations will move back in with each other in order to save on the biggest household expense (the house itself) and more welfare is directed towards caring for old people in tandem with the market responding by supplying more private care.

Europeans made it through ~1/3 of the population dying from The Plague, we'll make it through this _much_ less catastrophic demographic change.

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>efforts by governments to incentive increased birthrates have little effect

We talking paying $24,000/child/year (equivalent in Socal) cash? Or some $4,000/child (once) pittance bonus plus a couple months extra time off at 60% pay? There isn't any gas left in the home-economy tank after a century of inflation and feminism, which is why they're globalizing labor to make up the shortfall! One cow breed is too expensive, fickle, and dangerously aggressive if pushed too hard, so it's in with a more cost effective labore... err I mean breed of cow.

> Europeans made it through ~1/3 of the population dying from The Plague, we'll make it through this _much_ less catastrophic demographic change.

Depends on the country, South Korea (if current trends continue) is looking at an 60-80% shrink in a few generations.

Some “Europeans” thrived after the plague since there was more space for them. Imagine all the farm plots that were freed up.

Now we get to say: look at all this surplus old-age wisdom that we are about to get. In a culture which stows away the old and has no appreciation for wisdom.

> save on the biggest household expense (the house itself)

Houses will be cheap when there are less people. See akiya houses in Japan: https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/unpacking-akiya-th...

Guaranteed US municipalities will condemn/domain large underpopulated areas and bulldoze before allowing housing be anything other than a debt-slave ball and chain. Yes I am that pessimistic.

No reason for doing anything that conspiratorial - today there is plenty of cheap housing that nobody can afford to live in (because of a lack of jobs in the area, those with independent incomes moving there are basically a rounding error).

Well in 1967 Romania had decree 770 which had a huge impact on increasing the birthrate.

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