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Comment by brokegrammer | Hacker News Reader

> People living in rich first world countries with stagnating economies like Canada expect a better future and standard of living for their kids than those from impoverished third world countries

Most parents want their children to live a good life, whether they're from poor country or not. Besides, people used to have more sex in the past when life seemed much more hopeless than it is now. Granted, condoms didn't exist but these days, people aren't even dating anyway.

> The reasons have been written in this thread

It's all speculation at this point. If we knew the reasons, we'd solve the problem. Like the meaning of life, there are some things we can't know.

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You can just ask people! You can ask women why they're not having children!

Well, not on HN, but in general.

Asking people will give you a "faster horses" kind of answer.

I don't think "what you want from a horse" and "what you want from life" are comparable questions.

>Most parents want their children to live a good life, whether they're from poor country or not.

And if the country is not providing a better future for the kids than the parents, why are you surprised they're not breeding? You're also ignoring the differences in standards. For some countries, a good future might be not dying of dysentery, for others is having a single family home.

>If we knew the reasons, we'd solve the problem.

You're talking like a true politician here. "Ah geez, if only we knew why people are getting depressed, poorer and not breeding, we'd totally fix it, but as we have no clue, I guess our hands are tied, oh geez. It's totally not our immigration, zoning and financial policies that have made wages stagnate and housing more expensive and of poorer quality for your kids, no, it's the fault of video games, dating apps, avocado toast and hookup culture."

What about countries like Japan then? It's a great country where any children born would live a long and healthy life. Sure beats being born in Mogadishu. But forget about having children, Japanese people aren't even dating.

More money can't solve the problem. People could live in cardboard boxes and still reproduce if they want. The reason is multifaceted.

>Japanese people aren't even dating.

Why would you bother with the extra effort of dating if your life sucks? Just sit at home or in an internet cafe and watch streamers and play videogames. Much easier.

There's a lot of effort in dating. You gotta groom, you gotta stay fit, and you gotta go out and mingle. But when are you gonna do all that if you finish work at 9pm and need to wake up at 7am as do a lot of japanese?

>More money can't solve the problem.

More money means needling less time spent working and more time for dating/hobbies.

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