Whereas previous economic shocks such as the oil crisis of 1973 caused a temporary dip in fertility, the 2007-2008 banking meltdown was different because birth rates continued to decline even after the economy started growing again, says to Daniele Vignoli, professor of demography at the University of Florence in Italy. He believes the turbulence a decade and a half ago marks the point at which people’s uncertainty about the future began to take hold.
I like to disagree. There are other ways than to continue that pyramid scheme (which you do state as the “only way”). We could work on getting rid of “unnecessary stuff” and focus with the workers we have on the necessary. E.g. Traveling via plane or cruise ship or buying a new phone every year, a bigger tv every two and gigantic cars could be stopped. Let’s keep phones for 7 years, make vacation in our own region, country, by train, share cars. That could free a lot of working hours used to manufacture that stuff to put into the more needed professions like infrastructure maintenance and care work. Will that happen? I don’t think so…
That is true, we could be doing a lot to provide a better starting point for our following generation besides just making them a bigger generation.
But I also agree with you here, so I resorted to argue for a somewhat realistic scenario.
Also it does not contradict my point of it being better to spread out your own weight on more shoulders, rather than few. That would still be valid if we did change our productivity towards more socially beneficial projects.