The East Asian high-rise development model is catastrophic for birth rates

https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2025/06/16/2003838679

16•ilamont•7mo ago

Comments

PaulHoule•7mo ago

I've been saying this for years but nobody listens. I mean, you have kids because you feel lonely and take a lover. From an evolutionary psychology viewpoint people should be less interested in having children if they feel crowded. The literature is ambivalent on the topic though:

https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/225997

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1340041/

https://www.milbank.org/wp-content/uploads/mq/volume-54/issu...

garbagecoder•7mo ago

This comment section is going to fill up with urbanist walls of texts in 5... 4...

mixmastamyk•7mo ago

Good, we don’t need any more people. There’s over 8 billion already, and that’s enough. I’m always surprised when I hear the too common refrain that birth rates are too low.

PaulHoule•7mo ago

Are you willing to sign your right away to a pension?

mixmastamyk•7mo ago

Don’t have one. Not all pensions are pyramid schemes.

Further, flat growth would be acceptable if that is your primary concern.

PaulHoule•7mo ago

Flat population would be fine with me, declining population makes many things unmanageable as would a rapidly increasing population.

mixmastamyk•7mo ago

Fortunately there's no risk of declining population, except in rare/brief circumstances. Why alarmism over falling birthrates is misplaced.

RestlessMind•7mo ago

Genuine question - what is your retirement plan? I have seriously looked and didn't find one yet which doesn't need population growth and/or productivity growth.

PaulHoule•7mo ago

One way or another there is

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dependency_ratio

and it affects all the ways you might retire, no matter if it is "my children will take care of me", "my government will take care of me", "my mutual funds will take care of me".

The situation gets more favorable with more population/economic growth, is difficult in the steady state, and is atrocious in a state of decline. See

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan%27s_Run_(film)

mixmastamyk•7mo ago

My personal plan, or one for everyone?

I don’t have a pension. I do have a 401k/ira, and would prefer my social security taxes were in there as well.

Lower population would help the housing crisis, which is a huge tax on everyone. Own a home and a garden.

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The East Asian high-rise development model is catastrophic for birth rates

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