6 ms·

You expect something as population-spanning as birth rates to hinge on the outcome of a single congressional midterm election? If anything they're going to dec

You expect something as population-spanning as birth rates to hinge on the outcome of a single congressional midterm election? If anything they're going to decline further, Republicans are back to their "obstruct literally everything" agenda that they always have when they're the minority. Any potential pro-natalist government policies will almost certainly require government spending, which will now die in the house. So we're stick with the status quo, which is low birth rates.

PathOfEclipse 4y ago
What's most entertaining about you blaming Republicans for a low birth rates is that Republicans have far more kids than democrats: https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/republicans-more-kids-democrats-lot-183722934.html https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/republicans-more-kids-democr... It goes to show that political tribalism trumps just about everything these days, including truth, objective facts, and the obvious. It should also be obvious that just about every single leftist movement is destabilizing towards both the family as a unit and society in general, which, as you can guess, results in people having fewer kids. But don't let your tribalism get in the way of that either. Chuck Schumer recently said that the solution to our population problem is to essentially encourage more illegal immigration. Note that his solution had nothing to do with supporting families. He couldn't do that even if he wanted to, because he would offend his left flank on every attempt.
- scottLobster 4y ago
  No, I'm blaming Republicans for blocking initiatives that might actually help the birth rate. Including things like better funded public education and funding for childcare. I can blame Democrats for a bunch of stuff too, but at least every once in a while they get something through that actually helps people. The current generation of Republicans are in "burn it all down" mode, and they're throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The fact that they have more kids on average (perhaps unwisely) means nothing. If you want to get into quality of life statistics, Red States also on average have the highest suicide rates. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/suicide-mortality/suicide.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/suicide-mortality/...
  - dragonwriter 4y ago
    > No, I'm blaming Republicans for blocking initiatives that might actually help the birth rate. Including things like better funded public education and funding for childcare There’s pretty good evidence that weak public social safety nets, particularly around old age, disability, etc., contribute to higher birthrates, [0] so you should be applauding the Republicans and their attacks on Social Security and Medicare, if that is your highest concern. [0] speculation is because in the absence of state support, family are your social safety net, and particularly younger family members.
    - scottLobster 4y ago
      Shockingly I have concern for the quality of life of said kids. Theoretically you could increase the birth rate by using the army to force people to breed at gunpoint. But it probably isn't going to result in a high quality labor force, social cohesion, or high quality of life for those involved.
      - dragonwriter 4y ago
        > Shockingly I have concern for the quality of life of said kids. My point was not that you should actually support Republicans, or the particular policies most likely to increase birth rates.
      - PathOfEclipse 4y ago
        > Shockingly I have concern for the quality of life of said kids. But do you really? Because, for instance, children in Sweden have shown a far more rapid decline in mental health than in other similar Nordic countries without government child care: https://www.imfcanada.org/archive/1107/swedish-daycare-international-example-or-cautionary-tale https://www.imfcanada.org/archive/1107/swedish-daycare-inter... "An official Swedish government investigation in 2006 showed that mental health among Swedish 15-year-olds declined faster from 1986 to 2002 than in eleven comparable European countries." https://www.aei.org/events/the-unintended-consequences-of-universal-childcare-lessons-from-sweden/ https://www.aei.org/events/the-unintended-consequences-of-un... If you cared about the well-being of children, you'd think you'd fully consider the effects of various policies on children before advocating for them. Indeed, most things done by the Democrat party harm the well-being of children. They could care less, for instance, that their open border policies facilitate child trafficking: https://www.dailywire.com/news/gop-senators-introduce-end-child-trafficking-now-act https://www.dailywire.com/news/gop-senators-introduce-end-ch... “Children are tragically being trafficked across the border by illegal immigrants who falsely claim they are related,” Ernst added. “This needs to stop — for the wellbeing of these children and the security of our nation. ... Of the 100,441 arrests for illegal border crossings in February, unaccompanied children accounted for nearly 10%" Democrat lockdown policies harmed children tremendously while saving statically zero child lives. From the NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/18/opinion/coronavirus-school-closures.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/18/opinion/coronavirus-schoo... "Children have suffered because many mayors and governors were too willing to close public schools." Education quality in Democrat-run cities is the lowest in the nation: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/05/big_city_schools_where_americas_most_vulnerable_kids_languish.html https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/05/big_city_sc... However, instead of supporting measures like school vouchers and charter schools that have been proven to help the most in inner cities, democrats have fought these policies tooth-and-nail at the behest of teacher's unions, who themselves have openly admitted they care about teachers, not students. https://www.amazon.com/Charter-Schools-Enemies-Thomas-Sowell/dp/1541675134 https://www.amazon.com/Charter-Schools-Enemies-Thomas-Sowell... And, of course, the Democrat-supported transgender movement has presided in a "Sharp Rise in Transgender Young People in the U.S.": https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/10/science/transgender-teenagers-national-survey.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/10/science/transgender-teena.... In case you need it spelled out, no, that's not good for children. Many lives are being ruined as the number of detransitioners also rises: https://www.dailywire.com/news/chris-cuomo-hosts-first-national-news-coverage-of-detransitioners https://www.dailywire.com/news/chris-cuomo-hosts-first-natio... Have you considered that your "care for quality of life of children" could instead be empty virtue signaling and a desire to parrot the partisan views of your political party, which has proven itself time and again to be bad for children?

PathOfEclipse 4y ago

What's most entertaining about you blaming Republicans for a low birth rates is that Republicans have far more kids than democrats: https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/republicans-more-kids-democrats-lot-183722934.html https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/republicans-more-kids-democr... It goes to show that political tribalism trumps just about everything these days, including truth, objective facts, and the obvious. It should also be obvious that just about every single leftist movement is destabilizing towards both the family as a unit and society in general, which, as you can guess, results in people having fewer kids. But don't let your tribalism get in the way of that either. Chuck Schumer recently said that the solution to our population problem is to essentially encourage more illegal immigration. Note that his solution had nothing to do with supporting families. He couldn't do that even if he wanted to, because he would offend his left flank on every attempt.

scottLobster 4y ago
No, I'm blaming Republicans for blocking initiatives that might actually help the birth rate. Including things like better funded public education and funding for childcare. I can blame Democrats for a bunch of stuff too, but at least every once in a while they get something through that actually helps people. The current generation of Republicans are in "burn it all down" mode, and they're throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The fact that they have more kids on average (perhaps unwisely) means nothing. If you want to get into quality of life statistics, Red States also on average have the highest suicide rates. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/suicide-mortality/suicide.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/suicide-mortality/...
- dragonwriter 4y ago
  > No, I'm blaming Republicans for blocking initiatives that might actually help the birth rate. Including things like better funded public education and funding for childcare There’s pretty good evidence that weak public social safety nets, particularly around old age, disability, etc., contribute to higher birthrates, [0] so you should be applauding the Republicans and their attacks on Social Security and Medicare, if that is your highest concern. [0] speculation is because in the absence of state support, family are your social safety net, and particularly younger family members.
  - scottLobster 4y ago
    Shockingly I have concern for the quality of life of said kids. Theoretically you could increase the birth rate by using the army to force people to breed at gunpoint. But it probably isn't going to result in a high quality labor force, social cohesion, or high quality of life for those involved.
    - dragonwriter 4y ago
      > Shockingly I have concern for the quality of life of said kids. My point was not that you should actually support Republicans, or the particular policies most likely to increase birth rates.
    - PathOfEclipse 4y ago
      > Shockingly I have concern for the quality of life of said kids. But do you really? Because, for instance, children in Sweden have shown a far more rapid decline in mental health than in other similar Nordic countries without government child care: https://www.imfcanada.org/archive/1107/swedish-daycare-international-example-or-cautionary-tale https://www.imfcanada.org/archive/1107/swedish-daycare-inter... "An official Swedish government investigation in 2006 showed that mental health among Swedish 15-year-olds declined faster from 1986 to 2002 than in eleven comparable European countries." https://www.aei.org/events/the-unintended-consequences-of-universal-childcare-lessons-from-sweden/ https://www.aei.org/events/the-unintended-consequences-of-un... If you cared about the well-being of children, you'd think you'd fully consider the effects of various policies on children before advocating for them. Indeed, most things done by the Democrat party harm the well-being of children. They could care less, for instance, that their open border policies facilitate child trafficking: https://www.dailywire.com/news/gop-senators-introduce-end-child-trafficking-now-act https://www.dailywire.com/news/gop-senators-introduce-end-ch... “Children are tragically being trafficked across the border by illegal immigrants who falsely claim they are related,” Ernst added. “This needs to stop — for the wellbeing of these children and the security of our nation. ... Of the 100,441 arrests for illegal border crossings in February, unaccompanied children accounted for nearly 10%" Democrat lockdown policies harmed children tremendously while saving statically zero child lives. From the NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/18/opinion/coronavirus-school-closures.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/18/opinion/coronavirus-schoo... "Children have suffered because many mayors and governors were too willing to close public schools." Education quality in Democrat-run cities is the lowest in the nation: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/05/big_city_schools_where_americas_most_vulnerable_kids_languish.html https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/05/big_city_sc... However, instead of supporting measures like school vouchers and charter schools that have been proven to help the most in inner cities, democrats have fought these policies tooth-and-nail at the behest of teacher's unions, who themselves have openly admitted they care about teachers, not students. https://www.amazon.com/Charter-Schools-Enemies-Thomas-Sowell/dp/1541675134 https://www.amazon.com/Charter-Schools-Enemies-Thomas-Sowell... And, of course, the Democrat-supported transgender movement has presided in a "Sharp Rise in Transgender Young People in the U.S.": https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/10/science/transgender-teenagers-national-survey.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/10/science/transgender-teena.... In case you need it spelled out, no, that's not good for children. Many lives are being ruined as the number of detransitioners also rises: https://www.dailywire.com/news/chris-cuomo-hosts-first-national-news-coverage-of-detransitioners https://www.dailywire.com/news/chris-cuomo-hosts-first-natio... Have you considered that your "care for quality of life of children" could instead be empty virtue signaling and a desire to parrot the partisan views of your political party, which has proven itself time and again to be bad for children?