Denmark, Have Moar Small Humons

[Fidel_Castronaut]

http://www.techinsider.io/do-it-for-denm...=buffer-ti

The above is a link to an an advert encouraging more people to have children as the birth rate in Denmark is apparently so low.

My thoughts, excluding discussions about it being tongue in cheek (which is entirely possible), is that it's a terrible guilt trip and something I fundamentally disagree with. I don't think people should in any way be forced to have children or to even contemplate it if they don't want any.

The scene with the 'grand'mother is particular distasteful (and very weird, especially the bedroom part). Who gives a shit if your parents feel sad because they don't have the chance to be grandparents? Fuck them. What business is it of theirs?

I am glad to see an increased discourse over the ethical and moral issues over having children in a world where there are already hundreds of thousands to millions of children without parents who need fostering/adopting, and where millions more cannot survive because of the lack of resources available (for whatever reason).

As many may know I am not having children and have no desire for them, partly because I don't want to look after children and partly because I think there are enough humans already and I don't want to be apart of the problem.

However a lot of Western countries are seeing a decline in population which is only being stemmed by migration (the UK is an example of this), so I guess it's only natural that many states will start to promote the creation of more humons.

Thoughts?

[Mudhammam]

The world population doesn't need to increase at a faster rate than it is at present. Bad idea!

[Longhorn]

I don't think people who are guilt tripped/scared into having kids would make good parents. Low birthrate is a problem, but perhaps it's preferable that people who don't want kids don't have them, for the children's sake. Doing it out of civil duty is not going to help a healthy parent child relationship, methinks.

[The Grand Nudger]

The world population doesn't need to increase at a faster rate than it is at present. Bad idea!

Not strictly relevant.  While we might argue that the overall pop doesn't need to increase, some countries do.  Without a sufficient population they cannot properly support the quality of life to which they've become accustomed (or to which they aspire).  It takes alot of people to support a modern city, or many modern cities.  It takes alot of tax revenue for social services and programs, and it takes even more of both to exert any influence on the world stage - which is a necessity, in our increasingly global village. The possibility of it being tongue in cheek aside, if Denmark is struggling to replace it's population......it makes every bit of sense for them to encourage people to have children. If we didn;t have such a healthy amount of immigration we'd be encouraging our citizens to do the same.

[Mudhammam]

The world population doesn't need to increase at a faster rate than it is at present. Bad idea!

Not strictly relevant.  While we might argue that the overall pop doesn't need to increase, some countries do.  Without a sufficient population they cannot properly support the quality of life to which they've become accustomed (or to which they aspire).  It takes alot of people to support a modern city, or many modern cities.  It takes alot of tax revenue for social services and programs, and it takes even more of both to exert any influence on the world stage - which is a necessity, in our increasingly global village. The possibility of it being tongue in cheek aside, if Denmark is struggling to replace it's population......it makes every bit of sense for them to encourage people to have children. If we didn;t have such a healthy amount of immigration we'd be encouraging our citizens to do the same.

Immigration. You said it.

[Kingpin]

If the countries population is dwindling, maybe they can do more to encourage migration in to their country. If people aren't having kids, that is probably for good reason. They should never be guilted in to having children that they can't afford to have. I'm sure the Denmark government isn't going to be helping take care of those kids or offer financial incentives for having children.

[Dystopia]

I think people arguing against this are missing the point - It is not relevant if the total of the worldwide population is too much, what really matters is that most of Europe is growing older an older due to a variety of factors most of you are aware of - And the ultimate cause that will be felt harshly in the upcoming decades is the difficulty of social security, healthcare and other social aid systems will have to survive and sustain a population with lots of oldies when the younger generations are lower in numbers - Any country and government has a compelling interest in promoting policies that sustain a healthy development and considering the potential for people to live much longer and the social and economic costs it will have, it is inherently rational to increase the youth demographics to avoid catastrophes in the future - A good example of this is the situation in Japan where old people deliberately commit crimes to spend the rest of their lifes in jail - They lack enough younger population and as many of you know their taste and appreciation for immigrants is not very good, so they'll end up having lots of trouble in the future. Whether or not a government should do this or that can only be answered by society's current needs - True, some people DON'T want to have kids, but some people don't want to work either and wish to live on other people's money - We can't force anyone to work, but we can provide benefits for those who do.

OP, I do see your point but I think you need to look from the perspective of Denmark and not the overrall overpopulation - And while it is true that immigrants help, some don't even stay forever and may not be qualified enough for higher paid jobs. A similar situation happens here in Portugal where since the revolution in 1974 people have been having few kids when before they had about 7-8 kids and some people even had 30 kids (people were very poor on average and having lots of kids was a source of income) - The result now is an older country with difficulties supporting social security and retirement pensions - There are experts arguing that my generation may NOT have any pensions because social security will bankrupt if proper measures aren't taken.

[Dystopia]

If the countries population is dwindling, maybe they can do more to encourage migration in to their country.  If people aren't having kids, that is probably for good reason.  They should never be guilted in to having children that they can't afford to have.  I'm sure the Denmark government isn't going to be helping take care of those kids or offer financial incentives for having children.

While I see how it is compelling to call for immigrants, the issue here is that immigration may or may not be the best possible solution depending on who the country imports - First, there are seazonal migrants who don't stay there forever and are therefore useless to solve the problems Europe faces, and second most immigrants who do have lots of kids have a tendency to (1) Be less qualified and therefore only useful for low paid jobs that don't discount that much and thus not helpful to sustain social security (2) Have difficulties of integration (see the case with Muslims in Europe).

Moreover, I think saying we should import immigrants solely because of social security is basically objectifying people saying they are only useful because they work and provide money - That shouldn't be how immigrants are brought anywhere.

[Faith No More]

If Denmark is low on people, I'm sure there are plenty of Syrians that would love to live there.

[Dystopia]

If Denmark is low on people, I'm sure there are plenty of Syrians that would love to live there.

But they want Germany