and without that stability it's not responsible for anyone to have kids.

If we eventually settle back to a couple billion peeps in the world, is that a bad thing?

Atkins is also right, the marriage rate for millenials is something like 30% by 35 last I saw.

Shouldn't we be concerned about the number of people we're bringing in when multiple job sectors will see shrinkage?

And yeah marriages have been fucked for decades now haven't they?

Rising divorce rates, declining engagement rates

when you get into your 30s, the dating market is almost entirely single moms.

those who aren't single moms either aren't dating or have some other arrangement.

I married at 19 and have been married for 29 years. Had two kid. Despite what you may think of my life choices, we're not part of this problem.

:p

i think you qualify as a special case, no offense.

I think you miss a lot of "special cases" because we're not the noisy ones

If the noisy ones would STFU you'd see there are a lot of normal people in the GLBT community

sure. but the GLBT community is very small.

True

But many of us are doing our part to preserve marriage and pop out babies

Just sayin'

that's great, but we need the other 95%+ to do the same

and they aren't

at all

No doubt

and getting worse

Marriage is broken. I just like to point out that GLBT folks aren't the ones who broke it.

I'm happy to do my part to help fix it

again, you're kind of a special case. even within this small minority, only a minority of such unions are capable of producing children.

what i'm trying to say here is that this is not really about GLBT at all.

this is about boring straight people not forming couples.

Funny story, I'll be going to my 30th high school reunion next year. During the festivities there will be a projector showing pictures from our time in school. My wife and I are the only couple who went to my senior prom who are still together. :-)

And yes, you are right, it's not about GLBT at all. I'm just sensitive because I've been called "the destroyer of the family" by divorcees. It's a sore spot.

GLBT is a tiny fraction of the population. If the entire community married and had kids, they'd barely dent the statistics if at all. The main effects are elsewhere. I don't get why we're obsessing over this part at all.

Like i said, just sensitive. I'll stop on that topic. But anyway, who cares if the population shrinks if automation will keep the consumer economy chugging along just fine?

I think Japan is leading the way showing us how it can be done

Even if they're being weird about it

I'm not convinced the economy will keep chugging along.

Japan is very concerned about it's birthrate and was mired in a recession for decades.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/293183044653809664/514155865834520587/image0.png

probably the driving factor is that women are financially independent to the point of being able to maintain middle-class lifestyles on their own income. since they don't have any major financial motivation for entering into a stable long-term couple, they have the luxury of being much choosier over a mate.

they also are deeply in debt and as the population shrinks, that debt becomes more dire as it becomes more concentrated.

Is that a problem, Atkins?

Men can be choosy too

from a societal collapse perspective, yes that's a problem. and no, men are not as choosy as women. OKCupid and Tinder stats demonstrate.

The women would reverse that argument, Atkins. They'd claim the men are falling behind and there's no one worth marrying anymore.