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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   2419 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 23, 2026

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I just saw a tweet and I don’t care if it’s factually true because a it’s definitely directionally true but it seems like Humans overall just hit below replacement fertility. That would seem existential at some point. Shouldn’t we be considering radical policy choices. One big issue is men dropping out of the labor force. One radical thing we could do would be positive male discrimination. Make firms hirer men whenever possible. There are probably a lot more radical policies but more stable male careers would definitely seem to help. Not saying we should do that specifically but it probably should be inside the Overton window.

I think it's well-within the Overton window if you're a conservative or at least "family oriented." The problem is that it's verboten among most blue-tribers, for whom any incentives, no matter how gentle, toward more traditional family structures are equated to regressive coercion. The best they can do is support cheaper/subsidized childcare, which isn't nothing. However, if the Nordic countries where that already exists are any reference, cheaper childcare alone does little to promote additional births.

It does help. Cheap childcare, social safety nets, and generous parental leave are commonly cited as reasons for why the birthrate in those countries are higher than their neighbors. It just isn't quite enough, as there are problems related to birthrate that seemingly cannot be solved just by throwing money at them.

Cheap childcare, social safety nets, and generous parental leave are commonly cited as reasons for why the birthrate in those countries are higher than their neighbors

It's interesting why that's the case. Lyman Stone says it's because there's an upper bound on free childcare. You can give free childcare from age five (school) or start earlier than that, but ultimately there's a limit because you can't provide free childcare for babies who are -1 years old. Whereas with baby bonuses, you can make them arbitrarily high.

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