I personally cringe when I hear a friend js having a kid. All I can think of is how bad theyre going to have it. Hell id definitely have been better off being born 20 years earlier, but these new kids are REALLY screwed unless they have super rich parents.
“Nothing new under the sun” I suppose!
Partly yes.
If I could choose, I would take 10 years earlier than I was actually born.
At least I could have experienced the early internet for longer.Abortions should be legal at any term
I have a 6 year old, is that too late? :)
Woodchipper
I think things will make a turn in about ten years. Yes, climate is very critical, but the kids of today will have a better shot at shaping the world in a time when the last old ideas from the fossil fueled age have finally died.
It’s going to get rough, but at least they have a chance of changing it. We never did get a chance, because the boomers were kept alive with improved healthcare. It’s the same people who have all the wealth and power today as it was in 1980s.
So maybe Gen-X and millennials will be the next old assholes, but at least they’re better educated and their views are much better aligned with younger generations than the old ones. We might finally be able to work together across generations politically in just a few years time. It’s much needed, and it’s hard work, but I envy the kids who get to be the creators of the post-boomer society.
We need more optimism, for sure. But I can’t get my head around the idea that the new generation will be better than us.
The 70 years of relative stability has been exchanged by a few dickheads to make as much money over the expense of everyone as possible. Those people mean to keep it that way.
Even if I am being pessimistic, social media has made everything so depressing. We used to believe in continuous progress, we used to be excited about the future.
No, we have to funnel money to that lizard bot so he and his buddies can build their private bunkers because they know what they’re doing is fucked up, but the money is too enticing.
Yeah the problem is with all the deregulation on generational wealth and workarounds for rich people to stockpile and keep their money, the offspring of the ruling class will be the same kind of assholes. Look at Sam Altman, he’s not old. Look at mark whateverthefuck. He’s not old. Now, those people didn’t exactly inherent their money, but you can’t tell me these guys won’t be around for the next 40 years fucking shit up. And their kids? And the kids of all the Murdochs, the bush kids, the Koch offspring…there are a lot of shitty families able to reproduce and spread their sickness. This isn’t going to wind down and give us a fresh start. These rich people will be protected by an increasingly violent state and they will all burn it down before they let it change. They’re not weakening over time. They’re amassing even more wealth and the regulations and ideas around capitalism are only getting more virulent and violent. We aren’t about to ride off into the sunset on the backs of a new generation. They are going to be focusing on surviving, more than we ever were.
Every single generation talks about how good it was when they were young. This generation will ultimately be no different. And as a parent, I am doing whatever I can to ensure my kids are happy.
On top of that, you can’t miss what you never had. Humans are adaptable and resilient, and kids’ imaginations are unstoppable, and my own kids, despite the constant intrusion of digital dopamine, still love to build forts, and play with Lego, and dolls, and just run around being goofballs.
Just gotta hang on.
how good it was when they were young
Sorry did I miss a decade? My youth consisted of hanging chads -> 9/11 -> The War on Oil -> 2008 financial crisis -> the death of Hope via congressional fuckery -> Trump. When were things good…? I had hope for universal healthcare with Obama and hope for Bernie before Trump 1.0 but now I’m not sure what to look forward to. That said; can’t stop won’t stop.
I honestly and truly hope you and yours remain healthy and happy. I don’t begrudge you that or wish you ill. But I haven’t seen good times and at this point don’t really expect to.
Yeah I was 14 for 9/11, for frame of reference. I’m somehow able to look back at the last 25 years or so and glean some positivity from it, because I’m unwilling to burden myself with global problems. And that doesn’t mean they’re not issues I’m interested in and care about, but I try to comparmentalize my life. I don’t bring work home and I sure as shit don’t bring politics to bed with me. I spend time with my friends, and now I have a family of my own, and we make memories, and we create glour own good times.
I just feel like it’s useless to base my life on these big problems. I am not 9/11, though I live in Jersey and know many who were affected. I’m not the wars in Iraq, though I served and know people who came home unwhole or not at all. Even though shit is bleak, I’m not going to allow it soil my life, because then I become bleak, and then what’s the point.
So yeah, I can’t stop trying to positivity in my life, and I won’t stop, because then I’m fucked.
And so I’ve said it many times here and on Reddit, that my fights are local. In my town, and county, and State (not that big) are the things that I can personally get involved in and see the fruits of my labor.
When I was a kid, there was a hole in the ozone layer and we were just going to be blown up by a nuclear war, or get AIDS.
It’s always been the end times.
So no, I don’t worry that much about kids. I do wish that embodiment was not a forced choice, you can’t ask a baby if they would like to be born. I’m sure there are planets where the ‘people’ have a much harder time than we do here. Sure I am incredibly angry that we are squandering this glorious advantage we have so soon. But no I am not sorry for the kids of the future and also the past really sucked for most people, you can’t compare a hard life of the near future to some idealized imaginary easy life of the past.
Nonsense. We have never had the manmade cilmate change situation which we are experiencing now. It is a unique situation in the history of mankind. We know it is going to get drastically worse in the near future, and it is something that is going to affect us all.
The fear of nuclear war was fear of the possibility of it, not the absolute knowledge it was going to happen.
I think we are in for a very hard 30-50 years politically and economically speaking.
Current young people are already poorer than their parents, and that’s not getting solved. Next generation will be poorer and we will have to factor in a lot of tensions and unsolved problems that I think will derive in violence, a lot of violence. And very heavy societal collapses.
Maybe I’m dramatic, but the other day I thought that’s not unlikely that a “western” country will experience a famine in the next 50 years. Many don’t produce enough food for themselves by far, the moment they don’t have the money or the possibility to buy it from other countries… Starvation it is. And with a growing population getting near the 10 billion humans, a few years of globally bad crops could devastate humankind.
So, yep, I think kids today are in for really hard times.
Yup, the fossil fuel foundation that enabled us to reach 10 billion is going away. Sunshine and puppies won’t sustain 10 billion eaters.
The carrying capacity of a renewable energy system is not the same as a system that uses massive amounts of surplus energy coming from the ground.
It’s lower. Far far lower. And getting there will be ugly, and your time frame is correct IMO.
Renewable energy production is increasing exponentially.
Electrical, yes. Oil is a feedstock for pretty much anything you can see in your house.
Please fertilize modern agri-business with electricity.
I’ll wait.
In the meantime, try the trick of flying across the Atlantic in 6 hours with batteries.
No doubt we’ll have electricity for as long as we can, but… the underlying civilization that uses it will not look a thing like what we have now.
Do you not already see housing supply issues, inflation, war everywhere?
War everywhere? See WW1 and WW2. Although there is certainly a risk with a large war across Europe it isn’t guaranteed and generally seems like most don’t really want one.
Maybe not societal collapses but costly upheavals certainly.
Maybe I’m dramatic, but the other day I thought that’s not unlikely that a “western” country will experience a famine in the next 50 years.
Drought and famine are coming for everyone in the next 50 years.
Global freshwater demand will exceed supply 40% by 2030, experts warn
Mix of sad and angry. I see these broodmares popping out kids and I think of the movie Idiocracy because all of the more thoughtful people I know limited how many kids they had while the people having litters of kids all seem to be short-sighted selfish assholes. The thoughtful folks worry about saving college funds for the kids. The selfish ones don’t. They don’t have any plans, they are too busy making babies – and those kids are going to be predisposed to be the same way which will make matters worse for the handful of kids raised by thoughtful parents.
This comment is not grounded in any hard data besides this persons anecdote…
Statistically speaking I don’t think there is a single large group of people with replacement level fertility. American racists loved dunking on blacks and latinos but they haven’t been replacement level since 2010s.
Only groups who are insular communities like hasids, Mormons, certain Muslims.
Pedophilia rans rampant in these communities too…
Idiocracy was a documentary
More grist for the mill.
Absolutely yes I feel bad for them.
Some people will say that now is the best time to be alive, but I think we have hit our peak and are facing an ugly drop-off. Climate change is a big one, but I think that technology is quickly becoming detrimental to the average person because it is leading to a consolidation of wealth and power in the hands of fewer and fewer.
The peak was probably 08-12 recently. I think its tanking fast.
All the time. I fake being happy for the parents and on the inside think What the fuck is wrong with you?
Im glad im not the only one.
Has nothing to do with lemmy or reddit either. I’ve always felt that way even when. I was a kid I couldn’t imagine why people want them. Must be something in the genes because im pretty sure my parents shouldn’t have had kids either lol!
Windows 11 laptops requires a webcam. The internet now wants selfies to prove that you are a certain age.
The kids now will grow up thinking that this is normal. That is what I am worried about.
That and the impending societal collapse from Climate Change lol
Can I get a source?
Not the original user and can’t find anything since but that requirement seems to have been around for new models https://www.windowscentral.com/starting-2023-windows-11-will-require-laptops-have-cameras
We definitely need to be loud about counter-education campaigns against this.
Pushing the masses and the corporate status quo is a Herculean task, but even things as simple as retro computing and electronics / maker clubs and endeavors like Archive.org keep that spirit alive.
Heck, “The Indie Web” is even making a resurgence, many times in pure opposition to what the web has become. Things like this make me hopeful!
Windows 11 laptops requires a webcam. The internet now wants selfies to prove that you are a certain age.
The kids now will grow up thinking that this is normal. That is what I am worried about.
I choose not to. I can choose to be hopeful for the future without being unrealistic. I can see intrinsic value in human life and the human experience even knowing that every single one of us will die at some point, some peacefully, some during suffering. The moment of death doesn’t have to define one’s life. Even a baby who lives for six hours has spent infinitely more time living than dying. Would you be so nihilistic as to erase that life, just because it was short?
Your philosophy is valid; it’s not necessarily correct.
Starting from the assumption that it is denies you the opportunity to see things from a different perspective.Actually kind of jealous, because they will have AI just do healthcare on every single human, and they will have AI teachers and so on.
EDIT: Did I mention fucking UBI?
The rich would never allow the poors to be taken care of in such a way. You’re not thinking like a true capitalist !
Ever see the movie “Elysium”. It will be like that. They’ll have machines that can do the medical treatments and still deny it to the masses.
Yes I do. I am an anti-natalist because I care about people.
It is your right to make that choice for yourself.
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