Re: The Roads Must Roll -- In Japan, at least

On 11/12/24 09:10, Paul S Person wrote:

On Mon, 11 Nov 2024 20:51:13 -0500, Cryptoengineer
<petertrei@gmail.com> wrote:
 

On 11/11/2024 5:22 PM, Bobbie Sellers wrote:

On 11/11/24 09:43, Dimensional Traveler wrote:

On 11/10/2024 9:58 AM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:

Noted by Sarah Hoyt with the blurb:
    IT'S HEINLEIN'S WORLD. WE JUST LIVE IN IT.
>
https://www.newser.com/story/359125/japan-has-a-trucker-shortage-its-
solution-is-novel.html
>
>
>
     Japan Has a Trucker Shortage. Its Solution Is Novel
>
     Nation plans to build a giant 'conveyor belt road' connecting
     Tokyo and Osaka
     By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
>

It isn't just a shortage of truck drivers, Japan is undergoing a slow
motion population implosion.  The age demographic that would be having
children is basically refusing to.
>

>
      That is because the world they live in is very demanding of youth
and workers. Which is why so many manga are set in "Other Worlds"
The Japanese governments have not yet come up with a plan that makes
having babies a easy thing especially for the career types. Despite
legal equality a lot of the former regimes are still in power and
intensely pro-male and wealth in there law making.

>
The coming demographic collapse is one of the things I worry about.
Wanting a smaller population is one thing, but  we're headed there
in a way that's going to be very disrupting.
>
Up until the mid-20th century, children coming along was
pretty automatically  if a woman lived with a man. They cohabited
out of love, and/or economic necessity. It was pretty
difficult for a woman to avoid doing so.
>
Now, being childless is a much more attainable option, and
many women are making that choice.
>
Our current society makes parenthood immensely costly to
parents, and especially mothers, in both income and
lifestyle  restrictions.
>
In the US at the moment, it's also made it very
difficult for young people to find housing, jobs,
and income sufficient to make starting a family
a reasonable choice.
>
Should something be done? I think so, others may differ.

 What can and should be done is to take advantage of immigration and
repopulate the country.
 We have /long since/ passed the point where our economy can be run
without migrant labor. And I'm not talking about techies. I'm talking
about /laborers/.
 You know, the ones Trump is going to deport to ... somewhere. He
hasn't quite reached the point of finding out where he can send them.
The Texas/Florida solution was entirely in-USA; it won't work outside
the USA.

Back to the authoritarian regimes from which they fled.
And I agree we need those workers and need them to get by on vey
low wages so they need all sorts of support from the government
with housing, healthcare and education.

Clearly, coercing people to have kids is utterly
unacceptable.

Not to the Government of Texas or Idaho or a few other
states where women must have children and/or die in the attempt.

>
But, if 'mother' was made a viable, respected, and
attractive career choice, maybe things could be
reversed - it would require massive subsidies,
essentially paying people for life if they have
sufficient offspring.

 Sounds anti-MAGA to me.
 Not the "encouraging motherhood" part. The "paying gummint money"
part.
 

Is there any SF dealing with this?

Oh yes but it has been mentioned here earlier. Riders of
the Purple Wage by Harlan Ellison.
There is a problem in people's minds about paying women
to have healthy children when they have no problem with paying
our military which is basically about killing people lifetime
pensions and the politicians who basically decide whom to kill
are well compensated as well.
Pro-Life is not.

bliss