Perhaps it’s ok for the human race to reduce in numbers to help heal the planet?
Population reduction is a very strong signal for the government to change its behavior and yet… they still behave the same for decades: long work hours, non-existent immigration policy, lack of support for working women, little job opportunities for young people, etc.
The idea that the planet is wounded due to too many people and needs to be "healed" is complete nonsense. We aren't close to carrying capacity. You're taking various complaints ("immigration policy," "no support for women," "people work too much") and connecting them to a totally unrelated phenomenon (declining population). People are not deciding against children for rational reasons.
I think it mostly has to do with social atomization. Cultures have always supported marriage and childcare. That's less true around the world. As a result people are getting married less often and having fewer children, often against their own desires.
The problem is not degrowth but the transitional economic ramifications of demographics that skew increasingly towards the elderly, decreasing labor force participation rate and GDP while increasing the burden on social services.
You see those stories about labor shortage, doctor shortage, lack of teachers, nurses, 30 min elevator music on phone to talk to someone?
Yeah, that is what an ageing society feels like. Only in Japan and Italy, it's 10x worse than other places because they had no immigration for a long time.
As we age and population declines more, we will have to assume that basics of society will become dysfunctional as there just aren't any workers to work in those areas anymore.
Perhaps it’s ok for the human race to reduce in numbers to help heal the planet?
Population reduction is a very strong signal for the government to change its behavior and yet… they still behave the same for decades: long work hours, non-existent immigration policy, lack of support for working women, little job opportunities for young people, etc.