The fact that Seoul is within artillery range of North Korea is a far larger deterrent. China doesn't care enough about NK to realistically use nukes in their defense
Why would they blame the poor? The need the poor to be their excuse for getting a bailout. Not sure how they'll sell it yet, but somehow all the AI companies will get bailouts to "help the poor" through our upcoming difficult economic times
Considering the human eye is basically backwards, I always found it funny people would try to use it as an example of an intelligent creator
Like we seriously have all the working bits in the path of light, permanently blocking our vision in spots. We just hide it with some post-production brain magic, and I'm supposed to believe that's evidence of an intelligent creator?
The more likely explanation—related to tech—is that we don’t need kids anymore
While that's certainly a contributing factor worldwide, I think the data contradicts it quite a bit. Japan, as an example, has the elderly heavily rely on their children as a retirement plan. Far more so than countries like the US that has a higher birthrate. Also include that while undeveloped countries like Kenya have some of the highest birthrates in the world, it's far less than similarly developed countries had 100 years ago
that’s a much lesser concern because I seriously doubt humans of the past thought that hard about such things when living to 40 was considered amazing
There is a bit of a misconception there with average life expectancy. Once you made it to adulthood, your life expectancy was far higher than would be expected from an average life expectancy of ~40. It was brought down heavily by all the young deaths
Now we have birrh control and—in Western societies—stability/safety is much more likely if you don’t have kids. We’ve basically flipped the script on our evolution.
I don't doubt this is a strong factor, but if it were the largest factor, wouldn't we expect countries with strong social programs like Norway to have much higher birth rates? I suppose those social programs would tend to correlate with birth control
I used this site to compare country pairs. With the Koreas you can see shared inflection points, such as in 1981, and a general trend line that looks the same
Then compare Russia and Ukraine. A much more volatile fertility rate. In 1986/1987, both countries share a local maximum, followed by a very sharp decline that continues until a local minimum right around 2000. We don't see this pattern with the others (although they all seem to follow the same trend)
Finally you have the US and Canada. Shared local maximum in 1990/1991, and again in 2008. Both closely follow each other in terms of fertility rate inflection points, but not at the some times as other pairs
Also of note: All the lowest fertility rate countries (South Korea, Taiwan, and China) are geographically near each other, with very similar primary industries - high-tech manufacturing
My hypothesis: The most important factor is environmental. Likely an air pollutant of some kind (maybe several kinds)
I don't have much evidence for this other than correlated fertility rates, but it's the only thing I can think of that fits the data
I find fertility rate to be such a fascinating topic, because there is no simple explanation, although many people will suggest simple explanations
I've heard it's because of the cost of housing, but Japan fixed their housing crisis decades ago, and South Korea never had much of one, at least not compared to Canada, New Zealand, or the US
I've heard it's about how women are treated culturally, but then why would the fertility rate in places like Norway and Finland be dropping so dramatically?
And I've heard it's a reaction to dystopic late-stage capitalism, but then why is the fertility rate dropping so rapidly in North Korea?
The general explanation of difficult economic conditions doesn't seem to hold up when you look at a place like the Korean peninsula. There was a great famine in North Korea during the '90s - the arduous march - where millions died in only a couple years. The fertility rate remained far higher during that than it is now. South Korea had far worse economic conditions than it has now, but had a far higher fertility rate
My hypothesis is that it's related to some form of pollution. Obviously there are many contributing factors, but it's interesting to me that the lowest birth rates are all in countries around major manufacturing; especially technology manufacturing. South Korea, Taiwan, and China all have the lowest birth rates in the world. Many European countries like Spain and Italy aren't far behind. Both areas have the highest concentration of high-tech manufacturing
To clarify, Meta had to pay $5.8 billion in a separate lawsuit. This was a lawsuit by Meta shareholders against Mark Zuckerberg and other board members looking for reimbursement of lost shareholder value
Seriously. "Reconstruction"? He hasn't destroyed our infrastructure. He's mostly destroyed safeguards around anti-corruption and balance of power, in addition to long-term economic damage
Because money is the only thing we, as a country, truly care about. We're only against things like CP and pedos as long as it doesn't get in the way of making money. Same reason Trump sharing Larry Nassar and Jeffrey Epstein's love of "young and nubile" women, as Epstein put it, didn't kill his political career -- he's the pro-business candidate who makes the wealthy even wealthier
Honestly? Good. These cameras should either be public or dismantled. I'd like to see them dismantled, but worst case scenario is the current one where they're selectively used by law enforcement
The Sheriff could have actually investigated. Snapchat retains copies of all messages sent, so the excuse that the messages are quickly deleted is entirely hollow. This is the production and distribution of CSAM, a very serious crime. The school should have cracked down on phone use while investigating a very serious crime
Own it: We were born naked. We are naked in our clothes, it is all the same. If you have the confidence, say: “Psh, the real thing is MUCH better”.
These are children. I cannot emphasize that enough. Children are being used for sexual gratification against their will. Your response to that is "own it"? You may want to review your position here
Turn it around: “What do you need a fake nude for, can you not get a girl to be naked with you? Pathetic…”
And in what way would that make the child being sexually exploited whole? It does not stop the person creating it. It does not stop them distributing it. In what way does belittling other children help her?
To reiterate one more time, this is a 13-year-old girl being sexually exploited against her will, yet here you are sounding like the President of the United States on a trip to Epstein island
The meaning of words change over time. Conservative, in the American political context, has nothing to do with Monarchy. You are being pointlessly pedantic
The fact that Seoul is within artillery range of North Korea is a far larger deterrent. China doesn't care enough about NK to realistically use nukes in their defense