this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2025
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[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 58 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Today, the average teenager in this country has 50% of the sperm count, 50% of the testosterone as a 65-year-old man. Our girls are hitting puberty six years early, and that’s bad, but also our parents aren’t having children.

Let's practice some critical thinking. Join me!

Teens have half the sperm count of a senior citizen? I'd maybe believe they're equivalent? Maybe? He's getting this from dropping teen pregnancy rates.

Teens have half the testosterone of a senior citizen? Boolshit on it's face. So senior men are more aggressive, more horny, stronger and hairier than teens? Stronger bones too! Also, seniors have more zits. Are you teen boys even trying any more?!

Parents aren't having children. OK. I'll let the audience stew on that one a minute.

We are below replacement right now. That is a national security threat to our country...

True! Not so much a security threat as an economic threat, maybe the same difference? So what's the solution? Kick out the foreigners? Hey yo, Japan! How that working out?

Money says these idiots do what Russia did about their shrinking birth rates. National holiday to stay home and fuck for the Motherland! (Not even joking here.)

[–] TheDoozer@lemmy.world 38 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Our replacement rate has been low for a long time, but our population has stayed relatively steady.... because of immigration.

Low replacement rate is only bad if you're racist/xenophobic. Otherwise there's usually (in a supposedly first-world country) an easy solution.

And if you think this is a dig on specifically the US, it isn't. Japan and South Korea are about to have insane difficulties with a very obvious and simple solution, and the US had that solution and are destroying it in favor of racism and xenophobia.

[–] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I don't think immigration is bad, but if the "problem" of fertility below replacement is caused by the other problem of people who might otherwise want kids not being able to have them because of economic constraints, focusing on solving the first problem by importing competitive and ambitious skilled professionals seems at least kind of questionable.

[–] TheDoozer@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago (2 children)

That is not the problem. Population declines as countries move to first world status, and I think the people not having kids due to financial constraints are few and far between. Otherwise population would not start and continue diminishing as an area becomes more affluent. People have less (or no) kids because they don't want kids, don't want a bunch of kids, and can reasonably expect the kids they have to survive to adulthood. And access to birth control, education, and other opportunities (mostly for women) makes having less kids (by their own desire) possible.

So bringing capable workers in means they pay into taxes that support the aging and school-age population, and never had to have their school-age years paid for. They're a productive member with half the cost over their lifetime.

It's a no-brainer... as long as you're not worried about changing the... shade or hue... of your population over time.

[–] Daft_ish@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I think your assertion is unfounded and based on your own unreliable assessment.

There is no mystery to the fact the all the wealth is silo'd to a small class of people. Your big assumption is that developed country's are substantially more hospitable to a majority of the population.

When kindness is considered hostility amongst the general population its no wonder why people wont have kids.

[–] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 days ago

The reason I'm thinking of it is I recently read this lemmy thread. The article itself is probably AI and not that convincing but I think people are making some good points about the pressures imposed by expense of housing and how those affect the desirability and difficulty of having children.

Of course a prerequisite for that to matter is that not having children is more of a real choice than it is for people with no resources in a state of poverty. But it isn't necessarily the case that the difficulty of raising children decreases with country-wide affluence, because wealth inequality is a thing, required resources (like housing space) might become more expensive relative to income despite overall increase in income, and other factors like an increasingly atomized career focused society where community can't be relied on as much to help raise children and the expectations placed on parents are higher, maybe requiring high daycare expenses.

So bringing capable workers in means they pay into taxes that support the aging and school-age population, and never had to have their school-age years paid for. They’re a productive member with half the cost over their lifetime.

I agree in principle with the logic here, but if those capable workers are being placed in competition with a population that is financially struggling, and those taxes are not being used to give those people more breathing room, that productivity isn't helping and is being employed on the wrong side of a class struggle.

[–] phutatorius@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

So senior men are more aggressive, more horny, stronger and hairier than teens?

I'm old. I'm definitely hairier. I'm also stronger than I was as a teen, though far weaker than I was as a young adult. I also weigh 50% more than I did as a teen, and some of that's extra muscle. So those points aren't really relevant.

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

At 54 I got hair in weird places, but it doesn't come back in like it did. Demonstrated great-grandpa's WWI razor three weeks ago at a party. Forearm hair still bald. Shaved down lots into my 30s, hair rolled right back in. :)

I'm stronger than I was as a teen, but as a teen I didn't do much put pedal a bike. Was probably peak around late 20s to early 30s. I think strength is much up to the fact of our bodies automatic limiters. When we're at peak, our brain still thinks we can handle the same loads, and we can, and sometimes hurt ourselves. Does that make sense?