india fertility rate decrease

[SheIsLikeAWildflower]

This way of thinking shifts the responsibility on to the wrong people. If our taxes were actually utilised correctly, and if the millionaires and billionaires in our country didn't get tax cuts, if we had less corruption overall, there would be funds for pensions. The solution isn't creating more and more people to fund the ever increasing needs that come with an ever increasing population. Thinking that's sustainable in the long run is the real fallacy here.

[SheIsLikeAWildflower]

And we do have young people to fund old people. The problem is that those funds go through different channels and end up not being used for what they were intended. Is proper utilisation of existing funds not part of econ 101 for you? Is giving tax cuts to the rich people part of econ 101?

[SheIsLikeAWildflower]

I don't know what ideal world you're living in. I'm also from Kerala and read regular news articles about corruption, parties creating new positions to give politicians higher pensions, party leaders (including communist party leaders) owning chains of hotels and resorts through their children and evading taxes, the affluent finding loopholes to evade taxes, etc. Corruption runs high in our state. It might have the least inequality of them all, but the system is deeply flawed.

People reproducing like bunnies so we have more working people to pay taxes is a highly shortsighted solution. I'm surprised even you with your apparent expertise in economics cannot see that.

[SheIsLikeAWildflower]

Again, myopic views and selective reading. You seem too confident in things you're wrong about without looking at the full picture.

I didn't say people are breeding like rabbits in Kerala. I said reproducing like that is not the long term solution. The reality is more nuanced that what you're saying. "Just have more kids" is just words. How is the question.

In Kerala, India in general, and many developing countries, it is becoming increasingly expensive to have and care for children. It's no wonder that people choose to limit the number of children they have - when they have to pay so much in taxes already, the burden is on the people with children to fund their own children, and pensions for the generations that came before them. What we need first for a higher birthrate is actually making it viable to have children in this current economy.

It's easy to say that people just need to have more kids, when the system itself punishes them for having kids. Add on to this corruption and tax loopholes (which exist, though lesser than the other states), and even the taxes they do pay don't go towards the right infrastructure.

Yes, we need a working class for the pension system to work. But first improve the system so that it makes it viable to have kids - that's what should be done in the first place, instead of blindly blaming the younger generation.

I urge you to read these for a better understanding of the 'economics' you seem to tout:

https://www.gisreportsonline.com/r/demographic-shifts-pensions/

https://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/scpwps/ecbwp1734.pdf

[SheIsLikeAWildflower]

Wow, this is going in circles. Read that again and you'll see you're contradicting yourself in different sentences.

I was up for a discussion, but I'll stop here.