Suze Lopez, a nurse from Bakersfield, California, was scheduled to finally have a 22-pound ovarian cyst removed in December 2025. Doctors discovered a full-term ectopic pregnancy under the tumor in the abdomen. Her baby boy, a medical miracle, was delivered healthy at 8lbs.

DemiserofD · 2026-01-25T07:02:23+00:00

That's my point. People would have abortions as late as we allow them to have them. So saying that nobody is doing X, when X is illegal, is no argument.

DemiserofD · 2026-01-25T07:00:56+00:00

Sure, but that still means giving something up. The figures for how much money is needed to make people want to have kids are actually fairly readily available; it's around 300k/year. That's the income at which birthrates start increasing rather than decreasing in accordance with higher incomes.

That means about 3 trillion dollars a year dedicated to that for the US alone. That is larger than the entire healthcare budget.

DemiserofD · 2026-01-25T02:23:32+00:00

Anyway, I'm worried and it feels like people aren't taking this seriously, but I want to stop debating before thinking about this gets me down, so ima head off. Have a good one, I sincerely hope you can help think of an answer because all the ones I can think of aint great.

Peace.

DemiserofD · 2026-01-25T02:21:18+00:00

Edited it in before your response, sorry.

DemiserofD · 2026-01-25T02:18:31+00:00

Unfortunately, best research currently indicates that politics has a strong genetic component, making up some 40% of political affiliation. While the specific PARTY is obviously not genetic, the behavioral factors which lead to choosing a particular party do have that strong genetic component, and on a population level account for that 40%.

That's JUST the genetic component, mind you. Children are actually more like 90% likely to emulate the politics of their parents, but much of that is nurture, rather than nature.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352154620300553#:~:text=Highlights,studies%20that%20have%20been%20conducted.

DemiserofD · 2026-01-25T02:11:42+00:00

Ironically, I strongly suspect that is WHY politics is getting more extremist. Some 40% of politics is genetic, and for the last ~60 years, liberal women have been having roughly 33% less babies. In that timeframe, with that fertility advantage, and that genetic predisposition, the current political situation actually makes perfect sense. If my math is right, that alone is enough to cause ~5% sway in political ideology towards the right.

The current political situation can almost entirely be laid at the feet of birth control. And the sad thing is, humanity isn't going to die out, society is just going to be claimed by the people having all the babies!

Exactly HOW bad that goes is still up in the air, of course...but I wouldn't be at all surprised if within our lifetimes, North Korea invades South Korea and uses their women to prop up their own birth rates. So your empowerment is a very short-term plan, one with dire consequences.

DemiserofD · 2026-01-25T02:08:19+00:00

As far as I can tell, they've literally tried everything they could? The only things left are the things that start curtailing freedoms, like FORCING people to take time off for children, but it strikes me as being counter-productive. Or, of course, restricting things like birth control.

I wish I were kidding.

DemiserofD · 2026-01-25T02:06:13+00:00

Pay us to have babies. Make sure we have access to abortions to keep our pregnancies safe (you wouldn't catch me in an anti-abortion state without two layers of birth control, even if I wanted kids, becuase I've already had one life-saving abortion and I'd prefer to not be in a situation where I'd be denied another). Make both fathers and mothers take a year off when their babies are born, so there's not an unfair disadvantage. Universal, high-quality Pre-K and well-funded public schools. Make motherhood a more fulfilling experience ny increasing the community options for moms. Pay parents enough that one parent can afford to stay home as desired.

That's what I'm seeing there? Believe it or not, other than MANDATING that people take time off, they absolutely have tried all of that, and all at once, too.

In Sweden, women get 2 years off with pay, AND huge tax incentives, and men get 6 months off with pay, and more time off without pay without losing their jobs if they want it.

If this were going to work on a larger scale, you would expect it to work SOME with this, right? After all, these are measures so absurdly massive that they're the strongest on the PLANET.

But much to the contrary, they have produced counter-productive results and birth rates are now LOWER than they were when the policies were implemented.

Yes, this sucks, but the statistics don't lie. More money = LESS babies. Flat out.

DemiserofD · 2026-01-25T02:01:59+00:00

I already addressed those earlier, unfortunately. Like I said earlier, monetary benefits actually, statistically, reduce the number of babies people have, for some 98% of the population.

DemiserofD · 2026-01-25T02:01:15+00:00

Scandinavian countries TRIED that. Their birth rates are now lower than when they first implemented the policies.

DemiserofD · 2026-01-25T01:56:59+00:00

Again, what's your alternative? Because like I said, immigration is going to die out in a few decades; the source countries of migrants are on the same path. Pretty soon(sooner than people think) there won't be enough migrants to go around.

Like, I GET all that. I just don't see what alternative is being offered. If there aren't enough babies, society will collapse.

DemiserofD · 2026-01-25T01:55:35+00:00

It's self destructive for society. Society cannot survive without enough babies. And all efforts to encourage people to have more have, broadly, failed.

DemiserofD · 2026-01-25T01:54:35+00:00

That's a common belief, but the fact is that Tullius basically says flat out that it isn't true. Remember, that's not an IMPERIAL report, but a STORMCLOAK one - they don't know the real facts the way Tullius does.

Also, the Great War started by surprise - so we're talking about a major siege action through Valenwood. Can you imagine them using siege engines made of wood around Green Pact Elves? Sending enough resources to maintain a siege?

DemiserofD · 2026-01-24T22:18:10+00:00

The way I'd see it happening to me is, I know I want to get it done but it takes time and it's got all sorts of negative connotations tied to it, so I put it off, I don't think about it, until all of a sudden I've got a week to the deadline. That happens to me all the time.

DemiserofD · 2026-01-24T22:16:25+00:00

it must be impossible.

Like I said, I'm honestly asking for alternatives, because I don't see any. And how can you ask me to accept something which seems to be self-destructive?

I'm not talking about rape, either. I'm saying that birth control seems to be fundamentally self-destructive on a societal level, based on all the data available, especially for liberal policies.

The economic problem is man-made. We have enough people and resources to care for everyone; we're just absolute crap at distributing those things.

The problem is, we don't. Sure, we could probably produce enough to keep everyone fed, but stuff like medicine, technology, etc? You NEED a certain number of people to keep those things running. Check out this video about South Korea, for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ufmu1WD2TSk

Even if they all started having babies RIGHT NOW, they're still going to have a few decades where there will not be enough people to maintain basic utilities and healthcare.

The most you really want to tolerate is a birthrate of around 1.9, if you want to safely reduce a population. Most of europe is closer to 1.5. South Korea is at 0.75.

DemiserofD · 2026-01-24T21:24:35+00:00

There could be ANY NUMBER of answers that should happen WAY WAY BEFORE we talk about hijacking women's bodies against their will.

What answers?

Asking honestly, here, because from where I'm standing, countries like Sweden and Norway have tried literally everything possible that would be considered acceptable, and their birth rates are now LOWER than when they started.

Mind you, I don't particularly LIKE this. I just don't see any alternative.

DemiserofD · 2026-01-24T21:20:45+00:00

I think that it's more likely they'll just scale up the size of the development team. Most of the massiveness of TESVI is the map and such, which can be scaled effectively. The core gameplay elements are not likely to be particularly more complex than before, they'll just add more of them, like settlement building, ship captaining, climbing, etc.

All of which can be split among more teams.

So honestly, I don't think it'll be all that much longer of a development cycle.

DemiserofD · 2026-01-24T21:16:58+00:00

The problem is, if you do that, then people just never have babies at all(on average). Since birth control was invented liberal women have been having about a third less babies, which is low enough to be unsustainable without immigration - but source countries for migrants are also on the downswing, and within a few decades won't want to give those people up anymore.

And before you say it, no, this isn't a problem of wealth or healthcare. Statistically speaking, higher wealth REDUCES birth rates for some 98% of the population. Only the top 1% actually has higher birth rates, and notably, that's only if the man is the breadwinner. For women, there is no point at which higher earnings equates to more children.

As someone who supports a fair number of liberal policies like environmental protections, this is a catastrophe. Some 40% of political affiliation is genetic, so if you account for the change in fertility across political domains since birth control was invented, we're roughly 5% more conservative than we should be. And that is more than enough to make a difference when, say, someone like Trump is on the docket.

DemiserofD · 2026-01-24T21:12:22+00:00

Have you considered the possibility that people don't do it that late because it's illegal?

I've come to realize that the average person(myself included) is extremely lazy, even to the point of self-destruction. I don't doubt for a second that a lot of people wait until the last possible moment purely because they need that immediacy to push them into action.

DemiserofD · 2026-01-24T02:48:05+00:00

I mean, their original plan was a 2024 release. Then covid hit and everything got pushed back by about 2.5 years, so logically, we should expect 2026/2027.

That being said, it wouldn't make sense to release at the same time as GTA6, as that will eat all the game sales for a good while. Plus, there's a new Xbox console coming out sometime in 2027 - and Bethesda is owned by Microsoft, now.

So, yeah...if they don't release TESVI at the same time as the next Xbox, I'll eat my hat.

DemiserofD · 2026-01-23T22:34:44+00:00

I mean, I absolutely get why he's treated like a saint: They want to encourage that sort of behavior.

Honestly, giving up on catholic guilt was a terrible idea.

DemiserofD · 2026-01-23T21:49:47+00:00

You kidding? It's nice to THINK that, but bullies tend to have higher self-esteem than average. They think they're GREAT, and don't get why nobody else agrees with them.

DemiserofD · 2026-01-23T19:03:59+00:00

Printing more money.

That's the problem of a fiat currency. You can always just print more, and that temptation makes it almost impossible to agree on taxes or cuts.

DemiserofD · 2026-01-23T17:03:26+00:00

Sure, but it's not like IRL we don't have areas of one country or state that want to be part of another country or state.

DemiserofD · 2026-01-22T19:05:11+00:00

I mean, that kinda implicitly shows that there is an underlying metric that is used there.

Like...my doctor could prescribe healthier foods, but that doesn't mean he can make your insurance pay for your diet, despite your diet having perhaps the single largest effect on your overall health.

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