@EJM77

The first country that becomes:

* Mono-ethnic
* Non-socialist
* Low red tape

Is going to dominate the world.

@amerika @EJM77 is japan red-taped government policy wise? prefectures seem to pass incredibly action-heavy laws all the time (e.g, curfews for students or that one that passed a law limiting phone usage time)

@amerika @EJM77 japan is an interesting case for me because the perennial problem they have with child rates (which most countries do really) is not due to some hikkikomori problem or race science or whatever opinion columnists have to say these days - it's that it's a neoliberal hellhole and people's economic rationale heavily disincentivises drowning yourself in the incredibly expense that having a child turns out to be

if governments want kids, the solution is dead easy, and it involves a *more* intervening government

@driftwood @EJM77

I disagree. Remove taxes and people spend more on their kids.

"Neoliberalism" is just the mixed economy. The socialist part wrecks normal life because of the high burden of supporting the subsidies.

Red tape is another issue, but high taxes grow government...

@amerika @EJM77 well....... remove taxes and people generally have more spending power, yes, but in a skewed manner: if you flatly cut taxes, the people who have less money are also the most affected by the loss of whatever those taxes funded, and the extra money they keep now still has other expenses that are more critical to cover than childcare. the people with high incomes weren't in need of those tax cuts already

the idea of increasing spending instead of cutting taxes is that it levels the playing field, so to speak - of course, another option is to make that tax rate cut proportional... that might work just as well, yes

@driftwood @EJM77

If you cut taxes, prices go down.

The poor can afford to live for less.

The spending is mostly a jobs program for bureaucrats.

@amerika @EJM77

>If you cut taxes, prices go down.

alternatively, profit margins go up :p

@driftwood @EJM77

This is a good thing. High margins means low incentive to cut corners.

@amerika @EJM77 right, but now taxes are low and yet the price of living hasn't gotten any cheaper

@driftwood @EJM77

Taxes are low... where?

@amerika @EJM77 we're talking about the hypothetical chain of incentives here :p

@driftwood @EJM77

So... how do we know the cost of living has not gone down?

@amerika @EJM77 well, why would it when the companies producing the living goods can pocket the new difference in spending power as profit margins instead of passing on the savings to the customer?