• (tranlation) Apartment Women by Gu Byeong-Mo

    From James Nicoll@21:1/5 to All on Wed Mar 19 13:10:42 2025
    Apartment Women by Gu Byeong-Mo

    The Dream Future Pilot Communal Apartments is a bold attempt to
    address South Korea's negligible birthrate. In exchange for new
    homes in an invigorating rural setting, certain conditions need
    to be met.

    https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/babies-forever

    Technically, not SF or even futuristic but sufficienty dystopia-
    adjacent to be of interest.
    --
    My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
    My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
    My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
    My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Dimensional Traveler@21:1/5 to James Nicoll on Wed Mar 19 08:06:59 2025
    On 3/19/2025 6:10 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
    Apartment Women by Gu Byeong-Mo

    The Dream Future Pilot Communal Apartments is a bold attempt to
    address South Korea's negligible birthrate. In exchange for new
    homes in an invigorating rural setting, certain conditions need
    to be met.

    https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/babies-forever

    Technically, not SF or even futuristic but sufficienty dystopia-
    adjacent to be of interest.

    Would you want to raise babies next door to North Korea?

    --
    I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
    dirty old man.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From James Nicoll@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Wed Mar 19 15:18:05 2025
    In article <vremii$13ocd$[email protected]>,
    Dimensional Traveler <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 3/19/2025 6:10 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
    Apartment Women by Gu Byeong-Mo

    The Dream Future Pilot Communal Apartments is a bold attempt to
    address South Korea's negligible birthrate. In exchange for new
    homes in an invigorating rural setting, certain conditions need
    to be met.

    https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/babies-forever

    Technically, not SF or even futuristic but sufficienty dystopia-
    adjacent to be of interest.

    Would you want to raise babies next door to North Korea?

    A question lamentably relevant to Canadians, provided one replaces
    North Korea with the United States of America. One cannot easily
    choose whose ones neighbours are.


    --
    My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
    My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
    My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
    My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Robert Woodward@21:1/5 to Cryptoengineer on Wed Mar 19 09:48:45 2025
    In article <vreqff$155k7$[email protected]>,
    Cryptoengineer <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 3/19/2025 9:10 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
    Apartment Women by Gu Byeong-Mo

    The Dream Future Pilot Communal Apartments is a bold attempt to
    address South Korea's negligible birthrate. In exchange for new
    homes in an invigorating rural setting, certain conditions need
    to be met.

    https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/babies-forever

    Technically, not SF or even futuristic but sufficienty dystopia-
    adjacent to be of interest.

    If one agrees that demographic collapse is a real problem, then
    eventually we're going to see governments addressing it.

    On the dystopian side, one could see a ban on contraception, or
    even worse, compelled childbearing.


    Also, Quadi's Vat Girls (and some Vat Boys too). I have some doubts on
    how well they could be socialized.

    --
    "We have advanced to new and surprising levels of bafflement."
    Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan describes progress in _Komarr_. —-----------------------------------------------------
    Robert Woodward [email protected]

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Ted Nolan @21:1/5 to [email protected] on Wed Mar 19 16:43:47 2025
    In article <vreqff$155k7$[email protected]>,
    Cryptoengineer <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 3/19/2025 9:10 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
    Apartment Women by Gu Byeong-Mo

    The Dream Future Pilot Communal Apartments is a bold attempt to
    address South Korea's negligible birthrate. In exchange for new
    homes in an invigorating rural setting, certain conditions need
    to be met.

    https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/babies-forever

    Technically, not SF or even futuristic but sufficienty dystopia-
    adjacent to be of interest.

    If one agrees that demographic collapse is a real problem, then
    eventually we're going to see governments addressing it.

    On the dystopian side, one could see a ban on contraception, or
    even worse, compelled childbearing.

    More acceptable would be making bearing and raising children
    highly subsidized and promoted. Turn it into a viable and secure
    career choice. This would be expensive, and perhaps funded by a tax
    on the childless-by-choice.

    There's a zillion ways this could go, but I expect we'll see
    something in the coming decades.

    pt

    Just accept the Embrace Of Tides!
    --
    columbiaclosings.com
    What's not in Columbia anymore..

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From James Nicoll@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Wed Mar 19 16:49:25 2025
    In article <vreqff$155k7$[email protected]>,
    Cryptoengineer <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 3/19/2025 9:10 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
    Apartment Women by Gu Byeong-Mo

    The Dream Future Pilot Communal Apartments is a bold attempt to
    address South Korea's negligible birthrate. In exchange for new
    homes in an invigorating rural setting, certain conditions need
    to be met.

    https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/babies-forever

    Technically, not SF or even futuristic but sufficienty dystopia-
    adjacent to be of interest.

    If one agrees that demographic collapse is a real problem, then
    eventually we're going to see governments addressing it.

    On the dystopian side, one could see a ban on contraception, or
    even worse, compelled childbearing.

    More acceptable would be making bearing and raising children
    highly subsidized and promoted. Turn it into a viable and secure
    career choice. This would be expensive, and perhaps funded by a tax
    on the childless-by-choice.

    There's a zillion ways this could go, but I expect we'll see
    something in the coming decades.

    Unsurprisingly, there's prior art in the field of natal encouragement. Romania's Decree 770, for example.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decree_770

    Mentos produced a memoriable ad extolling Singaporeans to celebrate
    National Day by making babies.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jxU89x78ac


    --
    My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
    My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
    My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
    My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Christian Weisgerber@21:1/5 to Dimensional Traveler on Wed Mar 19 16:06:40 2025
    On 2025-03-19, Dimensional Traveler <[email protected]> wrote:

    Would you want to raise babies next door to North Korea?

    People were raising babies next door to the Iron Curtain.

    --
    Christian "naddy" Weisgerber [email protected]

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From James Nicoll@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Wed Mar 19 17:17:27 2025
    In article <[email protected]>,
    Robert Woodward <[email protected]> wrote:
    In article <vreqff$155k7$[email protected]>,
    Cryptoengineer <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 3/19/2025 9:10 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
    Apartment Women by Gu Byeong-Mo

    The Dream Future Pilot Communal Apartments is a bold attempt to
    address South Korea's negligible birthrate. In exchange for new
    homes in an invigorating rural setting, certain conditions need
    to be met.

    https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/babies-forever

    Technically, not SF or even futuristic but sufficienty dystopia-
    adjacent to be of interest.

    If one agrees that demographic collapse is a real problem, then
    eventually we're going to see governments addressing it.

    On the dystopian side, one could see a ban on contraception, or
    even worse, compelled childbearing.


    Also, Quadi's Vat Girls (and some Vat Boys too). I have some doubts on
    how well they could be socialized.

    While childbirth is not exactly trivial, one requires far more resources
    to turn the resulting infant into a functional adult. That's a detail
    many pro-natalists prefer to ignore.

    ObSF: Ethan of Athos.

    --
    My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
    My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
    My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
    My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Scott Lurndal@21:1/5 to Cryptoengineer on Wed Mar 19 17:34:43 2025
    Cryptoengineer <[email protected]> writes:
    On 3/19/2025 9:10 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
    Apartment Women by Gu Byeong-Mo

    The Dream Future Pilot Communal Apartments is a bold attempt to
    address South Korea's negligible birthrate. In exchange for new
    homes in an invigorating rural setting, certain conditions need
    to be met.

    https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/babies-forever

    Technically, not SF or even futuristic but sufficienty dystopia-
    adjacent to be of interest.

    If one agrees that demographic collapse is a real problem, then
    eventually we're going to see governments addressing it.

    A demographic collapse seems to be a problem for the modern
    capitalist consumer-driven economies that require constant
    (and exponential) growth as a criteria of success.

    Eventually one hits a point in the growth curve where
    further growth is unsustainable, simply due to the energy
    requirements (the world may be approaching this limit
    soon, just to supply the AI datacenters :-).

    Consider the shape of the exponential curve - eventually the
    curve becomes close to vertical.


    On the dystopian side, one could see a ban on contraception, or
    even worse, compelled childbearing.

    More acceptable would be making bearing and raising children
    highly subsidized and promoted. Turn it into a viable and secure
    career choice. This would be expensive, and perhaps funded by a tax
    on the childless-by-choice.

    There's a zillion ways this could go, but I expect we'll see
    something in the coming decades.

    Most likely will be a demographic collapse, economic turmoil,
    war, disease and death. If the world survives the orange clown.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From James Nicoll@21:1/5 to Scott Lurndal on Wed Mar 19 17:41:41 2025
    In article <TeDCP.1124310$[email protected]>,
    Scott Lurndal <[email protected]> wrote:

    [radical contextecomy]

    If the world survives the orange clown.

    Aw, heck, the world shrugged off the End Permian in less than a
    hundred million years and it took less than two hundred million
    for mammal-like animals to claw their way out of the small and
    squeaky niches.
    --
    My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
    My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
    My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
    My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Titus G@21:1/5 to Cryptoengineer on Thu Mar 20 17:26:11 2025
    On 20/03/25 10:31, Cryptoengineer wrote:
    On 3/19/2025 1:17 PM, James Nicoll wrote:
    In article <[email protected]>,
    Robert Woodward  <[email protected]> wrote:
    In article <vreqff$155k7$[email protected]>,
    Cryptoengineer <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 3/19/2025 9:10 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
    Apartment Women by Gu Byeong-Mo

    The Dream Future Pilot Communal Apartments is a bold attempt to
    address South Korea's negligible birthrate. In exchange for new
    homes in an invigorating rural setting, certain conditions need
    to be met.

    https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/babies-forever

    Technically, not SF or even futuristic but sufficienty dystopia-
    adjacent to be of interest.

    If one agrees that demographic collapse is a real problem, then
    eventually we're going to see governments addressing it.

    On the dystopian side, one could see a ban on contraception, or
    even worse, compelled childbearing.


    Also, Quadi's Vat Girls (and some Vat Boys too). I have some doubts on
    how well they could be socialized.

    While childbirth is not exactly trivial, one requires far more resources
    to turn the resulting infant into a functional adult. That's a detail
    many pro-natalists prefer to ignore.

    ObSF: Ethan of Athos.


    Absolutely agree - subsidizing just pregnancy and birth isn't
    going to be very effective.

    Throwing out numbers to give an idea of the magnitudes I think would
    be effective: something like a $60k payment for a birth (that's the low
    end for surrogate mothers), and say, $30,000/year payment for each
    child in the house. (approx the cost/year to raise a child in MA). So
    a family with 3 kids would be getting $90k, around the US median
    household income, plus employment income, if any.

    pt

    In the good old days you could apprentice them to chimney sweeps or pickpocketers to get an early return on the investment or decrease costs
    at home but nowadays closer to twenty years for leaving the nest and
    there is no guarantee they will look after you in your dotage even if
    you subsidise the mokopuna.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul S Person@21:1/5 to Nicoll on Thu Mar 20 08:38:05 2025
    On Wed, 19 Mar 2025 15:18:05 -0000 (UTC), [email protected] (James
    Nicoll) wrote:

    In article <vremii$13ocd$[email protected]>,
    Dimensional Traveler <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 3/19/2025 6:10 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
    Apartment Women by Gu Byeong-Mo

    The Dream Future Pilot Communal Apartments is a bold attempt to
    address South Korea's negligible birthrate. In exchange for new
    homes in an invigorating rural setting, certain conditions need
    to be met.

    https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/babies-forever

    Technically, not SF or even futuristic but sufficienty dystopia-
    adjacent to be of interest.

    Would you want to raise babies next door to North Korea?

    A question lamentably relevant to Canadians, provided one replaces
    North Korea with the United States of America. One cannot easily
    choose whose ones neighbours are.

    I suppose Canada will eventually use its Secret Weapon -- and outlaw
    shipments of Maple Syrup to the USA.

    And Trump thinks the MAGA outrage about egg prices are disturbing [1].

    [1] If he didn't find them disturbing, he wouldn't be trying to
    suppress them by telling MAGA to "suck it up".

    Of course, as new chickens hatch and mature, the egg supply will
    recover and prices will, if not drop, at least not increase any more
    than any others.
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul S Person@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Thu Mar 20 08:45:27 2025
    On Wed, 19 Mar 2025 12:13:34 -0400, Cryptoengineer
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 3/19/2025 9:10 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
    Apartment Women by Gu Byeong-Mo

    The Dream Future Pilot Communal Apartments is a bold attempt to
    address South Korea's negligible birthrate. In exchange for new
    homes in an invigorating rural setting, certain conditions need
    to be met.

    https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/babies-forever

    Technically, not SF or even futuristic but sufficienty dystopia-
    adjacent to be of interest.

    If one agrees that demographic collapse is a real problem, then
    eventually we're going to see governments addressing it.

    On the dystopian side, one could see a ban on contraception, or
    even worse, compelled childbearing.

    Might happen ... for white people.

    The people-in-charge believe in white replacement theory, after all.

    I'm surprised no Republican anti-abortion law has exempted non-white
    women. So far.

    More acceptable would be making bearing and raising children
    highly subsidized and promoted. Turn it into a viable and secure
    career choice. This would be expensive, and perhaps funded by a tax
    on the childless-by-choice.

    That would require taxing the people who have money -- the 1%-ers.

    It will not happen with Republicans in Charge. The same might also
    apply with Democrats in Charge, of course. Not the taxing part, but
    the money raised might be used for something else.

    There's a zillion ways this could go, but I expect we'll see
    something in the coming decades.

    We /could/ accept the existence of illegal aliens, legalize them, and
    profit from their labor.

    But that would require recognizing reality, something Republicans are
    currently definitely not capable of. The Dems are better off in terms
    of recognizing reality (the obvious exceptions are clearly exceptions,
    but MAGA is the rule for Republicans), but that doesn't mean they
    would behave any differently.
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul S Person@21:1/5 to Titus G on Thu Mar 20 08:48:08 2025
    On Thu, 20 Mar 2025 17:26:11 +1300, Titus G <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 20/03/25 10:31, Cryptoengineer wrote:
    On 3/19/2025 1:17 PM, James Nicoll wrote:
    In article <[email protected]>,
    Robert Woodward� <[email protected]> wrote:
    In article <vreqff$155k7$[email protected]>,
    Cryptoengineer <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 3/19/2025 9:10 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
    Apartment Women by Gu Byeong-Mo

    The Dream Future Pilot Communal Apartments is a bold attempt to
    address South Korea's negligible birthrate. In exchange for new
    homes in an invigorating rural setting, certain conditions need
    to be met.

    https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/babies-forever

    Technically, not SF or even futuristic but sufficienty dystopia-
    adjacent to be of interest.

    If one agrees that demographic collapse is a real problem, then
    eventually we're going to see governments addressing it.

    On the dystopian side, one could see a ban on contraception, or
    even worse, compelled childbearing.


    Also, Quadi's Vat Girls (and some Vat Boys too). I have some doubts on >>>> how well they could be socialized.

    While childbirth is not exactly trivial, one requires far more resources >>> to turn the resulting infant into a functional adult. That's a detail
    many pro-natalists prefer to ignore.

    ObSF: Ethan of Athos.


    Absolutely agree - subsidizing just pregnancy and birth isn't
    going to be very effective.

    Throwing out numbers to give an idea of the magnitudes I think would
    be effective: something like a $60k payment for a birth (that's the low
    end for surrogate mothers), and say, $30,000/year payment for each
    child in the house. (approx the cost/year to raise a child in MA). So
    a family with 3 kids would be getting $90k, around the US median
    household income, plus employment income, if any.

    pt

    In the good old days you could apprentice them to chimney sweeps or >pickpocketers to get an early return on the investment or decrease costs
    at home but nowadays closer to twenty years for leaving the nest and
    there is no guarantee they will look after you in your dotage even if
    you subsidise the mokopuna.

    Once Medicaid and SSA are DOGEd, supporting the 'rents will come back
    into fashion. I've seen indications, BTW, that there are States where
    such support if needed is required by law.
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul S Person@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Thu Mar 20 08:55:00 2025
    On Wed, 19 Mar 2025 17:31:58 -0400, Cryptoengineer
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 3/19/2025 1:17 PM, James Nicoll wrote:

    <snippo -- more kids needed!>

    While childbirth is not exactly trivial, one requires far more resources
    to turn the resulting infant into a functional adult. That's a detail
    many pro-natalists prefer to ignore.

    Absolutely agree - subsidizing just pregnancy and birth isn't
    going to be very effective.

    Throwing out numbers to give an idea of the magnitudes I think would
    be effective: something like a $60k payment for a birth (that's the low
    end for surrogate mothers), and say, $30,000/year payment for each
    child in the house. (approx the cost/year to raise a child in MA). So
    a family with 3 kids would be getting $90k, around the US median
    household income, plus employment income, if any.

    Well, that's one way to get to a Guaranteed Basic Income.

    /JoJo Rabbit/ includes a female Nazi who, at a summer camp for kids,
    tells the girls that she will teach them how to make beautiful Aryan
    boys for the Reich. She has done it, she says, an <incredible number>
    of times.

    I forget the number. But I recall thinking at the time that it was
    large enough that, if she had started when Hitler came to power, she
    would have been producing more than one per year.

    My understanding, however, is that such programs did exist in Hitler's
    Germany.
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Dimensional Traveler@21:1/5 to Paul S Person on Thu Mar 20 18:18:06 2025
    On 3/20/2025 8:55 AM, Paul S Person wrote:
    On Wed, 19 Mar 2025 17:31:58 -0400, Cryptoengineer
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 3/19/2025 1:17 PM, James Nicoll wrote:

    <snippo -- more kids needed!>

    While childbirth is not exactly trivial, one requires far more resources >>> to turn the resulting infant into a functional adult. That's a detail
    many pro-natalists prefer to ignore.

    Absolutely agree - subsidizing just pregnancy and birth isn't
    going to be very effective.

    Throwing out numbers to give an idea of the magnitudes I think would
    be effective: something like a $60k payment for a birth (that's the low
    end for surrogate mothers), and say, $30,000/year payment for each
    child in the house. (approx the cost/year to raise a child in MA). So
    a family with 3 kids would be getting $90k, around the US median
    household income, plus employment income, if any.

    Well, that's one way to get to a Guaranteed Basic Income.

    /JoJo Rabbit/ includes a female Nazi who, at a summer camp for kids,
    tells the girls that she will teach them how to make beautiful Aryan
    boys for the Reich. She has done it, she says, an <incredible number>
    of times.

    I forget the number. But I recall thinking at the time that it was
    large enough that, if she had started when Hitler came to power, she
    would have been producing more than one per year.

    My understanding, however, is that such programs did exist in Hitler's Germany.

    There were what were basically brothels for the SS where they were
    encouraged to impregnate as many of the pure Aryan women there as they
    could. And in some parts of Nazi society such women were well thought of.

    --
    I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
    dirty old man.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Titus G@21:1/5 to All on Fri Mar 21 16:08:00 2025
    SNIP

    On 3/19/2025 1:17 PM, James Nicoll wrote:

    <snippo -- more kids needed!>


    Today I read that "The US has the highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world. Shockingly, it's on the rise." I have not checked this.
    P 239. Careless People. Sarah Wynn Williams. 2025.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Scott Dorsey@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Fri Mar 21 09:52:43 2025
    In article <vril6j$i5kg$[email protected]>, Titus G <[email protected]> wrote: >SNIP

    On 3/19/2025 1:17 PM, James Nicoll wrote:

    <snippo -- more kids needed!>


    Today I read that "The US has the highest maternal mortality rate in the >developed world. Shockingly, it's on the rise." I have not checked this.
    P 239. Careless People. Sarah Wynn Williams. 2025.

    This is sadly true, and it's more than doubled in the past twenty years.
    My friend who is a doula says that some of this is because Americans are choosing to have babies much later in life now, but most of it is due to
    the lack of available medical care and Americans' reluctance to use what
    care is available.
    --scott
    --
    "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From James Nicoll@21:1/5 to Scott Dorsey on Fri Mar 21 13:59:20 2025
    In article <vrjqvb$mta$[email protected]>,
    Scott Dorsey <[email protected]> wrote:
    In article <vril6j$i5kg$[email protected]>, Titus G <[email protected]> wrote: >>SNIP

    On 3/19/2025 1:17 PM, James Nicoll wrote:

    <snippo -- more kids needed!>


    Today I read that "The US has the highest maternal mortality rate in the >>developed world. Shockingly, it's on the rise." I have not checked this.
    P 239. Careless People. Sarah Wynn Williams. 2025.

    This is sadly true, and it's more than doubled in the past twenty years.
    My friend who is a doula says that some of this is because Americans are >choosing to have babies much later in life now, but most of it is due to
    the lack of available medical care and Americans' reluctance to use what
    care is available.

    I think the solution here is to increase the cost of medical care to
    Americans by a couple of orders of magnitude. That way it would be a
    treasured luxury, like eggs, and people would compete to acquire it.
    --
    My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
    My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
    My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
    My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Dimensional Traveler@21:1/5 to Scott Dorsey on Fri Mar 21 08:11:43 2025
    On 3/21/2025 6:52 AM, Scott Dorsey wrote:
    In article <vril6j$i5kg$[email protected]>, Titus G <[email protected]> wrote:
    SNIP

    On 3/19/2025 1:17 PM, James Nicoll wrote:

    <snippo -- more kids needed!>


    Today I read that "The US has the highest maternal mortality rate in the
    developed world. Shockingly, it's on the rise." I have not checked this.
    P 239. Careless People. Sarah Wynn Williams. 2025.

    This is sadly true, and it's more than doubled in the past twenty years.
    My friend who is a doula says that some of this is because Americans are choosing to have babies much later in life now, but most of it is due to
    the lack of available medical care and Americans' reluctance to use what
    care is available.

    And the fact that one of our two political parties does everything it
    can to stamp out affordable medical care, government assistance and
    birth control.

    --
    I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
    dirty old man.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul S Person@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Fri Mar 21 08:26:51 2025
    On Thu, 20 Mar 2025 18:23:24 -0400, William Hyde
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    Paul S Person wrote:
    On Wed, 19 Mar 2025 15:18:05 -0000 (UTC), [email protected] (James
    Nicoll) wrote:

    In article <vremii$13ocd$[email protected]>,
    Dimensional Traveler <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 3/19/2025 6:10 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
    Apartment Women by Gu Byeong-Mo

    The Dream Future Pilot Communal Apartments is a bold attempt to
    address South Korea's negligible birthrate. In exchange for new
    homes in an invigorating rural setting, certain conditions need
    to be met.

    https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/babies-forever

    Technically, not SF or even futuristic but sufficienty dystopia-
    adjacent to be of interest.

    Would you want to raise babies next door to North Korea?

    A question lamentably relevant to Canadians, provided one replaces
    North Korea with the United States of America. One cannot easily
    choose whose ones neighbours are.

    I suppose Canada will eventually use its Secret Weapon -- and outlaw
    shipments of Maple Syrup to the USA.

    You could, at least until recently, find American "Maple Syrup" on
    the shelves here.

    It's garbage, but it's sweet and cheap. Won't be so cheap, now.

    Doesn't matter to me. I only get Maple as a flavor in snacks/junk
    food. And only occasionally. When those disappear due to a cut-off,
    I'll get by just fine without them. Might even lose a few ounces, who
    can say?

    And Trump thinks the MAGA outrage about egg prices are disturbing [1].

    Egg smuggling from Canada and Mexico into the US has begun. Soon, eggs
    with added fentanyl!

    Only in the minds of TDS sufferers -- the /real/ TDS, not the TDS
    being projected on sane people by Republicans.

    Oh, wait, was that humor? If so, never mind.
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul S Person@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Fri Mar 21 08:34:27 2025
    On Thu, 20 Mar 2025 22:03:03 -0400, Cryptoengineer
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 3/20/2025 9:18 PM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:
    On 3/20/2025 8:55 AM, Paul S Person wrote:
    On Wed, 19 Mar 2025 17:31:58 -0400, Cryptoengineer
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 3/19/2025 1:17 PM, James Nicoll wrote:

    <snippo -- more kids needed!>

    While childbirth is not exactly trivial, one requires far more
    resources
    to turn the resulting infant into a functional adult. That's a detail >>>>> many pro-natalists prefer to ignore.

    Absolutely agree - subsidizing just pregnancy and birth isn't
    going to be very effective.

    Throwing out numbers to give an idea of the magnitudes I think would
    be effective: something like a $60k payment for a birth (that's the low >>>> end for surrogate mothers), and say, $30,000/year payment for each
    child in the house. (approx the cost/year to raise a child in MA). So
    a family with 3 kids would be getting $90k, around the US median
    household income, plus employment income, if any.

    Well, that's one way to get to a Guaranteed Basic Income.

    /JoJo Rabbit/ includes a female Nazi who, at a summer camp for kids,
    tells the girls that she will teach them how to make beautiful Aryan
    boys for the Reich. She has done it, she says, an <incredible number>
    of times.

    I forget the number. But I recall thinking at the time that it was
    large enough that, if she had started when Hitler came to power, she
    would have been producing more than one per year.

    My understanding, however, is that such programs did exist in Hitler's
    Germany.

    There were what were basically brothels for the SS where they were
    encouraged to impregnate as many of the pure Aryan women there as they
    could.� And in some parts of Nazi society such women were well thought of. >>

    This is a bit of an exaggeration.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebensborn

    Or perhaps an urban legend, as it were, since I have seen it
    elsewhere.
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul S Person@21:1/5 to Titus G on Fri Mar 21 08:42:09 2025
    On Fri, 21 Mar 2025 16:08:00 +1300, Titus G <[email protected]> wrote:

    SNIP

    On 3/19/2025 1:17 PM, James Nicoll wrote:

    <snippo -- more kids needed!>


    Today I read that "The US has the highest maternal mortality rate in the >developed world. Shockingly, it's on the rise." I have not checked this.
    P 239. Careless People. Sarah Wynn Williams. 2025.

    Well, what do you expect when we have a medical industry instead of a
    medical system? And a lot of doctors (and probably other medical
    staff, such as nurses) with great piles of student loans to pay off?
    Which, however strong their professional ethics, must influence some
    of them [1] in their decisions.

    And of course it is rising. There are States controlled by Republicans
    where care for pregnant women has become much less available (if not,
    ignoring midwifes, having disappeared altogether) because of the
    draconian anti-abortion laws. Which in some cases extend could see a
    jury deciding whether a doctor's medical decision violated the law or
    not.

    [1] The underlying theory here is that every large group of people
    doing the same job will include some stinkers.
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul S Person@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Sat Mar 22 08:06:42 2025
    On Fri, 21 Mar 2025 08:11:43 -0700, Dimensional Traveler
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 3/21/2025 6:52 AM, Scott Dorsey wrote:
    In article <vril6j$i5kg$[email protected]>, Titus G <[email protected]> wrote:
    SNIP

    On 3/19/2025 1:17 PM, James Nicoll wrote:

    <snippo -- more kids needed!>


    Today I read that "The US has the highest maternal mortality rate in the >>> developed world. Shockingly, it's on the rise." I have not checked this. >>> P 239. Careless People. Sarah Wynn Williams. 2025.

    This is sadly true, and it's more than doubled in the past twenty years.
    My friend who is a doula says that some of this is because Americans are
    choosing to have babies much later in life now, but most of it is due to
    the lack of available medical care and Americans' reluctance to use what
    care is available.

    And the fact that one of our two political parties does everything it
    can to stamp out affordable medical care, government assistance and
    birth control.

    Rich people don't need any of that stuff.

    And the savings can fund tax breaks! A win-win!
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul S Person@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Sat Mar 22 08:04:53 2025
    On Fri, 21 Mar 2025 14:09:51 -0400, William Hyde
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    Paul S Person wrote:
    On Thu, 20 Mar 2025 18:23:24 -0400, William Hyde
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    Paul S Person wrote:
    On Wed, 19 Mar 2025 15:18:05 -0000 (UTC), [email protected] (James
    Nicoll) wrote:

    In article <vremii$13ocd$[email protected]>,
    Dimensional Traveler <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 3/19/2025 6:10 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
    Apartment Women by Gu Byeong-Mo

    The Dream Future Pilot Communal Apartments is a bold attempt to
    address South Korea's negligible birthrate. In exchange for new
    homes in an invigorating rural setting, certain conditions need
    to be met.

    https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/babies-forever

    Technically, not SF or even futuristic but sufficienty dystopia- >>>>>>> adjacent to be of interest.

    Would you want to raise babies next door to North Korea?

    A question lamentably relevant to Canadians, provided one replaces
    North Korea with the United States of America. One cannot easily
    choose whose ones neighbours are.

    I suppose Canada will eventually use its Secret Weapon -- and outlaw
    shipments of Maple Syrup to the USA.

    You could, at least until recently, find American "Maple Syrup" on
    the shelves here.

    It's garbage, but it's sweet and cheap. Won't be so cheap, now.

    Doesn't matter to me. I only get Maple as a flavor in snacks/junk
    food. And only occasionally. When those disappear due to a cut-off,
    I'll get by just fine without them. Might even lose a few ounces, who
    can say?

    And Trump thinks the MAGA outrage about egg prices are disturbing [1].

    Egg smuggling from Canada and Mexico into the US has begun. Soon, eggs
    with added fentanyl!

    Only in the minds of TDS sufferers -- the /real/ TDS, not the TDS
    being projected on sane people by Republicans.

    Oh, wait, was that humor? If so, never mind.

    The egg part was serious, the fentanyl not.

    Fentanyl pills can be bought for as little as $1 in Spokane, but the
    minimum price in Vancouver is $10. Little as I respect drug pushers, I
    am certain they can distinguish between one and ten.

    Or they could google to see if ten is really bigger than one. Might
    get the wrong answer, though.

    Supply and demand, no doubt.

    Capitalism at its finest, so to speak.
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Christian Weisgerber@21:1/5 to Paul S Person on Tue Mar 25 16:02:16 2025
    On 2025-03-20, Paul S Person <[email protected]d> wrote:

    And Trump thinks the MAGA outrage about egg prices are disturbing [1].

    Of course, as new chickens hatch and mature, the egg supply will
    recover and prices will, if not drop, at least not increase any more
    than any others.

    I don't understand. If they don't have chicken eggs, why don't
    they eat quail eggs?

    --
    Christian "naddy" Weisgerber [email protected]

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Scott Dorsey@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Tue Mar 25 17:36:39 2025
    Christian Weisgerber <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2025-03-20, Paul S Person <[email protected]d> wrote:

    And Trump thinks the MAGA outrage about egg prices are disturbing [1].

    Of course, as new chickens hatch and mature, the egg supply will
    recover and prices will, if not drop, at least not increase any more
    than any others.

    I don't understand. If they don't have chicken eggs, why don't
    they eat quail eggs?

    Because it takes you a dozen quail omelettes to fill your mouth.
    --scott
    --
    "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)