[user104658]

Originally Posted by bitontheslide

it depends how dark it turns out. They could lower the age of consent and reduce the penalties for rape. I think we are entering a very dark period

Frankly they could remove the penalties entirely and it wouldn't dramatically increase birth rate; at some point they're going to figure out that these are all terrible solutions to population decrease.

The sensible solutions are:

1) Higher immigration. Doesn't have to be opening the floodgates... you could also try to entice skilled migration with crazy things like decent wages and living conditions. Australia and NZ seem to be going down this route currently - offering straight-up financial incentives for skilled immigration.

2) Get over the "benefits bad!" mindset and -- essentially -- give people a financial incentive to have more children. If the government will financially support a higher birth rates then there will be higher birth rates. But western govts. have pushed a narrative of "if you can't afford kids, don't have them" for years and... well guess what... now no one can afford them, so no one is having them .

And capitalism doesn't work without consumers so... here we are.