Falling fertility/birthrate... ideas which could spring from it?

[LiverpoolMaster]

It's a documented fact that fertility/sperm count in the developed world is on the wane. It isn't just a matter of physiological factors either - people seem to be choosing to have smaller families. Presumably, the greater the affluence around, the less people are inclined to share it with offspring. Whatever, one thing seems clear: ever fewer babies are being produced.

Great for the environment, maybe, but what about the economy? What about having enough working-age taxpayers around to fund the pensions and benefits of an ageing population?

The government, having been warned about this demographic time bomb for years and doing nothing (as is usually the case) finally wakes up and panics. Increased child/family subsidies and tax breaks don't deem to have any effect.

What ethical lines might have to be crossed, with newly-legalised sanction, to produce the necessary buns in ovens? Any pleasantly erotic ideas?

 

[Carnevil9]

With family size plummeting, the government decides to encourage extra-familial reproduction. They create a chain of Ethical Adultery Parlors, where couples who are not married to each other (they can be married to others) are paid a small honorarium to have sex with each other. If the union produces offspring, they are each give a large bonus check. The child becomes a ward of the state.

So now every horny single person, and unfulfilled married person, is scrambling to find someone who wants to earn a few bucks on their back (or on all fours or whatever). Young couples struggling to make ends meet are hooking up with friends, neighbors, and perfect strangers to bring a few extra shekels into the household cash flow stream.

 

[000zing]

Certainly there are any number of variations on this theme.

I think a "darker" way to go would be to suspend some specific laws, at least temporarily. Also certain advertising bans. For sure, the government might find this more tempting in its cheapness than setting up Carnevil's "EAP"s and giving out cheques!

 

[Brandnewbuddy]

When tackling this type of story, I like to pitch more out there ideas and fun ones as there are real life solutions that governments refuse to do (UBI, free childcare, mandated maximum work hours so people can have a better work life balance) and the darker fictional (emphasis on fictional since if any of them were implemented, the societal backlash would be worse and lead to a further drop off) ones (breeding farms, mandatory pregnancies etc.) I don't really find erotic.

So that being said...

1. Government decides to try and do a push to promote pregnancy and giving birth as highly desirable. They do this on multiple fronts: 1. They actually enforce anti-discrimination laws against pregnant people, there won't be a need for a lawsuit, if you fire someone or don't hire them because they are pregnant, you will get chucked into a black site and pay the victim a hefty fine. 2. they start ad campaigns with pregnant actors and give subsidies to movies and fashion lines that promote and put pregnant people in prominent roles. 3. They discreetly pay porn sites to push pregnancy vids to the top.

What this leads to is a society where people see getting pregnant as a status symbol if you want to get a leg up at work, it pays to be pregnant or it might give hyou an edge on the candidates. Meanwhile movies are pushing pregnant stars and doing their best to make pregnancy look amazing with fashion lines coming out with maternity looks that are now top fashion and people watching porn see pregnant porn every time they go on a website.

So you could tell stories about people adjusting to the new status quo. Suddenly you have women and AFABs getting pregnant because it's the hot thing to do. you have influencers pushing "breeding parties" and their fans jump on it. You could tell stories about guys getting lucky because they meet women who just want to get pregnant and don't care who the dad is.

2. Believing the problem is a lack of sex drive, the government starts mixing in aphrodisiacs into the water supply. This of course fails spectacularly and in many different ways. 1. They didn't really have a way of increasing heterosexual attraction: they just made everyone over 18 horny as hell. Locker rooms become same sex orgies and even het couples that do fuck use protection. 2. they didn't account for the late stage changes. They only tested it on people drinking water straight. Not people who only drink coffee or would eat it in soup stocks. Suddenly you have horned up mutants running around trying to get freaky. 3. They should have tested how it effects fertility as it turns out it has a birth control side effect...oops.

3. In a surprising turn of events, the government actually begins encouraging more access to birth control, including a new one for women that takes away periods completely, while also loosening restrictions/legalizing sex work, and teaching some actually useful sex ed at school. Suddenly the birth rates seem to start going up..but no one can find the parents. Turns out some shenanigans have been played. The new birth control for women involves egg extraction and the condoms and disposable sex toys for men have been altered to keep sperm alive long enough to be picked up by collectors who take the eggs and sperm and with the use of artificial wombs have been making batches of bastards. Now, i don't know how to make the reveal erotic aside from just showing a society where everyone has guilt free sex not knowing their material is being used to make babies.

 

[CuttingEdge]

The ironic part is, to be very effective a government would not have to focus on procreation at all, but rather on the result of it.

If they had cute babies just about everywhere people looked like in the backgrounds of car commercials, food commercials, travel destinations, etc; cute babiness everywhere in other words, the increase in real babies would be proportional.

I know every time my girlfriend sees a baby, she mentions us having one.

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love kids, but every time you have one, it resets that clock. As empty-nesters, I am very happy where I am in life.

 

[000zing]

I know every time my girlfriend sees a baby, she mentions us having one.

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love kids, but every time you have one, it resets that clock. As empty-nesters, I am very happy where I am in life.

So there's an idea in itself. I won't call yours a selfish attitude but it may have consequences at your individual level and it certainly will at the level of whole populations.

Women whose partners refuse to accede to their natural procreative urge would be offered by the government immediate and free help to find a more sympathetic/obliging male. Ditto males. Perhaps the two would be able to join with each other permanently via government-funded dating sites or counselling services to form new, more fulfilling relationships, instant, no-fault divorces being granted where necessary. Similarly where the biological "problem" lies provably on one side or the other.

I suppose people who get together don't always ask all the questions they should ahead of doing so.

 

[Rob_Royale]

We could take it in a dystopian direction with a bit of Logan's Run or The Island spin on it. The most fertile people with the best genes (looks, intelligence, health, athleticism) are gathered up and kept in an "Eden". An island paradise, where they are taught to build a productive society and encouraged to love one another in an open and free manner. Perhaps they are fed a mild aphrodisiac.

What the residents don't know is that while they are sleeping, medical tests are run and once a woman is pregnant she is monitored closely. Once her child reaches the fetal stage, it is removed from the mother and placed in gestation pods that are sent away. People who produce superior genetic material are kept, but those who do not are "moved" onto another island as a "reward". Insert a Soylent Green idea here.

 

[Reenigam]

It depends on the desperateness of the situation and the degree of panic in the authorities, as to how far this could go.

Perhaps some kind of lottery would be proposed where women in their forties and considering themselves past childbearing would be selected to produce "One More Child" for the good of society. Refusal to participate would presumably attract some kind of deterrent penalty.

 

[CuttingEdge]

So there's an idea in itself. I won't call yours a selfish attitude but it may have consequences at your individual level and it certainly will at the level of whole populations.

I understand for sure, it's just that I am not really selfish. I have raised six kids, lost my last baby to being a still-born, and been a foster parent to abused kids for many more, so at age 49, I am ready for life to slow down. We did talk about adoption; enough so we contacted the local adoption agency, but then decided it might be too much. I'm on call 24/7/365 due to my job...

I grew up in a foster/adoptive home though, so I am sensitive to that, and almost all the non-erotic, mainstream novels I write, are about adoption/foster care kids.

 

[SteelPoint]

It depends on the desperateness of the situation and the degree of panic in the authorities, as to how far this could go.

Perhaps some kind of lottery would be proposed where women in their forties and considering themselves past childbearing would be selected to produce "One More Child" for the good of society. Refusal to participate would presumably attract some kind of deterrent penalty.

Yes, it's a matter of perceived urgency/emergency.

Turn the screw a bit tighter and you could end up with all kinds of things. Singles being forced to live together. Social housing available only for those willing to produce more kids than they have at the time of the tenancy signing. Actual tax and other penalties against childless couples. Stick and carrot.

I'm not sure that, here, we're actually in the outlandish realms proposed in the fantasy merchants' stories - i.e. those who are unable or unwilling to base matters in foreseeable reality. Cross over that galaxy-far-far-away line and you're into "legal rape days", "enforced pregnancy for those whose surname starts with G", "sex-with-a-stranger centres" and, yes, the likes of Logan's Run etc.

 

[Reenigam]

Possibly, to get into the genuine erotic possibilities, you do have to turn that screw! Otherwise this is just a social trends/demographics discussion.

 

[lanceGibs]

Time to have an international AI assisted Eugenics plan

 

[Lube_it_up]

First, let's talk about what might or might not actually work.
In some fascist country (I think it was Italy, but I can’t vouch) women were literally fined for not being pregnant. But that didn't improve the situation much.

They actually enforce anti-discrimination laws against pregnant people, there won't be a need for a lawsuit, if you fire someone or don't hire them because they are pregnant, you will get chucked into a black site and pay the victim a hefty fine

I don’t know where you are, but in many countries it is, if a woman becomes pregnant, she cannot be fired and she goes on vacation paid by the state. And it does not work, women are simply hired less.

What really works is pro-conservative values. In the United States, the category of the population that reproduces the fastest is the Amish. Israel has Orthodox Jews.
If we talk about more fantastic options, then the problem of fertility will probably be solved by artificial wombs. The state simply sends an order for 100K new citizens and the plant takes over the execution.

Now let's move on to the more fun part.
The first thing that comes to my mind is the work of the artist ha ku ronofu jin. These drawings are about women in difficulty and some are based on the risk of unwanted pregnancies. "If she fails the test then her pussy will be pumped full of cum and she will be locked up for 72 hours" This is not directly stated anywhere, but it is understood that after 72 termination of pregnancy will be difficult.
Here is an example
')">
Cum drips from the ceiling, if the sperm gets through the grate it will be pumped into her pussy. Therefore, she is forced to stop the sperm with her body.
It can also be a TV game show with a chance to win money and a high risk of getting pregnant.

 

[Lube_it_up]

Okay, I don't know what happened, I tried to hide the picture under a spoiler.

 

[000zing]

I'm not sure, but I think it might actually be quite interesting to know what you're trying to say in these last two posts...

 

[000zing]

Time to have an international AI assisted Eugenics plan

Need eugenics come into it?

 

[bestkeptsecret678]

With family size plummeting, the government decides to encourage extra-familial reproduction. They create a chain of Ethical Adultery Parlors, where couples who are not married to each other (they can be married to others) are paid a small honorarium to have sex with each other. If the union produces offspring, they are each give a large bonus check. The child becomes a ward of the state.

So now every horny single person, and unfulfilled married person, is scrambling to find someone who wants to earn a few bucks on their back (or on all fours or whatever). Young couples struggling to make ends meet are hooking up with friends, neighbors, and perfect strangers to bring a few extra shekels into the household cash flow stream.

Last year I wrote a prologue to a story about a worldwide, pandemic-triggered fertility crisis. I’m happy with what I have, but done right, it’s an ambitious project accounting for societal, personal and governmental reactions to the situation; and that’s before meaningful erotica. So, no further progress.

With family size plummeting, the government decides to encourage extra-familial reproduction. They create a chain of Ethical Adultery Parlors, where couples who are not married to each other (they can be married to others) are paid a small honorarium to have sex with each other. If the union produces offspring, they are each give a large bonus check. The child becomes a ward of the state.

So now every horny single person, and unfulfilled married person, is scrambling to find someone who wants to earn a few bucks on their back (or on all fours or whatever). Young couples struggling to make ends meet are hooking up with friends, neighbors, and perfect strangers to bring a few extra shekels into the household cash flow stream.

Last year I wrote the prologue to a story about a worldwide, pandemic-triggered fertility crisis. I’m very happy with what I have, but done right, it’s an ambitious project to account for societal, personal and governmental reactions to the ensuing worldwide shit show; and that’s before adding meaningful erotica.

So, no further progress. But someday …

 

[LiverpoolMaster]

Last year I wrote a prologue to a story about a worldwide, pandemic-triggered fertility crisis. I’m happy with what I have, but done right, it’s an ambitious project accounting for societal, personal and governmental reactions to the situation; and that’s before meaningful erotica. So, no further progress.

Last year I wrote the prologue to a story about a worldwide, pandemic-triggered fertility crisis. I’m very happy with what I have, but done right, it’s an ambitious project to account for societal, personal and governmental reactions to the ensuing worldwide shit show; and that’s before adding meaningful erotica.

So, no further progress. But someday …

Sometimes one can get carried away by the setting premise! Especially for something like a short story, this is actually risky and you can end up with a greatly detailed background accompanying an impoverished plot.

The skilled writer can 'suggest' the setting skilfully, perhaps with oblique references to it, without necessarily having to give a very lengthy chapter and verse laying out of the situation.

 

[AchtungNight]

I have a character who can’t get pregnant due to injury in her youth. As a result she’s extremely liberated sexually. However she also keeps the majority of her relationships short term off and on. She is focused on quality over quantity and has rules for what she will and won’t do. Plus the behavior motivation and martial arts skills to back them up. And the friends- who will become her family.

 

[bestkeptsecret678]

Sometimes one can get carried away by the setting premise! Especially for something like a short story, this is actually risky and you can end up with a greatly detailed background accompanying an impoverished plot.

The skilled writer can 'suggest' the setting skilfully, perhaps with oblique references to it, without necessarily having to give a very lengthy chapter and verse laying out of the situation.

Good points, which this novice writer appreciates. I should first decide if It’s going to be a short or lengthy work, which will guide how much to devote to what.

 

[SteelPoint]

I have a character who can’t get pregnant due to injury in her youth. As a result she’s extremely liberated sexually. However she also keeps the majority of her relationships short term off and on. She is focused on quality over quantity and has rules for what she will and won’t do. Plus the behavior motivation and martial arts skills to back them up. And the friends- who will become her family.

My highlights - I doubt that the two would be linked as cause/effect as you seem to imply! It may even be that most women in that situation are actually less than averagely liberated sexually. I see your point though and it's a useful background detail for your Judo Judith.

 

[AchtungNight]

My highlights - I doubt that the two would be linked as cause/effect as you seem to imply! It may even be that most women in that situation are actually less than averagely liberated sexually. I see your point though and it's a useful background detail for your Judo Judith.

Well she was raised by a hippie and the doctor who treated the hippie after she had to flee her commune due to assault. They were into polyamory but wanted any children they had to get into it legally by their own consent if they wanted it. And LBC (her initials) did. So being told “no sex with anyone else till you’re 18” and then being allowed to pick up the leader of a New Orleans biker gang after that rule was lifted might have also played a role.

 

[000zing]

Why stop there? You've forgotten to throw in an Indian snake charmer with one eye, a robotic arm, and a treasure map. Come on... you know it needs it...

 

[AchtungNight]

Sorry. I think it's weird enough the way it is. I got a snake charmer already. Metaphorical. Her first biker boyfriend is named Snake. Not into the other stuff, at least with this story.

 

[000zing]

Humour is lost on some people...