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1. Embed this notice
   DarkAthena 🐝 (darkathena@beige.party)'s status on Friday, 19-Dec-2025 01:25:08 JST DarkAthena 🐝

   in reply to

   • Charlie Stross
   • Mr. Bill

   @cstross @bmacDonald94 I would love to move to Scotland!

   • Embed this notice
     Charlie Stross (cstross@wandering.shop)'s status on Friday, 19-Dec-2025 01:25:09 JST Charlie Stross

     Scotland has an aging population and a total fertility rate of 1.25—we need *either* a TFR of 2.05 *or* immigrant labour to retain a stable population, and without a stable population we face a grim future of diminishing economic output and a rising ratio of dependents (largely elderly and infirm) to workers.

     Nor can we breed our way out of this—it takes 20-odd years to manufacture a new worker that way.

     Opposition to migration is quite literally suicidal.
     https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGreens/115740600069197087

     Mr. Bill and Peter Krefting repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Graydon (graydon@canada.masto.host)'s status on Friday, 19-Dec-2025 18:40:35 JST Graydon

     in reply to

     • Charlie Stross

     @cstross This is also an argument for ubiquitous public transit; if you travel with some sample of the people around you, your "they look weird" reaction fades out.

     It takes a few years, but it does, and that's important. Otherwise you get people for whom no rational analysis begins to reach their "it looks weird, kill it" responses to unfamiliar people.