- Birth rates around the world – how far down the list is your first world country? Germany has an almost terrifyingly low birth-rate. I wonder why.
- I remain totally weirded out by Ning, even after their relaunch as a roll your own social network service I honestly have no idea why anyone would want this, and it makes me sad because I feel like I’m missing something quite profound. The benefit surely would be in overlapping social networks? In values in scale? I’m totally lost.
8 replies on “Links for 2007-03-01”
I spoke with Gina before their initial launch about a developer position. She is sharp, and of course everyone knows who Marc is, but to be honest I was a little skeptical about the concept. They seem to be doing okay, perhaps not up to the expectations of VC investors. They certainly have talent, David Sklar, among others.
“I honestly have no idea why anyone would want this”
Nothing profound to it. It’s simply a cheap way to start a network around your name, brand, website. The Cute Overload network is a good example. As is the CChits network which runs completely on this. Think wordpress only different.
The birth rates are interesting, but of course it is difficult to draw any conclusions without checking corresponding death rates and net migration rates.
As for the Germans, I suspect that the tight lederhosen have an effect on fertility.
I didn’t much of it either but thought I’d give it a go by setting a social network up for my old school rugby club. I didn’t really see what the interest would be – after all, why not use facebook or somesuch? – until I got to set my own questions. Only once I got to change the answer to the Sex : question to “Yes please” (and in so doing have an amazing moment of Wayne’s Worldness) did I get it? The service broke down as I tried to finish but I really do think it will be useful to stay in touch and get our fledgling team off the ground.
There’s quite a tight inverse correlation between education of women and birth rates essentially, the more educated a woman is, the more control she has over her own reproductive capacity, rather than delegating that control (through ignorance of an alternative) to her partner(s).
I guess that means that Germany is a pretty well-educated country.
There was a report I read recently that said Germany’s birth rates had risen 9 months after the World Cup. Maybe all they need is a few more of them and they’ll be right as rain again.
Regarding the German birth rates:
Unlike other European countries Germany has a really hard time supporting working women. This means that if you have a child, you endanger your career big time.
Add to this new job laws that force you into social security (plus make you drain all your savings first) after one year of unemployment it’s easy to see why no-one wants to afford the luxury of kids here.
DJ, Social security after one year of unemployment? What happens before that? Are these rules any tighter than those in the UK?