Last week, everyone was rather puzzled with an Economics lecturer's statement, calling on today's Maltese child-bearing generation to bring at least three children into the world, lest we witness our own population's decline.

Perhaps the good economist might be correct to make such a claim, based on a basic crunching of numbers. In fact, she warned the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality she was addressing, that even if this call materialised today, it would take at least two full generations, or sixty years for the trend to be sufficiently reversed.

Patri, filiu, spirtu s-santu, my devout grandmother would say in a rather unamused tone! So, this is seriously what we have come to now. This is what the disaster we have been witnessing and discussing, and warning about for the past years has boiled down to.

The bill has been added up, placed on a beautiful silver platter, and served to none other than who? The younger generation! "Sorry kids, we have made a terrible mess of things, my dear younger generation! Time to foot the bill now! Please procreate as much as possible!"

It is quite absurd that in 2025 we have come to this. We have made a mess of the economy and our economic model so badly, that now we are expecting our upcoming generations to fix it for us.

Of course, our population is in sharp decline. In fact, we have been shipping in economic migrants by the planeload to feed the enormous monster that we have created. But do we stop to ask ourselves why perhaps we are having fewer children than our parents or grandparents did?

It is rather obvious to anyone that raising children has always been a task and a half that requires substantial resources. In today's circumstances, when a bed and roof is not all that is necessary to give a dignified life of opportunity to one's offspring, it has become incredibly much harder.

Can we start to imagine where these five-person families will live? Three-bedroom apartments are now considered a luxury, and our young families are being pushed by the market towards studio flats or two-bedroom apartments at the very best.

Let alone ever imagining having a yard or a garden - something most of us grew up having, where we played, let off steam, let our imaginations run wild and built bonds with siblings, cousins and friends.

I think our younger generation are much more intelligent than we sometimes give them credit for. They are possibly the best-informed generation in human history and though they might appear to be lost watching tiktoks over their lattes, they might have a lesson or two to teach us.

In fact, Gen X might be the first generation who is actively unsubscribing from the established economic model, choosing to create their own fortunes and even venture beyond our shores.

They know that they don't owe us anything, no less to procreate as some sort of obligation towards humankind.

We should ask our young why they are choosing a certain lifestyle and why they are making certain choices. We might learn a thing or two and perhaps, through their unbiased, unfiltered views, could learn more about what's wrong with the society we have built, and perhaps start reversing the toxic trends we have created.

But this is much more complicated than just saying, 'have three kids, kids!'

Alexander Mangion is Deputy Mayor of Attard