The truth about why we stopped having babies – The stats don’t lie: around the world, people are having fewer children. With fears looming around an increasingly ageing population, Helen Coffey takes a deep dive into why parenthood lost its appeal
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/babies-birth-rate-decline-fertility-b2605579.html
17 Comments
From the article
>And, though there might be issues that come with an ageing population, it’s also inevitable. “The UN said many years ago – and any demographer would agree with this – that ageing will occur no matter what,” says Skirbekk. “We are living longer.” This means a fairly rapid increase in the number of countries where more than half of the population is aged over 50. Societal adaptations will have to be made, but technological changes and automation could help fill gaps in an older workforce.
Next up – Population Enhancement Strategy, where we take donated sperm/eggs and produce children in Labs that will be raised by the state and released into the general population.
Hollywood isn’t too far off the mark on this one.
To me, it’s because I can’t seem to find anyone willing to think beyond two days in the future anymore. Really prevents any kind of real long term commitment orientated planning like the 18+ years it takes to raise a child for example.
Isn’t this what they have been preaching since the 70s in college? It’s happening let it happen.
My thing is, I simply don’t want kids. Seeing all of the places I played as a kid turned into strip malls, generic office buildings and McMansion hell subdivisions had more to do with it than my finances. We’re increasingly seeing the negative relationship between population growth and future quality of life, and I just don’t want to make that worse for whatever kids do get born.
It took me until my 40’s until I was financially secure enough that I could do the things that societies want people to do in their 20’s as a rational financial risk. In other words, everything wasn’t perfect but it would not be irresponsible to proceed. I have generally earned more than the Median of my generational cohort.
I think where we really, really, really need to start putting in some economic study in is the decision to have children as it relates to “Housing/Healthcare/Education” as a basket of goods. Japan doesn’t have the Housing or Healthcare issue for example; but schooling can be questionable and ultra competitive. Poor countries generally have higher birthrates. However, those countries do not have the need for education/childcare that developed countries have due to their industries. This does not follow through though in times of famine. Famine depresses birth rates even in low-income countries.
So my current theory which I just don’t see study on currently is the idea that perhaps the Housing/Healthcare/Education “basket”, actually triggers famine like behavior amongst rational actors. It’s not a lack of desire overall, but the knowledge that thriving in a developed country requires specific things and if you can’t provide those things it’s not a rational/good decision to bring in a baby.
How many times do we have to teach you this lesson old man: People living paycheck to paycheck can’t add expenses. How much debt are the families who have kids they can’t afford racking up?
I don’t need an article saying what I can say in simple bullet points.
* No money
* No house
* No time
The article points out some country specific reasons, but here’s the big universal two.
>There are two broad trends at work here, according to Prof Sarah Harper CBE, a professor of gerontology at the University of Oxford. The first is an extension of something that started in Europe 250 years ago: “When you improve women’s education and healthcare, it reduces the number of children she’ll have. That’s a very good thing – more women being healthy, educated and having access to family planning.”>
>The other trend has happened more dramatically over the last 30 years, and is particularly notable in Asia and Latin America. This second fall in fertility, where we’re seeing birth rates below 1.5 children, “seems to be driven by different dynamics”, says Prof Harper. “Responses from young women are the same in Southeast Asia as in Europe: yes, women are saying there are economic issues, insecure jobs or challenges with affordable housing. But they’re also saying, ‘I’m educated and I understand that if I have a child that will change my lifestyle. I want to consider when I have a child’.” They might decide to stay child-free, to delay having their first child, or to only have one.
Repeat after me: poverty + unpredictable economy.
Can’t have a kid when you don’t own your house. The rents keep going up…for whatever the reason…’new bus stop near the building? that shit ain’t free, fool’, inflation is up, salaries are down, and the job market is a fuxking nightmare.
Want more? A good job is for nothing if next year an investment fund buys the company and starts “reducing costs” by firing people, cutting salaries and making it all a shit show.
Want a car? Fuck that…the upfront costs are high and then the maintenance is…hit and miss, with usually expensive parts…all on your dime.
Suuure…everyone will get into debt to buy a house, then have kid/s and then add more costs with food, schooling, medical care, clothing, transport…
Right…and now repeat after me: my life is nice and worth living…
One point I rarely see brought up is that the developed world has exceptional entertainment and leisure offered as a way to unplug from the pressures and stresses of life.
There’s media, gaming, accessible travel, hobbies for everything, endless food and drink for every taste, etc. and all of it accessible via our electronic and glass slabs.
I can see that even 75 years ago, life was boring and children added a spark or other avenue of diversion.
For better or for worse, developed nations have nearly perfected the dopamine drip and while it’s not socially accepted to say yet, a child free life is simply “more fun” than it has ever been and many couples don’t feel the need to create extra diversion as they once did. Couple that with their rising costs of raising a child to be successful and it becomes obvious why the birth rate is dropping.
I just want to live my own life. I have money, but I don’t think I’m psychologically capable of having children. It’s too much responsibility.
I want to live a peaceful life and travel around.
When women have options, many of them choose not to have children or to have fewer children.
No judgment is intended or implied.
Is it really any wonder why someone wouldn’t want to have a kid and then have them that they knowingly brought them into a future hellscape of a world where they can’t afford a house, high paying jobs not outsources to AI or impoverished countries are extremely competitive, healthcare is unaffordable, and the rich have stacked the game completely in their favor? Good luck.
Doesn’t make sense to bring a child into a world of wage slavery
These last 2 generations were the only ones who really knew how to use and had easy access to birth control education and contraceptives. Now that making a baby is a choice, it’s become an economical/sociological choice… which is just freaking bonkers to any generation before that. I didn’t have kids because I thought it was economically responsible or “this was the kind of world I want to raise kids in” it was because I didn’t know the pill was interrupted by antibiotics. Then I had a second kid because I’d always wanted 2 kids, and a third kid cuz my marriage was getting stale and she was getting stircrazy (spoiler alert, didn’t save the marriage). Everyone I know from my generation had kids because that was the expectation or the nuclear family was “the dream.” Never once did it even cross my mind to consider if politics and the state of the atmosphere were aligned in a way to make a baby make sense. That statement doesn’t even make sense to people over 40. To people who are 30, I’m irresponsible. This is why you see developed countries have lower birth rates. Jack and Jill living in rural nowheresville are having kids because they’re having unprotected sex and are less educated. Educated and well off enough folks get to make a choice and it is pretty much never going to make sense to have a kid.. I can tell ya tho with my anecdotal experience from my family and friends and the generations before us… you find a way to make it work. And it is work. If you want to just binge house of dragons and take your kid (dog) on vacation with you, having a kid isn’t a good choice and it never will be.
Maybe previous generations shouldn’t have set up our social systems like a pyramid scheme, depending on increasing pollution to remain solvent. They didn’t want to pay their fair share and assumed their scheme would work because of increasing population. Oops.