People from Africa do not care what you think. |
Who will take care of the aging boomers and GenX? |
Nope. I think that the idiots who overturned Roe v Wade didn't think about how that would affect people who might have been tempted to have children later in life or eventually changed their minds. |
Malaria, HIV, malnutrition, diarrheal disease, tuberculosis, and violent conflict cares. |
Why is this a bad thing? I’m not understanding? |
The Nordic birth rate rose in COVID and is still rising. |
My own children (early 30s) saying no. They don’t see anything good about raising kids. They enjoy their lives just as they are.
They’re not willing to sacrifice their lifestyle. At least they know this about themselves. When I had them it’s just what ppl did. Get married have kids. |
Becsuse it costs $3-4000 per mo for daycare, college tuition now almost runs $100k/year, homes cost almost $500k, a minivan for the kids costs $50k, healthcare sucks and bankrupts people, and oh yeah, even afyer paying all of that you're also still expected to save for retirement and pay off your own student loans.
Having children is the biggest financial disaster of a decision one can make. |
Do you ever deal in facts or just wishful thinking? Population has been exploding in Africa since the 90’s. |
People of child bearing years are worried about the environment and the impact having children will have on it. Or do not want to bring children into a world of severe climate change. |
+1 I think the economic factors are what prevent people from having more kids. They stop at 1, whereas if they were boomers or older Gen X in the 80s/90s they would have had 2 or 3. Economic factors also means that people get started having kids later because they just aren’t stable enough financially in their mid 20s, which also limits fertility because you just run out of time to expand your family. |
NP. It’s easy to overstate the positive impact of whatever things you “could” have done but never did. We all think like that whether we become parents or not. And except for an exceptionally small number of truly exceptional people, having kids is not going to get in the way of doing work that positively impacts the world. What gets in the way is the lack of support, affordable childcare and homes. |
It really is a huge pain in the ass most of the time to raise kids in 2024. Gone are the days of significant extended family support (whether logistical or emotional). It is impossible to "find a village" of non family support in a meaningful fashion because peers are in similar dire straits and we've all got our own battles.
As for hiring help, that is almost impossible too. No one wants these jobs of caregiving or after school nanny or driving kids around. And if you find that unicorn, can you afford to make it worth that person's while $$$$$ so that they take that job? Everything has just gotten so expensive, and many of it seems unnecessary (they're increasing prices because they can). It is now socially acceptable to just decide "no thanks" to both marriage and/or kids. Young people are opting out. They're seeing influencers on social media aggressively traveling, brunching every weekend, going to all the concerts and festivals, etc. You can't do that with kids unless you're rich rich rich in time and money. |
Africa, Pakistan, and a few others. They are still breeding like rabbits. US & EU? We are in rapid decline. Only illegal immigration is keeping us on an upward population track. |
NP. Where does this need to characterize "fewer children" as "everybody stopping having babies?" There aren't only two options. Some people can have no children, or only one child, while others have more if they chose, and the world will be fine. Humanity will be fine. Hyperbole isn't realistic. |