(I didn’t see any rules against purely text posts to stimulate discussion. But if this is against the rules, please let me know)
Some discussion if you’re unaware.
…conclude that “shifting priorities” about family, careers, and how to allocate one’s time and resources is the most likely explanation for the dramatic reduction in rates of childbearing seen among more recent cohorts of young adults. We have not found compelling data support for more readily observed (and potentially altered) policy or economic factors, like the price of childcare or rent.
So, is this a problem to you at all? If it is, then how would you address it? If it isn’t, is this a problem that can be addressed along with addressing what you believe is the greater problem? How?
Birth rate decreasing isn’t a problem, it’s a symptom of declining quality of life/access to resources.
Instead of unsustainably adding more people maybe we should worry about the damage an obsession with growth+profit does to the climate and social structure.
Specifically declining quality of life in regards to what is actually available as a potential quality of life.
Married couples making $45,000 a year both working full-time jobs and having capped out their potential income for the foreseeable future are not the kind of people who typically want to have kids.
On the flip side, in the middle class, married couples making $85,000 or $100,000 a year have a vast awareness of how little distance twice the income of their poor neighbors makes in their quality of life and are also starkly aware of how difficult things would be if a spouse had to stop working in order to raise the child, even for half a year.
Jobs not paying enough for a single person to support a family of three is the primary reason why people do not want to have kids.
Secondary to that is the extraordinary cost of owning a home. Most renters do not necessarily want to add a child into their one-bedroom apartment.