It seems like a stretch to claim that our population is going to zero the instant that exponential growth stops. There is nothing stopping the population from dropping to (for example) 4B and then start climbing again.
No one wants to have kids anymore
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Re: No one wants to have kids anymore
#52The only solution is to ban condoms. Will solve so many problems. Btw this article neglects to mention a very important feedback loop: less babies equals less economic growth, which equals less babies because it’s too expensive, which in turn leads to less economic growth and so on. Collapsing birth rates are a serious problem! You won’t notice until the country becomes a depopulated wasteland and then it will be too…
Considering that’s never actually happened it seems you have an unreasonable level of certainty about the outcomes.
People who don’t have kids don’t pass down their culture, which seems like an obvious feedback loop to keep things going. On top of this population declines have generally resulted in increased individual prosperity for hopefully obvious reasons.
Re: No one wants to have kids anymore
#53Kid-having emerges. This (western biased) article is blaming the victim. An entire generation bled dry by student loans for useless degrees, unable to buy homes that their elders view as retirement funds. A thousand and one more entertaining things to do online which don't risk creating 18-year bundles of debt. And absolutely no idea how to break the cycle for your offspring. Pick one thing to fix and spend your life…
The trouble is, the numbers just don’t support your hypothesis. Birth rates are falling in almost every country on the planet, however poor they are, however rich they are, however large student loans are.
This just isn’t the root of the issue. It’s pretty common knowledge that mostly the richer a country is the less babies it has.
So, maybe research what the actual problem is, before projecting your own views of society on this issue
Re: No one wants to have kids anymore
#54Re: No one wants to have kids anymore
#55> Don't fool yourself; we're not overpopulating ourselves to global economic and environmental meltdown; Yes we are. Yes. We. Are. Let it happen. I'll start panicking if the human population is still decreasing at 100 million. But for now, we are still growing.
I don't think the issue is the absolute number of humans but the ratio of young to old.
Re: No one wants to have kids anymore
#56Kid-having emerges. This (western biased) article is blaming the victim. An entire generation bled dry by student loans for useless degrees, unable to buy homes that their elders view as retirement funds. A thousand and one more entertaining things to do online which don't risk creating 18-year bundles of debt. And absolutely no idea how to break the cycle for your offspring. Pick one thing to fix and spend your life…
In India- or that subcontinent, people were majority in the very poor category. Only recently middle class grew, 20-40 years. What people did was buy homes and invest live savings to have a "permanant shelter over heads" for themselves and their families.
This is true for a lot of people so children when the start earning, "there is no rent to pay" which is a big savings considering.
On the other hand, you have "american dream" of kicking your kids out at 18 so the roof over heads analogy falls out the window.
I get it. Its fun, its freedom but at what cost? Apparently running your ass off to stay afloat.
Then there is this argument about "no opportunities in home town" but does this apply to 100% of 18 year olds in USA that they have to necessarily move out?
Re: No one wants to have kids anymore
#57I think it cliche to believe it's strictly a financial decision. In fact, in the West (afaik) the middle and upper class have a lower birth rates than those below them. Not to get subjective and fuzzy but children are a symbol of hope and promise. Any reasonable adult who is considering children has to ask themselve how to answer when the child asks, "Why? Why did you bring me into *this* world?" Who has a good answe…
My answer is that people brought other people into the world after the black plague, after world war 2, after Hiroshima, and I'm personally very happy they did.
The world has a lot of issues for sure, but it used to be much much worse, and despite many issues left and appearing constantly, I think we're still going in the right general direction.
There are challenges and obstacles today, there surely will be some in the future, but I'm sure we will prevail, and I for one am happy to be there and want to give this opportunity to someone else.
Re: No one wants to have kids anymore
#58I think it depends on culture for having/not having a kid.
In developing countries, the purpose as i see is mostly to have a child to take care of them when they get old, which seems wrong!
Re: No one wants to have kids anymore
#59In the UK I know a lot of people who can't afford decent housing, who can't afford weddings, who can't afford retirement, who struggle against a rent-keeping uber-efficient capitalist age to not live month to month.
Against this back drop a choice emerges: To take what little is left and use that to eke out some semblance of life, some work/life balance... that first they delay having children from their 20s to their 30s. Then when they arrived in their 30s they're still very much behind where they had planned to be (wars, Brexit, COVID, financial crashes, inflation, etc)... and they're either delaying to their 40s or just accepting now that this was not for them. They wanted a decent life, it included children... but in reality the economic reality and pace of life has precluded it.
I'm late 40s, that was my reality (further delayed start due to being homeless when younger and having an even worse starting point)... and I get it, it's hard.
Having children feels like something that has become the preserve of the wealthy or the poor, and if one wishes to achieve a betterment in your own lifetime - a social mobility, then you're likely choosing against having children. I've long accepted this, but once in a rare moon I get to just write it down like this as there's definitely shame involved at making those choices (and it's way worse for women who are constantly asked when they're going to have children, whereas men are mostly left alone on the subject).
Re: No one wants to have kids anymore
#60A word of advice to anyone on the fence about having kids: There’s nothing wrong with choosing not to have kids, but do yourself and consult with actual parents for what it’s really like to have kids. Articles like this one, which are written by someone who apparently has chosen not to have children, are almost universally terrible at representing the true experience of being a parent. Yes, being a parent involves a…
Having a kid is the most fun I’ve ever had. Used to go to raves, done bunch of crazy sexual stuff, as well as most drugs under the sun. There’s nothing close to chasing a toddler in a circle for an hour.