You would need an economy where the average man can work and provide a life for his stay-at-home wife to raise the 3-4 kids at a decent living standard.
What caused the 'baby boom'? What would it take to have another?
31–40 of 927 posts
Re: What caused the 'baby boom'? What would it take to have another?
#32What will it take to have a stable society that doesn't depend on indefinite economic/population growth?
At the very least, it would take enough automation such that the elderly don't need to either work or get wealth transfers from the working population to survive. Wealth transfers to the old only work when you have many more working-age people than retired people; if you don't, the whole thing implodes.
It would also take a society where people don't need investment appreciation to have enough wealth to live on, which again requires a much larger amount of automation and economic abundance than we have now.
It's not impossible, but it requires the kind of deliberate effort which seems beyond our political capabilities at the moment. The abundance people are at least aiming in the right direction though, hopefully they get more of a foothold.
Re: What caused the 'baby boom'? What would it take to have another?
#33Maybe it was the strange mix of capitalism and socialism that existed in America at that time? High taxes, high levels of investment and well paid public servants:
https://econreview.studentorg.berkeley.edu/back-when-america...
Re: What caused the 'baby boom'? What would it take to have another?
#34What will it take to have a stable society that doesn't depend on indefinite economic/population growth?
We certainly can't have a stable society with a rapidly shrinking population.
Re: What caused the 'baby boom'? What would it take to have another?
#35Re: What caused the 'baby boom'? What would it take to have another?
#36These studies never seem to look at time spent parenting, between baby-boom years and now.
My parents parented a few hours a week and were entirely typical. I parented ceaselessly, just like my parenting-peers.
My parents world was possible because kids roamed with peers (and without adults) for many hours a week. This was my childhood, my parents childhood, my grandparents childhood.
My kids grew up under 24/7 adulting, moving from one adult-curated, adult-populated box to the next. They are also typical of their generation.
Parenting and childhood are radically altered from the baby boom era. Our birth rates (and youth mental health stats) seem like a natural outcome of that.
Re: What caused the 'baby boom'? What would it take to have another?
#37What will it take to have a stable society that doesn't depend on indefinite economic/population growth?
It would take a TFR of 2.1, so depending where you live, a 40-250% increase in fertility.
There is no form of civilization that works with an imploding population and inverted demographic pyramid. Not even hunter gatherers could function like that
Re: What caused the 'baby boom'? What would it take to have another?
#38>What Caused the 'Baby Boom'? WW2 >What Would It Take to Have Another? WW3
It only happened after WW2 because the US came out of that war as the only untouched developed economy. A WW3 isn't going to leave anyone unscathed and would probably mean all-out nuclear war.
Did other countries, especially the ones that were ravaged by war, did they have baby booms? I'm curious now.
Re: What caused the 'baby boom'? What would it take to have another?
#39Re: What caused the 'baby boom'? What would it take to have another?
#40What will it take to have a stable society that doesn't depend on indefinite economic/population growth?
A stable population requires a fertility rate of about 2.1. It’s not about growth, it’s about stability of population at this point.
There's over 8 billion people, the population is exceptionally stable my friend.