Live data from Hacker News

What caused the 'baby boom'? What would it take to have another?

derekthompson.org

361–370 of 927 posts

Re: What caused the 'baby boom'? What would it take to have another?

#361

The tiny period of time that allowed some men in the wealthiest parts of the world to purchase property and support a family of 4+ on a single salary was an anomaly. It was a macroeconomic fluke, forever lost to the specific place and time that allowed it to briefly flourish. There's a chance a highly-automated future could reduce our neccesary working hours to those boomtime levels. But the one thing that will absol…

It's only a fluke because we've allowed the resources that once enabled this period to accumulate at the top so that it's not feasible on a broad scale any more.

Re: What caused the 'baby boom'? What would it take to have another?

#362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In modern relationships, men just want to work and come home to a cooked meal and clean house As a man in a "modern relationship" I strenuously object to this. I mean yeah I want that (who wouldn't?), but I know I'm not going to get it because my partner has a job too so we have to help each other. Literally every one of my married male friends also regularly cooks and cleans.

Many men advocate for an equitable household. But the stats are clear. Women still perform substantially more labor at home than men do across the US population.

[citation needed]?

A very cursory Google of this nets me a Pew study; the stat we're looking for is:

> fathers’ overall work time (including unpaid work at home) is actually two hours more than that of mothers.

> Women still perform substantially more labor at home than men do across the US population.

This is a different claim. (A household could be equitable — both partners performing roughly the same amount of work —, even if the amount of at home labor is performed more by one person. I.e., the traditional arrangement. The question of whether the traditional arrangement is equitable is fair, and that's why I link the Pew study, seems about as close as I'm going to get.)

[1]: https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2013/03/14/chapter...

Re: What caused the 'baby boom'? What would it take to have another?

#363
post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that you're right and that this is one of the predominant reasons for declining child births. I think that if I were a woman that I would personally choose career or personal life first before having children, all other things in my life held equal. I have a lot invested in those things, they're here and tangible, and they bring me joy. Media says that it's the economy, but I've never once believed that to be…

Yeah, drives me crazy when governments are trying to lower the cost of childcare with tax incentives or creating dating apps to encourage connectivity. Yeah, this might convince some people, but money is not preventing educated women from having kids. My 31-year-old ex-girlfriend told me she needs a high degree of career stability, especially after recently losing her job. Even if she landed a new role quickly, it of…

Burn the grind from 18-25 or so, saving everything you can, and around 25 switch to WIC and EBT and all other subsidies you can find, and make them babies!

(It’s an actual if accidental strategy employed by some).

Re: What caused the 'baby boom'? What would it take to have another?

#364
post #360

Even a stable population can't mean it can never shrink. A long-term stable population means that sometimes it grows a bit over a period of decades, and sometimes it shrinks a bit over a period of decades. Overall long-term it roughly stays the same, but short-term it doesn't necessarily. The baby boom caused huge problems down the line: now we have an elderly population with proportionally a relatively small working…

I mean we know how to solve it. Increase/Apply taxation on wealth.

Re: What caused the 'baby boom'? What would it take to have another?

#365

My anecdotal experience, which illustrates how changing societal norms may be contributing. Around 1960, my grandmother scandalously fell pregnant with my mother in her late teens. The child was adopted out - well, not out - in. To her own grandmother, to be raised as a "younger sister" to her own mother. Around 1980, my mother scandalously fell pregnant with me, in her late teens. Despite family disapproval, the chi…

I'm not sure this scans really because teenage births as well as teenage pregnancies enjoyed a local peak around 1990. There certainly was not a general pan-American societal instinct against teenage births at that time. The rate has fallen by more than 75% since. Even the mother-under-15 birth rate in 1990 was ridiculous (about 10x more than today, in most states).

The local peak around 1990 was a very small bump from the flat run through the 1980s, and was probably a brief rebound effect of the extreme negative social pressure related to unprotected casual sex stemming from the AIDS crisis fading a bit as that became perceived as less acute of a threat, and there numbers dropped rapidly after that peak, quickly going through the floor they had settled in during the long flat period preceding the brief rise and peak.

So it is not at all inconsistent with a strong social force against teenage births existing and being acted on in the late 1990s, in fact, had that not existed the rise up to the 1990 peak would probably not have been so brief and followed by a rapid drop that went straight through the preceding floor.

Re: What caused the 'baby boom'? What would it take to have another?

#366
post #6

What 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.

Then we haven't had a stable population in several centuries, because it was rapidly growing.

Yet we have made (hopefully this is not contentious) great strides in technology, human rights, and general quality of life.

Certainly there were some stable societies in that timeframe?

Re: What caused the 'baby boom'? What would it take to have another?

#367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> From everything I hear, being a mom is pretty awesome and rewarding. Then you don’t even read magazines , let alone mom forums, or attend playgroup, or basically hear anything.

[flagged]

Here’s the key to understanding-ask what they would change and it’s usually something kid-adjacent but not directly kid related.

For example, grocery pickup at Walmart has been the best gift to mothers since disposable diapers.

Re: What caused the 'baby boom'? What would it take to have another?

#368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many men advocate for an equitable household. But the stats are clear. Women still perform substantially more labor at home than men do across the US population.

[citation needed]? A very cursory Google of this nets me a Pew study; the stat we're looking for is: > fathers’ overall work time (including unpaid work at home) is actually two hours more than that of mothers. > Women still perform substantially more labor at home than men do across the US population. This is a different claim. (A household could be equitable — both partners performing roughly the same amount of wor…

IMHO, many of the traditional unpaid labor tasks go towards maintaining the home (repairs, landscaping, car repairs, etc)z

In 2025, some of that labor is recaptured by the man, as that improves the value of the family home or cars.

Also, if your family chooses to rent (which seems to be a trend now for millennials), the man doesn’t have a lawn to cut or a car to fix.

Re: What caused the 'baby boom'? What would it take to have another?

#369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In modern relationships, men just want to work and come home to a cooked meal and clean house As a man in a "modern relationship" I strenuously object to this. I mean yeah I want that (who wouldn't?), but I know I'm not going to get it because my partner has a job too so we have to help each other. Literally every one of my married male friends also regularly cooks and cleans.

They are married though. A bunch a guys stand no chance of being or staying married because they just don’t offer what it takes

Meh, I’ve never met a man who was incapable of doing what it takes. It’s not rocket surgery. Just mostly don’t be a dick and treat your wife how you’d want to be treated. If there’s anything more to it please let me know (for the sake of my marriage)

Re: What caused the 'baby boom'? What would it take to have another?

#370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I honestly don’t know how you can say this. When my son was born, we were asked enough times about circumcision that it seemed like a battle to get to “no”. (USA) The system has a system and a narrative. If you’re working against the narrative you have to be very prepared.

> I honestly don’t know how you can say this. When my son was born, we were asked enough times about circumcision that it seemed like a battle to get to “no”. (USA)

Also USA but opposite experience: They asked about circumcision as a checklist item but there was absolutely no pressure at all.

It could have been a location specific culture thing, or you might have mistaken their routine checklist as pressure. Hospital personnel get blamed if parents go home without being offered all of the services, so they’re under pressure to make you aware of it and confirm your no.

Post reply on HN