Formula technology also contributed at this time because mothers more quickly regained average fertility by 1-2 years.
What caused the 'baby boom'? What would it take to have another?
531–540 of 927 posts
Re: What caused the 'baby boom'? What would it take to have another?
#532My 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…
My mother was also the product of a failed abortion. Crazy to think how different the world would be. Now I have 8 kids!
Re: What caused the 'baby boom'? What would it take to have another?
#533Earlier quoted context omitted.
Abortions are not the primary reason why teen pregnancy is way down. There's actual data, you know. Fewer teen pregnancies is a reason why birth rates in the US are declining. But it isn't driven by abortion. And it is insane to me that I'm now seeing this "oh actually teen pregnancy wasn't so bad" thing pop up all over the place.
It’s strange to see that anecdote so highly upvoted when it’s so trivial to look at birth rates by parental age. Reduced teen pregnancies are not the driving factor in recent fertility rate declines at all. It is interesting how an appeal to emotion with a difficult story can lead so many to overlook the obvious shortcomings in that explanation. Honestly this entire comment section has a lot of people making guesses…
A minority of pregnancies end in a birth in nyc among black women. There are 70 million fewer Americans than otherwise.
Re: What caused the 'baby boom'? What would it take to have another?
#534Earlier quoted context omitted.
But people's anecdotes are part of their life experience. I trust my personal life experience over anything I read, and if I trust a person, I value theirs over anything I read too. That's just how humans are.
I get it, you like stories of individuals. We should figure out a way you can listen to more stories, so you can form an even better opinion! Perhaps we write them out, shorten them a bit. Or perhaps group them by similarity. And then if we count the types of story per category… and boom, we’ve invented statistics!
I know how to use statistics to tell nearly any story though, and I would love to trust statistics…
It has to do with unknown unknowns.
Re: What caused the 'baby boom'? What would it take to have another?
#535Earlier quoted context omitted.
> And it is insane to me that I'm now seeing this "oh actually teen pregnancy wasn't so bad" thing pop up all over the place. The other side of this is insane to me... the "oh actually looming human extinction won't be so bad" thing. Sub-replacement fertility rates are slow-motion extinction. Animal models where they "bounce back" is irrelevant, those animals have their extremely high above-replacement fertility all…
Looming human extinction? Bro, all you need to fix this "problem" in the West is more immigrants.
Immigrant countries are experiencing the same trend. Soon countries will be fighting for immigrants.
Re: What caused the 'baby boom'? What would it take to have another?
#536Earlier quoted context omitted.
it is heavily politicized, atleast for the forseable future, until society reaches a conclusion, people will lie with statistics, smear their opponents in discussion as bigots, sexists, whatever. But sooner or later it needs to be asked and acted upon. Should society structure itself to penalise abortions, and reward births of children. Did our old religious and conservative societies where parents and grandparents h…
When people feel the game is unfair, they quit. When the game is society, the society ceases to exist. It's wild that we find it harder to change the system than to walk away from it entirely. People opt out in a thousand small ways - refusing to have kids, refusing to participate, numbing themselves with distractions, or just mentally checking out. If the core pitch of society is "keep grinding or suffer," it’s not…
It’s symptoms all the way down. If the system decides it needs more births it will ban abortion, and that’s not a moral failure on the system’s part, it’s an indictment of the symptoms itself.
Re: What caused the 'baby boom'? What would it take to have another?
#537Earlier quoted context omitted.
Come on, you only ever stand to lose half your resources. Also you’re interacting with the wrong kinda lady my friend.
> you only ever stand to lose half your resources Not true. You can lose half your current assets easily, but possibly more. Then you likely need to pay alimony for many years, which if you add it up might be.. pretty much the other half, depending on the situation, and maybe much more. And that’s before talking about child support, which can be gamed, because they can argue for higher custody percentage in order to…
We've asked you before to refrain from engaging in gender flamewar on HN. Please cease from doing this now and make an effort to observe the guidelines, particularly these ones:
Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive.
Please don't fulminate.
Eschew flamebait.
Please don't use Hacker News for political or ideological battle. It tramples curiosity.
Re: What caused the 'baby boom'? What would it take to have another?
#538Re: What caused the 'baby boom'? What would it take to have another?
#539My 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…
Abortions are not the primary reason why teen pregnancy is way down. There's actual data, you know. Fewer teen pregnancies is a reason why birth rates in the US are declining. But it isn't driven by abortion. And it is insane to me that I'm now seeing this "oh actually teen pregnancy wasn't so bad" thing pop up all over the place.
> actually teen pregnancy wasn't so bad
I mean, it was a thing for most of human history. There’s a reason biology makes you capable of having children at a young age. Isn’t it kinda bizarre that we think it’s weird?