The Mating Crisis Among Educated Women

It's Wikipedia makes the claim, not I :-)

Where I think this will go is pretty easy, as it happens already among the less-educated.

Women will select a mate based more on looks than money, have a kid or two, then divorce him (aka "starter marriages".) Child support from the male will probably not matter for women who make enough money, but might still be a useful tool to keep the ex-hubby in line.

This is probably a simpler, if more cynical, means than freezing ova for the "perfect" man to fertilize.

And while men at the tippy-top might take a pass on divorcees with kids, for most men beyond a certain age, it's a fact of life, and frankly, we have decades of cultural brain-washing that makes such attitudes seem sexist.

It is about child support. For example from: https://www.therichest.com/expensive-lifestyle/money/outrage... "Actor, Eddie Murphy entered into a bitter legal battle with his ex-girlfriend, ex-Spice Girl, Melanie Brown. Brown gave birth to their child in 2008 after Murphy had broken up with her while she was five months pregnant. Murphy even had a DNA test completed in order to prove he was the father. In 2009, Murphy was ordered to pay $59,950 per month for child support and he agreed to cover any of Brown’s pregnancy expenses that she may have incurred."

So, US$60K per month for more than 20 years is about US$15 million. Not a bad return on one night in a bar (considering you can pay nannies to raise the kid and the spouse gets stuck for that cost too). Of course, it has to be the right (read rich enough) guy...

Of course, most child support may not be in that range, but it can still be substantial, and so more than a successful lawyer earns in 20 years of hard work and study after repaying expensive student loans.

Another quote from there may help clarify (obviously I am not endorsing this heartless gold digger strategy even if what this lawyer says may be true economically): "A divorce litigator put it a little more simply: "There is no reason for a woman to go to medical school. If she wants to have the spending power of a doctor she can just have sex with three doctors." (see the Wisconsin chapter for how the arithmetic works out) In some states, though not Wisconsin, a plaintiff's own earnings or earning potential can reduce the potential profits from child support. "A degree in poetry is a lot better than a degree in medicine when you're a child support plaintiff," observed one litigator, and added "for a woman with a functioning reproductive system, the decision to attend college and work is seldom an economically rational one in the United States.""

Is it that hard to to imagine three high-earning young male Googlers ending up in such a situation of supporting one woman with a combined Google-level salary in child support?

Perhaps another reason for a basic income (one which includes payment for children) is to change the divisive nature of child support litigation?

By the way, some related comedy from the 1960s (not quite the same idea but in that direction): "Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062767/reviews "[Gina Lollobrigida] plays the mother of the lovely Janet Margolin, whose American soldier father was supposedly killed during World War II [or so she was told]. The thing is, Gina isn't sure who the father was, since she was friendly with three soldiers at the time, (played by Peter Lawford, Phil Silvers and Telly Savalas), and all are very much alive. Each of the three thinks he is the father and has been financially supporting the girl in secret for over 20 years. Trouble and hilarity ensue when the three men and their wives return to the Italian village for an Army reunion, and Gina has to juggle all six of them while keeping her daughter from finding out the truth."

It's pretty late in the western world.