[deleted]
US Births Dip to 30-yr Low; Fertility Rate Sinks Further Below Replacement Level
81–90 of 434 posts
Re: US Births Dip to 30-yr Low; Fertility Rate Sinks Further Below Replacement Level
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
Immigrants to the US have the same level of college completion as natives: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/05/03/key-findings...
Illegal immigrants usually do not (under the table, off the books unskilled labor), and are in the US in large numbers (millions). Not a sleight, just facts.
I don't know that I would claim either of these things off-the-cuff in response to a post citing the ACS.
Re: US Births Dip to 30-yr Low; Fertility Rate Sinks Further Below Replacement Level
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't see the value in large numbers of unskilled workers entering the US every year. With a potentially large wave of automation coming, the US shouldn't straddled itself with lots of unemployable drivers, farm workers, etc. I hope we can move to a much more sensible immigration system, similar to Canada's, for example.
Europe did the same in importing large numbers of Muslim laborers after WW2. The hope was that they'd either make their money and go back home, or culturally integrate. Many observers will say that neither happened and there's now a difficult social problem in many countries like France.
America integrated large immigrant waves in it's past, and I doubt anyone would say the Italians, or Irish, or other minorities were not integrated today. Time bridges cultures, and we're the better for it.
Re: US Births Dip to 30-yr Low; Fertility Rate Sinks Further Below Replacement Level
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
Immigrants to the US have the same level of college completion as natives: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/05/03/key-findings...
I'm amazed at how skewed South / Central America is to all other regions!
They're the closest. For the other's it's a major investment to move so far.
Re: US Births Dip to 30-yr Low; Fertility Rate Sinks Further Below Replacement Level
#85For decades, the US birth rate has been held up by immigration. American values have been to regard the country as a nation of immigrants, who not only act as a source of youthful workers, but also have more kids than Americans who have been here longer. So the US has avoided workforce aging, as has happened in parts of Europe and especially Japan, through immigration. With the recent reduction in immigration, accele…
Why is it that birth rates have gone down though? Many factors, mostly economic, which should be addressed instead of importing millions of people who will soon be replaced by automation anyways.
Re: US Births Dip to 30-yr Low; Fertility Rate Sinks Further Below Replacement Level
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
They also did so in an environment where childcare was free (Because grandma was doing it for you.) Most people don't live with grandma anymore, and the government will happily take your children away if you don't keep every second of their lives supervised by an adult, prior to the age of 13.
There are more grandmas alive than ever in past. What is stopping you from doing it now ? Go live with grandma.
Grandma is either still working or far too busy living her own healthy and active life to want to be an unpaid full time nanny.
Re: US Births Dip to 30-yr Low; Fertility Rate Sinks Further Below Replacement Level
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Student loans, housing costs, job prospects, healthcare, childcare. People are making a rational decision to avoid children they can’t afford. Well, people in the US made way more children when they made very few money, and lived 10 together in tiny houses and apartments. And they still do in the developing world. So it can't be just costs.
Costs in terms of time and money. In the past, kids could work on the farm or in a factory and generate money, now you have to send them to daycare and buy them toys and they cost money. Previously, more people would jump straight out of high school into blue collar jobs and raising families. Now, men and women are delaying kids to focus on college and building a career. And mothers would more often stay home to rais…
In the past, kids were essentially indentured servants/slaves in other words.
Re: US Births Dip to 30-yr Low; Fertility Rate Sinks Further Below Replacement Level
#88Student loans, housing costs, job prospects, healthcare, childcare. People are making a rational decision to avoid children they can’t afford. We as a society need to re-examine the causes of rising costs of essentials so reproduction is no longer financially infeasible.
Exactly. If you think about it, most species reproduce when resources are abundant, and stop reproducing when resources become scarce. That's basically what is happening to young people here.
but the scarcity here is artificial, induced by unfairness in economic opportunity in spite of more than abundant resources economy-wide.
if we had a more fair economic system, more families would feel economically secure enough to have children.
the minimum level of economical security required rises proportionally with wealth and income disparity, because our economic outcomes are inextricably tied to each other through inflation and the like.
Re: US Births Dip to 30-yr Low; Fertility Rate Sinks Further Below Replacement Level
#89Student loans, housing costs, job prospects, healthcare, childcare. People are making a rational decision to avoid children they can’t afford. We as a society need to re-examine the causes of rising costs of essentials so reproduction is no longer financially infeasible.
In general, the richer someone is, the less likely they are to have as many children. See https://www.economist.com/node/21561112 .
I have to wonder if there's a dip around the upper middle/lower upper who, because of price discrimination on college costs and such must still be conservative, that then reverses course for the mid to upper upper, who have wealth in excess of any reasonable pattern of consumption and certainly more than enough to raise many children.
I know that my plan is two max at the moment strictly because total cost per head is roughly $500k in today's dollars (including total private college costs, which account for half of that).
Re: US Births Dip to 30-yr Low; Fertility Rate Sinks Further Below Replacement Level
#90As half of a thirty somethings couple that wants children but can’t afford the financial implications in the Bay Area, it seems pretty clear to me why fertility is down.
Well, you could of course move but in the end it is mostly about priorities.
Going from expensive area with good job market to slightly less expensive area with little to no job market. Rrright.