No one in a Western country is unable to afford children. What's happening is that they believe they can't afford children, but they are wrong.
People are happier and more content when they have more children. And the numbers, in terms of reported and assessed contentment are massive.
A lot of the “is it rational to have more kids” thinking relies on narrow versions of happiness and self-interest, rather than the broader definitions of happiness which people actually experience.
Regarding the issue of “whether you can provide” … it’s common for people to come to America from foreign countries with very large families. And they provide for their kids.
And the kids often do quite well.
The rational response for an individual or a couple is to not have kids. That's why we're seeing so many articles about "omg the birthrate!". People aren't having kids, it's too hard.
From a nation perspective, however, you will die out as a people if you have negative population growth. Immigration can boost the numbers for a while, but not forever. Especially not if you're also trying to keep the immigrants out as many conservative policies are.
So what is there to do? Governments need to make having children easier, if they want more children. If they do not in fact want more children, then all is good.
However the current economic policy is based on infinite growth. How are you going to infinitely grow an economy if you aren't producing more consumers?
Oh, and dating in the west is a complete game. The East usually go by family connections, but in the West it’s a game and the game got super harder with social media and unrealistic expectations.
So that’s a barrier too. I dunno, nothing feels normal anymore.
Personal anecdote - I want to do all these things, but holy shit did it get harder and weirder.
In the worst of the pandemic, I’ll adopt that it probably got legitimately harder, but that’s easing quickly now.
If you think buying a house is a prerequisite to having children, you don't know much about any past or current society.
I think what you mean is "I want to have kids and other US Tax Payers should pay for me to have them."
You get that college costs are out of control simply because there are too many people, right? There's too many people of college age. There's too many people for the jobs that don't need a degree, so now you need a degree, so now even more people need to go. And hey, the government passed a law so that you could borrow easily (so, hey, they are helping you out!), but that just means that more people can compete for places, driving prices up!
Or did you want the government to just help you and your kids out? Not sure what you're asking for here.
Or are you pointing out that social security, despite supposedly being a fund that I pay into to fund my retirement, is actually just a giant pyramid scheme.
And if you know its a giant ponzi scheme, then you are on the side of "everyone keep fucking to keep the ponzi rolling".
When the oil runs out, and the phosphate is gone, just remember that a few billion more kids and we'll be fine, right? Just keep fucking.