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Comment by pcthrowaway | Hacker News Reader

I wonder how much of this issue is due to our (enormous) amount of immigration, given that fertility rate has been below the replacement rate since 1970 or so

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I would have gladly had more kids if I could have afforded a place to put them. Do you know what a 3 bed condo costs in Toronto? It is financial suicide.

Less than in Vancouver. I have no kids and will never have any. I couldn't afford them if I wanted them

In my parents generation in communist Poland, people had 2-3 children families in flats no bigger than 500-750 sqft. When there's a will, there's a way, and people just truy wanted to have children back then. While nowadays, it seems that there's always some excuse in the way.

This. People lived more frugally, nearly never went on vacation, had very small cars.

Now it seems everything needs to be ready before having children: big house, big car, career.

Countries that have fertility rates below replacement should be encouraging immigration. Otherwise they're going to be facing some serious economic problems as their populations age.

some immigration is different than what canada is doing, which is mass immigration at a rate far outpacing most other countries. nearly 1/4 of canadians are immigrants, and we're allowing so many in per year that our housing and healthcare. Its too expensive to have kids for many young people - I have friends who would like to have them but can't afford it.

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