Now, the dogs greatly outnumber the children. And the monthly rent (with no real physical improvements) is nearly 3x higher.
(Location - south-east Michigan, USA.)
(And that rent, woof)
Maybe, with regard to living in an area with/without kids around.
But for those who want to have children of their own...what I've heard from younger folks around here, that really does not look like an option anymore, unless you're in the 1%.
Another opinion is that children are a luxury good, not a necessity.
> If child free, you’re only vested in whatever it takes to get you to the grave comfortably
Aren't you saying the same thing as parent post? When someone's 60 to 80 years old, which generation is going to "to get them to the grave comfortably"?
Basic necessities like food, etc, no matter the current amount of automation to multiply outputs, you still need a baseline of working people.
If you have the resources, the support network, and the emotional aptitude, by all means, invest in having children. Even if you don’t enjoy the experience (the data shows a significant percentage of parents do not), society gets them as taxpayers eventually. But if you don’t, don’t. The data shows that if unintended pregnancies are avoided (about 40% globally annually, per the Guttmacher Institute and the UN) [2], the fertility rate will settle someone between 50-75% of replacement rate (2.1).
TLDR Optimize for your own happiness (“do no harm but take no shit”). Ignore peer and societal pressure. If that means not having kids, and that causes society challenges, that’s a society problem to solve, versus dumping that externality and reduction of agency, freedom, and options on individuals.