Fewer people are deciding to have children
abc7.com
abc7.com
https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2024/07/25/the-exp...
Some immediate things that jump out at me:
* Large rise/drop in those not wanting vs wanting kids since 2018 for the under-50 crowd (10% and 11%, respectively)
* 57% of the under-50 just don't want kids. The second is much the same ("focus on other things" 44%). You have to get to the third and fourth reason before external factors come in ("Concerns about the world" 38%, "Can't Afford" 36%) and "concerns about the environment" comes in a distant 5th at 26%
* Both under-50 and over-50 who don't/didn't have kids have very positive feelings about it, until it comes to interacting with friends with kids. A full third of respondents report positive job and career outcomes without kids.
* A whopping 2/3rds of over-50 have nieces and nephews, which fill the gap for kids.
* "About a third of older adults without kids say they, rather than a sibling, would provide more care for their parents."
* "78% of single adults under 50 who say they're unlikely to have kids report that this hasn't impacted their dating life."
I don't think the markets influence child rearing as much as the headlines say.
Being realistic, I like the idea of a family, but I don't want it.
I grew up poor without much in the way of parents. I'm now well off, but broken. For better or worse I've perfected self-sufficiency.
Were I to start a family, what follows is worse than where things are now. More neglect, anger, and frustration. The best thing I think I can do is stop the cycle.
It would be foolish pride or hubris to think I'd be a better parent. Others will have to create more worker bees.
I don't want to sustain this hive; it already failed me. Solid 1/5 star rating. It can burn. I'm playing through.
All of our data points in the opposite direction. The more wealth you have, and the more stability you have with government safety nets, the less likely you are to have children.
https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2024/07/25/the-exp... ("57% of adults under 50 who say they’re unlikely to ever have kids say a major reason is they just don’t want to; 31% of those ages 50 and older without kids cite this as a reason they never had them")
https://www.axios.com/2024/07/25/adults-no-children-why-pew-... ("Why more U.S. adults are choosing not to have kids: 64% of young women say they just don't want children, compared to 50% of men.")
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40982392 (Educated, empowered women have less children, have them later, or no children; citations within this comment)
Humans weren’t naturally designed to make that choice.