Yes, I know what people say. And they might believe it. It doesn't make it true. Or at the very least, it's _true_ in a very roundabout way.
Also, I believe that our culture of over-parenting (and therefore many of the associated costs) is a _consequence_ of having fewer children, not the cause. If you put all your reproductive eggs in one basket, you are motivated to overprotect them. That makes a culture of (at least from a historical perspective) insane parenting demands that simply don't scale.
> That if you forced a child on them they could actually suffer through it?
Absolutely, that’s how it always worked before we’ve had good contraception .
Sounds like you just want a serf class and fuck everyone else.
It is uncomfortable, deff more uncomfortable than saying "we're not having kids because we don't behave money" but if it's true, should we just brush it aside?
Yes, it was good for society (nowadays it would be oppressive and would be very bad). Is it good for these children to be born? Maybe, depends if you think living is better than never being born. Do I support policy of forcing people into having children? Absolutely not, I think it's terrible idea! But that's completely tangential - my point is that we've got large body of evidence that 1) surveys asking people why they don't have children are pretty much worthless; 2) economic factors do not matter that much.
> Sounds like you just want a serf class and fuck everyone else.
No, it doesn't sound like that, you are projecting something onto me.