this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2024
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It’s probably not selfishness, experts say. Even young adults who want children see an increasing number of obstacles.

For years, some conservatives have framed the declining fertility rate of the United States as an example of eroding family values, a moral catastrophe in slow motion.

JD Vance, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, recently came under fire for saying in 2021 that the nation was run by “childless cat ladies” who “hate normal Americans for choosing family over these ridiculous D.C. and New York status games.”

Last year, Ashley St. Clair, a Fox News commentator, described childless Americans this way: “They just want to pursue pleasure and drinking all night and going to Beyoncé concerts. It’s this pursuit of self-pleasure in replace of fulfillment and having a family.”

Researchers who study trends in reproductive health see a more nuanced picture. The decision to forgo having children is most likely not a sign that Americans are becoming more hedonistic, they say. For one thing, fertility rates are declining throughout the developed world.

Rather, it indicates that larger societal factors — such as rising child care costs, increasingly expensive housing and slipping optimism about the future — have made it feel more untenable to raise children in the United States.

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

I just downloaded the raw data from https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.CBRT.IN and ploted it in this graph for the countries I was interested in:

The USA is - according to the data - nothing special in this regard. It's even positioned best of all the countries with the flattest downwards curve. Just look at South Korea :D

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Wow, what happened to South Korea? I heard it was bad but I never realized they were worse than Japan.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It's a combination of many factors. It's so extremely expensive to have children here because of how the society is structured and how competitive everything is. If you can't afford to pay for after school for them to go to every day to and learn additional things they need but don't get tought at public school, they have no chance to get into a reasonable University and end up with a shitty life.

Another thing is the huge divide between men and women which is getting worse by the day. Men are bitching that women don't want to date and marry them while not helping with the children or house work at all. So women don't want to deal with all this shit alone and either get married to very rich guys who can provide a easy life for them or don't at all and concentrate on their career instead.

The government has poured in unbelievable amounts of money to try to fix it, but nothing is working so far.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I remember seeing a YouTube video that said South Korea's culture combines the worst parts of East and West. The impossibly high standards of perfection of the East and the crass consumerism of the West, where you must have the most expensive things and look like a movie star or you're looked down on. I don't know how true it actually is, though.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

When it comes to dating it is certainly quite true. One of the ways to get away from it is for men to find someone from a poorer Asian country and for women to also look even more west.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

They’re not. Higher birth rates are not better when population levels are as high as they are.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Worldwide population is different than the population of specific areas. The country will go extinct in less than 100 years if they continue this trend.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago

South Korea is also an interesting one because, IIRC, it's currently in the middle of a social upheaval over the treatment of women and there is a movement to avoid dating/relationships in general amongst younger women.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I wonder how much of this is caused by microplastics in testicles?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago

Probably very little because most of them who want children can get help by modern medicine.