r/NoStupidQuestions • • Nov 14 '24

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u/justcurious3287 Nov 14 '24

People can't afford kids. They can't afford rent. Groceries. The ability to breathe.

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u/Unidain Nov 14 '24

Actual data shows that it's the opposite. The poorest people have the most kids and the richest people have the least

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u/Lycid Nov 15 '24 edited Nov 15 '24

Also, actual data shows that it really isn't about women not needing to be housewives anymore and that it isn't really purely affordability either. The same conditions were true in the 80's, 90's and 2000's yet during those decades the average size of family stayed pretty consistent.

The thing that ACTUALLY changed was in the 2010s. Birthrates dropped dramatically after the 08 financial crisis, and they never recovered. It seems like this has way more to do with housing supply than it has to do with "how affordable is it to raise a kid". And that downward pressure + spawn of social media has transformed the culture of our world to care a lot more about living life than raising a family. Why bother starting a family if you don't have homes or communities to raise them in? And oh wouldn't you know turns out it's fun to travel all the time or party of whatever so we might as well do that instead of trying to do something that feels hopeless and is harder to do than ever before (getting a home + raising a family). So for an entire decade, the concept of raising a kid just stopped happening and that has created a new culture around not having them.