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> U.S. society has decided that it must be very costly for young women to have children—having children makes it very difficult to obtain the education and care
by balls187 11y ago
> U.S. society has decided that it must be very costly for young women to have children—having children makes it very difficult to obtain the education and career experience necessary to effectively support young humans.
Do you have children?
The challenges that are brought on by children aren't unique to the US. Getting an education and/or performing at a high-level at your job are very difficult to do if you are raising children. Doubly so for women who are typically the primary caregiver for infants.
- panglott 11y agoThe U.S., relative to Europe at least, has family leave policies and child care institutions that are uniquely bad for young families, especially families at the low end of the economic scale. Not that Europe has solved this either. A society that was organized to allow young people to complete their life cycle when they are most fertile would look very different indeed. There's certainly a tradeoff between investing in the human capital of adults vs. investing in the human capital of children. But the main coping method of young Americans is to delay childbirth as long as possible, which becomes a tradeoff between fertility and infertility.
- balls187 11y agoThere is more to life than one's pursuit of education or career aspirations. Europe has lower birth rates than the US[1], despite having more friendly vacation and parental policies. [1] http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/04/11/birth-rates-lag-in-europe-and-the-u-s-but-the-desire-for-kids-does-not/ http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/04/11/birth-rates-...