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Fertility rate in the US is below replacement rate and falling, as is the rest of the developed world. It's a problem that across the world in cities with educ

Fertility rate in the US is below replacement rate and falling, as is the rest of the developed world. It's a problem that across the world in cities with educated populations, they are not reproducing at a sustainable rate. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/06/30/the-u-s-fertility-rate-just-hit-a-historic-low-why-some-demographers-are-freaking-out/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/0... > If too low, there's a danger that we wouldn't be able to replace the aging workforce and have enough tax revenue to keep the economy stable.

jchw 9y ago
The current economic systems seem to be built on the assumption of constant growth all the time always. If the population dipping for a while leads to economic despair, then fine, bring on the despair; it's GOING to happen.
soundwave106 9y ago
Well, what if our current economic structure in itself bears a fairly large responsibility for the declining birthrate though? It's something I wonder at times. Declining birth rates may not be a problem per se. But if they are, many economies I think need to adjust some of their policies. Certain countries seem to have paradigms that are not terribly friendly towards the idea of families and raising children. This paper (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4255510/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4255510/) identified some socioeconomic factors that might cause a delay of, or even outright rejection of, having children: Lack of affordable housing Lack of flexible and part-time career posts for women Lack of affordable and publicly funded (free) child care I'll add that education expenses are rapidly rising for some countries. Also, said career paths often come with a financial penalty for mothers (particularly for college women -- it is well known that motherhood in itself is a big reason for the pay gap between the sexes -- https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/13/upshot/the-gender-pay-gap-is-largely-because-of-motherhood.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/13/upshot/the-gender-pay-gap...). Small wonder that the birthrate is declining. In fact, in some countries, you might postulate that the economic system in itself is actually hostile towards having children.
- SketchySeaBeast 9y ago
  I'm getting married to my long term partner in a week, and that's the biggest things that's weighing on our minds. We both want to have children, but we live in a big city, just bought a house, and our economic situation is quite dreary. We'd like one of us to be able to stay home with the kid, but we just can't. Where I live a programmer isn't the best paid position, and both of our jobs are important to our financial success. It'll probably be a matter of getting back to the workforce as soon as possible, and that's really disheartening when you want to give the little one as much of a chance as you can.

jchw 9y ago

The current economic systems seem to be built on the assumption of constant growth all the time always. If the population dipping for a while leads to economic despair, then fine, bring on the despair; it's GOING to happen.

soundwave106 9y ago

Well, what if our current economic structure in itself bears a fairly large responsibility for the declining birthrate though? It's something I wonder at times. Declining birth rates may not be a problem per se. But if they are, many economies I think need to adjust some of their policies. Certain countries seem to have paradigms that are not terribly friendly towards the idea of families and raising children. This paper (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4255510/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4255510/) identified some socioeconomic factors that might cause a delay of, or even outright rejection of, having children: Lack of affordable housing Lack of flexible and part-time career posts for women Lack of affordable and publicly funded (free) child care I'll add that education expenses are rapidly rising for some countries. Also, said career paths often come with a financial penalty for mothers (particularly for college women -- it is well known that motherhood in itself is a big reason for the pay gap between the sexes -- https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/13/upshot/the-gender-pay-gap-is-largely-because-of-motherhood.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/13/upshot/the-gender-pay-gap...). Small wonder that the birthrate is declining. In fact, in some countries, you might postulate that the economic system in itself is actually hostile towards having children.

SketchySeaBeast 9y ago
I'm getting married to my long term partner in a week, and that's the biggest things that's weighing on our minds. We both want to have children, but we live in a big city, just bought a house, and our economic situation is quite dreary. We'd like one of us to be able to stay home with the kid, but we just can't. Where I live a programmer isn't the best paid position, and both of our jobs are important to our financial success. It'll probably be a matter of getting back to the workforce as soon as possible, and that's really disheartening when you want to give the little one as much of a chance as you can.