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almost any Western country That's a ridiculous overstatement. We live in Germany & have a lot of relatives in Austria. We have 2 kids & know lots of people in
by ido 6y ago
almost any Western country
That's a ridiculous overstatement. We live in Germany & have a lot of relatives in Austria. We have 2 kids & know lots of people in both countries with kids, it is very possible to have a decent life while having more than 1 child & earning median German/Austrian income (last I checked our household income is almost exactly at the 50th percentile for German households with 2 adults and 2 children).
I suspect the same is true to a lot of other western countries.
(this doesn't mean I'm otherwise of a different opinion than you regarding whose welfare to optimize - a state is for its people not its corporations)
- toxik 6y agoCuriously your anecdata does not change the fact that reproductive numbers are below replacement in basically every democratic market economy.
- ido 6y agoThe reason is not only - or even mainly - because people can't afford to have kids. In fact the poorer the country the more kids people tend to have. Surely people in poor countries can afford to have kids even less than people in rich countries?
- afthonos 6y agoTwo kids is still below replacement, which hovers, IIRC, around 2.1. Does the math still hold for 3 kids?
- ido 6y agoIf we really wanted to we could afford to have 4 as well. The reason we don't isn't money. Nevertheless OP made their claim about more than 0-1 kids, not >2.