I'm not sure what is so puzzling. Having a child is a burden - both financially and bureaucratically. The financial part is obvious. The cost of raising a chil

I'm not sure what is so puzzling. Having a child is a burden - both financially and bureaucratically. The financial part is obvious. The cost of raising a child up to 18 is $250k at least. And that amount does not account for school district premiums, healthcare premiums or competitive coaching premiums. Add some job insecurity to it and you have the perfect storm of people not wanting too many dependents. And after all that work, what's waiting for the child? A life saddled with education and mortgage debt. Even well-intentioned parents feel terrible about the future of their children. But it is the second problem that is not talked about enough. Bureaucracy. In America at least, for every additional dependent, the healthcare bureaucracy burden is exponentially more. So is bureaucracy for documentation. So is bureaucracy for banks, food stamps, drivers license, leases/mortgages, cars. For every living individual, the parent is likely to deal with more and more elevator music on customer service or with dysfunctional systems. Having a child is a hassle and newer generations, especially millennials are sick of the hassle of living.