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I'd say the explosion of mental health and anxiety is playing a huge part in it as well. My wife and I would have a child if we knew we were stable and able to

I'd say the explosion of mental health and anxiety is playing a huge part in it as well. My wife and I would have a child if we knew we were stable and able to look after them properly. Also, with the wars, global warming and everything else that's happening right now, why would you want to bring a child into this?

jimmyjazz14 4y ago
Well compared to the past we live in one of the most peaceful and prosperous times in human history one only need look at rising life expectancy to see that.
onepointsixC 4y ago
The world has never been more prosperous, safer, and more able to address the issues of its day, ever. Wars have been a near constant factor of human history for nearly all written history, and yet today we enjoy more peace as a species than any other era. In the past few decades we've seen extreme poverty decline dramatically. And we've never had so many viable options for decarbonization. When your parents had you, the world was decisively a worse place. Especially if you were born prior to 1989. Why wouldn't you want to bring a child into the objectively best times of human existence to date?
- jimmyjazz14 4y ago
  Its interesting that one of the most guaranteed ways to get down-voted online is to say the world isn't as bad as it seems, I would really like to understand the psychology behind that.
  - guerrilla 4y ago
    I think it depends on how you say it. Some people here are just gaslighting, while others are being insightful.
  - ryandrake 4y ago
    I think it's because comments like that are over-simplified and don't accurately describe the world as it is across the distributions of people. For a hypothetical "Worldwide Average Person," things are quite better today than at any point in history. There are a lot of people who were dirt poor yesterday and are now less dirt poor today. For a small number of very well-off people, things are exponentially better today than ever. But for a significant number of people who had it really good in, let's say the 1950s and 1960s, things are noticeably and measurably worse in all ways today. If you're one of these people, the "Well that average person over there in Indonesia is better off" argument isn't convincing.
arvinsim 4y ago
Sex isn't always about procreation.
vorpalhex 4y ago
Don't let the over-reporting of scary things throw off your actual perception of risk.
_fat_santa 4y ago
> Also, with the wars, global warming and everything else that's happening right now, My thinking is there will always be something. Our parents could have said the same thing about Vietnam and the Cold War. My litmus test is: "is this issue affecting you". Global warming and wars may make you anxious when reading the news, but does it _actually_ affect your life.
- arolihas 4y ago
  You can't just dismiss global events with long term consequences because they don't appear to have an immediate and direct impact on your life.
  - type-r 4y ago
    Disagree. I've found living this way is actually quite nice. What am I going to do about these "global events" anyway? I can't impact them so I don't see why I should worry about them. I'll just deal with their downstream impact and let others worry about the events themselves.
    - arolihas 4y ago
      You can do that but it's incredibly lazy and selfish. But hey if you don't care and you think you are that useless to the world, that's fine, there's no convincing you otherwise.
- guerrilla 4y ago
  Global warming will eventually effect everyone, which is the point. It's already effecting many people and people they know... That's a weird one to pick considering how much it already effect people and will definitely effect people in the future. The war in Ukraine is also massively effecting us when it comes to energy prices and a large component of the remainder of the inflation (partly hard scarcity in many commodities and partly due to uncertainty.) This is the weirdest comment, like you're totally out of touch with what's going on somehow...

jimmyjazz14 4y ago

Well compared to the past we live in one of the most peaceful and prosperous times in human history one only need look at rising life expectancy to see that.

onepointsixC 4y ago

The world has never been more prosperous, safer, and more able to address the issues of its day, ever. Wars have been a near constant factor of human history for nearly all written history, and yet today we enjoy more peace as a species than any other era. In the past few decades we've seen extreme poverty decline dramatically. And we've never had so many viable options for decarbonization. When your parents had you, the world was decisively a worse place. Especially if you were born prior to 1989. Why wouldn't you want to bring a child into the objectively best times of human existence to date?

jimmyjazz14 4y ago
Its interesting that one of the most guaranteed ways to get down-voted online is to say the world isn't as bad as it seems, I would really like to understand the psychology behind that.
- guerrilla 4y ago
  I think it depends on how you say it. Some people here are just gaslighting, while others are being insightful.
- ryandrake 4y ago
  I think it's because comments like that are over-simplified and don't accurately describe the world as it is across the distributions of people. For a hypothetical "Worldwide Average Person," things are quite better today than at any point in history. There are a lot of people who were dirt poor yesterday and are now less dirt poor today. For a small number of very well-off people, things are exponentially better today than ever. But for a significant number of people who had it really good in, let's say the 1950s and 1960s, things are noticeably and measurably worse in all ways today. If you're one of these people, the "Well that average person over there in Indonesia is better off" argument isn't convincing.

arvinsim 4y ago

Sex isn't always about procreation.

vorpalhex 4y ago

Don't let the over-reporting of scary things throw off your actual perception of risk.

_fat_santa 4y ago

> Also, with the wars, global warming and everything else that's happening right now, My thinking is there will always be something. Our parents could have said the same thing about Vietnam and the Cold War. My litmus test is: "is this issue affecting you". Global warming and wars may make you anxious when reading the news, but does it _actually_ affect your life.

arolihas 4y ago
You can't just dismiss global events with long term consequences because they don't appear to have an immediate and direct impact on your life.
- type-r 4y ago
  Disagree. I've found living this way is actually quite nice. What am I going to do about these "global events" anyway? I can't impact them so I don't see why I should worry about them. I'll just deal with their downstream impact and let others worry about the events themselves.
  - arolihas 4y ago
    You can do that but it's incredibly lazy and selfish. But hey if you don't care and you think you are that useless to the world, that's fine, there's no convincing you otherwise.
guerrilla 4y ago
Global warming will eventually effect everyone, which is the point. It's already effecting many people and people they know... That's a weird one to pick considering how much it already effect people and will definitely effect people in the future. The war in Ukraine is also massively effecting us when it comes to energy prices and a large component of the remainder of the inflation (partly hard scarcity in many commodities and partly due to uncertainty.) This is the weirdest comment, like you're totally out of touch with what's going on somehow...