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Increasing the standard of living actually lowers the fertility. Everywhere! Not only in the capitalistic societies. Even in the Soviet Union the fertility star
by pi-e-sigma 3y ago
Increasing the standard of living actually lowers the fertility. Everywhere! Not only in the capitalistic societies. Even in the Soviet Union the fertility started to drop as the standard of living increased.
- CogitoCogito 3y agoCould just be another confounding variable like education, general cultural change, etc. I mean if “increased standard of living” meant “everything stays the same but taking care of kids is now easier” I would expect an increase in fertility. Obviously we shouldn’t simplify too much, but I don’t think increased standard of living alone makes much sense as explanation. I think something else is probably driving it.
- scarmig 3y agoIt depends not just on absolute level of ease but relative. Suppose having and raising a child takes some normalized 100 units of work and some basket of luxuries takes the same 100 units. Even if having a child drops to 50 units of work, if that same basket of luxuries drops to 25 units, you'll still see a decrease in fertility.