3 ms·

That comment isn't in the spirit of the "Eschew flamebait." part of the HN guidelines.

Trasmatta 1y ago
It's not flamebait, it's a legitimate observation. With rising costs of living everywhere, it seems highly likely that the church's tithing policy is a major contributor to lower birth rates for its members.
- tredre3 1y ago
  Tithing is 10% of your income. If you make 50k/yr, that's 5k/yr. Is 5000/yr the main thing that stands between people and having children? That doesn't seems very highly likely to me.
  - Trasmatta 1y ago
    If you have a bunch of kids like the church wants and are living paycheck to paycheck (like most people in this country), then yes, 10% makes a huge difference. You don't think $5k a year (or more) would make life easier for a large family?
    - WarOnPrivacy 1y ago
      > If you have a bunch of kids like the church wants and are living paycheck to paycheck (like most people in this country), then yes, 10% makes a huge difference. In actuality it doesn't because there are a lot of mitigating factors. There's some Church aid that shores things up. There's a lot of major support and resources from other members, in about every area you can think of. Long term benefits like careers and housing are more usual than not. If society was full of comparable networks like that and they were free, I might grant your point. But there really isn't. And if you move to an insular region of the country, it can be brutal to get established w/o some kind of introduction.
- BeetleB 1y ago
  Any spending is a contributor. If tithing had such a big effect, you would expect non-tithing folks to not have a corresponding decline. The amount being tithed hasn't changed over the decades. Other things have. If one were to point at the cause, tithing would be low on the list.
  - Trasmatta 1y ago
    > If tithing had such a big effect, you would expect non-tithing folks to not have a corresponding decline. You can't just compare it to declining birthrates for the population at large though: you have to compare to cultures with the same emphasis on large families that exists within Mormonism. > Other things have One of those things being cost of living. I'm sure it's not the only factor, but it has to be one of them.
    - BeetleB 1y ago
      > One of those things being cost of living. This is the main factor, which is my point. Tithing as a percentage of your income has not gone up, but general cost of living has. So if one wants to do an analysis on what's causing the declining birth rate, it makes a lot more sense to focus on the factor that has increased and not on the one that hasn't.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
WarOnPrivacy 1y ago
> That comment isn't in the spirit of the "Eschew flamebait The spirit was unhelpfully somewhere between dismissive and disdainful. Putting that aside, the content is worth discussing.

It's not flamebait, it's a legitimate observation. With rising costs of living everywhere, it seems highly likely that the church's tithing policy is a major contributor to lower birth rates for its members.

tredre3 1y ago
Tithing is 10% of your income. If you make 50k/yr, that's 5k/yr. Is 5000/yr the main thing that stands between people and having children? That doesn't seems very highly likely to me.
- Trasmatta 1y ago
  If you have a bunch of kids like the church wants and are living paycheck to paycheck (like most people in this country), then yes, 10% makes a huge difference. You don't think $5k a year (or more) would make life easier for a large family?
  - WarOnPrivacy 1y ago
    > If you have a bunch of kids like the church wants and are living paycheck to paycheck (like most people in this country), then yes, 10% makes a huge difference. In actuality it doesn't because there are a lot of mitigating factors. There's some Church aid that shores things up. There's a lot of major support and resources from other members, in about every area you can think of. Long term benefits like careers and housing are more usual than not. If society was full of comparable networks like that and they were free, I might grant your point. But there really isn't. And if you move to an insular region of the country, it can be brutal to get established w/o some kind of introduction.
BeetleB 1y ago
Any spending is a contributor. If tithing had such a big effect, you would expect non-tithing folks to not have a corresponding decline. The amount being tithed hasn't changed over the decades. Other things have. If one were to point at the cause, tithing would be low on the list.
- Trasmatta 1y ago
  > If tithing had such a big effect, you would expect non-tithing folks to not have a corresponding decline. You can't just compare it to declining birthrates for the population at large though: you have to compare to cultures with the same emphasis on large families that exists within Mormonism. > Other things have One of those things being cost of living. I'm sure it's not the only factor, but it has to be one of them.
  - BeetleB 1y ago
    > One of those things being cost of living. This is the main factor, which is my point. Tithing as a percentage of your income has not gone up, but general cost of living has. So if one wants to do an analysis on what's causing the declining birth rate, it makes a lot more sense to focus on the factor that has increased and not on the one that hasn't.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

WarOnPrivacy 1y ago

> That comment isn't in the spirit of the "Eschew flamebait The spirit was unhelpfully somewhere between dismissive and disdainful. Putting that aside, the content is worth discussing.