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We had a population explosion during the last 200 years that's only just starting to taper off. I was taught about it in school 30 years ago, except back then it was called a "demographic transition" and it was hailed as a sign of a country becoming economically prosperous. The "fertility crisis" is a moral panic manufactured by neoliberal capitalists.
I mean, I decided to not have kids because I don’t want to subject anyone to the existential horror that is life, and I feel no obligation to crank out miniature replicas of me.
My logic is along the same line.
I didn't ask to be here, nobody asked if I wanted to be here. Being here, I kinda wish I was given that choice so I could say no.
Why would I force someone, who I supposedly love, to suffer through gestures at everything this? I love my potential children more than to condemn them to dealing with the children of those wealthy enough to have them.
There are some who believe that choosing to come here is like the show Severance.
You in the beforelife chose to come here for reasons unknown. You in the present life forgot all about that. And when you die, you will resume being the you of the beforelife, meaning the present you won't get any justice.
Which is why some believe we're on a prison planet.
I default to mindless math bubble does a chemistry. So long as there is no evidence of anything else, we're just obliterated when we die and there's no before or after.
But this place sure does suspiciously resemble some form of Hell.
We're all just playing the Roy simulation at Blips and Chitz
Economy is probably the most commonly cited reason, but the world being a shithole has to be up there somewhere.
"I can't even take care of myself, but I'm going to bring a bunch of children into the world to suffer my consequences anyway."
No, THAT shit is selfish.
Meanwhile these boomers have multiple houses, affordable insurance, savings...
Very few help their kids.
Where I live, it's a thousand dollars a month to rent A ROOM. The not particularly nice one bedroom apartments closest to where I live are 1700 a month. Food has never been more expensive. How people supposed to afford kids which are notoriously expensive to have?
its not because I'm selfish, its because I hate people
Housing crisis, affordability crisis, corporate exploitation, job precarity, climate crisis, biodiversity crisis, water crisis, PFAS laden rain and microplastics in our bodies. AI drones and nuclear annihilation in an era of ecological overshoot and collapse.
So many great reasons not to have kids.
… it’s mostly because I know I’d be a shitty parent. I don’t want to damage them.
What do you mean you don't want to raise the next generation of wage slaves? How will my children buy their second yachts?
Also more intelligent; back then people just had kids whether they were broke or not.
Stupidity == Altruism ???
You got it the wrong way round. 100 years ago, people were having kids precisely because they were broke.
100 years ago, if you had kids you had to feed them for 5-7 years and then they'd be adding to the family income. They'd be working the fields or the mines or in factories or any other job like that.
And when you got old, the only thing standing between you and dieing from being worked to death in the poor house was having kids that would take you in and support you.
Today the math is flipped on its head: You have to support your kids until at least 18, more likely 25 or 30 until they make it through education. Then they don't contribute to your household income at all because they have their own household. And when you are old you get retirement benefits and live off the work of everyone else's children too.
So 100 years ago, if you didn't care about children and were broke, math told you to have kids.
Today, if you don't care about children (no matter if you are broke), math tells you to not have kids.
Simple as that.
And since these changes happened gradually and society adapts its standards slowly, it's been a gradual shift.
"But all my friends are having kids and I feel like I am missing out while they chat."
Yes, FOMO is old.
Technically correct. It's selfish not to have anything because we're broke. The alternative is going to debt and not paying it: it's selfless in the sense you're putting yourself in a worse position
Based on news articles i see about younger generations this would also apply to:
Why arent gen _ going out to clubs/pubs anymore ?
Why are gen _ drinking less alcohol ?
Why arent gen _ going to restaurants ?
Why arent gen _ going travelling ?
Ngl people that care about the number of babies being born are just weird
If they are like 30, they know the babies today will fund their retirement, and a lack of babies means they will be screwed. At least those people I can see a concern from a rational perspective.
However it's broadly either due to some religious fervor or tech bro narcissism (two two major pro nataliat voices, both super creepy in different ways that actually also hate each other)