ToxicSlurpee posted:

Yeah I think another issue we have in a place like the States is that our economy is so hosed up that a lot of people that would otherwise want children literally can't afford to, ever without ultimately subjecting themselves to a life of abject, crushing poverty. Yeah you can get food stamps and rent assistance for children but that's all you will have. The system makes loving sure of that and thanks to the right this is getting even worse. Setting oneself up to actually provide properly for a family as well as ensuring that you can afford to get them a college education probably means acquiring an advanced degree for both parents, paying off the loans, and pursuing a career, often putting off having children until far, far later than women would in the past. Parents are sometimes not having children until the woman is in her late 30's or early 40's when her fertility has absolutely tanked, if she's capable of having babies at all.

I've met quite a few women in my life that have said things like "Oh I'd love to have like six kids but we can't afford it." While it's true that increased education and economic opportunity reduces birth rates I really do think that the choice to have children or not also comes down to a lot of people finding they don't want to make babies they can't afford. The other thing I'm wondering if part of this is just the economics of it being impossible. A lot of people are saying "birth rates below replacement rates is really bad" but we're already seeing the effects of overpopulation all over the place. Global warming is a big example. There is also only so much of this rock and everything on it to go around. 7 billion people might just turn out to be too goddamned many. Keeping our numbers in check could very well turn out to be a good thing. Now that we have reliable birth control it's entirely possible that we could keep a cap on our population. Of course it's also possible that we might not even need to actively do that as, like has been pointed out, people will often just not have children they can't afford. If resources get scarce many people can't afford children and just won't. Even so, I'd say it's probably a good thing for the human race as a whole if our birth rate dips below the replacement rate for a while. Assuming, of course, that we don't gently caress off into space.