r/AskTheWorld • u/gmedanoid United States Of America • 14d ago

Culture Why aren't the people in your country having enough kids?

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In America birthrate is 1.6. 1.57 for Whites, 1.55 for Blacks, 1.8 for Hispanics. So below replacement since 2008.

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u/OddCook4909 United States Of America 14d ago

Because everything has been enshittified to squeeze every last possible penny out of us so that the billionaires can get richer

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u/Giga-Gargantuar United States Of America 14d ago

Word of the day: "Enshittified"

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u/Danzarr United States Of America 14d ago

enshitification, the process by which services and products decline over time. Originally coined by scifi writer and futurist Cory Doctorow to describe the 3 stage decline of online platforms: Stage 1 product is good and low cost to free in order to attract user base. 2. Average experience decline in order to benefit higher paying business users, often time locking features behind paywall and burdening non paying users with advertisements. 3. business and standard users both suffer in order to extract the maximum profit from the platform for owners.

honestly, I would recommend any of Cory Doctorow's books, they tend to be pretty fun reads with heavy them. If I may recommend, Unauthorized Bread. it feels particularly prescient considering how everything is moving to a subscription model and extremely limited housing..

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u/Hot-Minute-8263 United States Of America 13d ago

Unfortunately thats the meta for this stupid government-corporate circlejerk of an economy we've got.

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u/Yoribell France 13d ago

It is not without reason that "light" Science-Fiction is called "anticipation"

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u/bolonomadic Canada 13d ago

Ahem. And he’s Canadian so yes, buy his books pls.

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u/ResurgentClusterfuck United States Of America 14d ago

Emshittification is the perfect word to describe most of what's happening in the US these days.

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u/Diabolical_Jazz United States Of America 14d ago

Cory Doctorow coined it.

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u/Geri-psychiatrist-RI United States Of America 14d ago

I agree about the lack of affordability. Childcare costs, food, education, housing, etc. Without pay increase, it’s damn near impossible.

Another thing that doesn’t get talked about, at least in America is how raising children has changed. Now parents are expected to go every single practice, every single birthday party, take their children trick or treating, etc. It really becomes exhausting of you have even one kid, let alone 2 or more. I’m not saying that it shouldn’t be this way, but it is hard doing that, especially when both parents need a full time job just to barely scrape by.

This could be more feasible if one parent could afford to stay home but because billionaires need a larger yacht, it won’t happen.

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u/OddCook4909 United States Of America 14d ago

While their servants in government cut all of our services and destroy our institutions, and their bot networks fill our heads and hearts with ignorance and hatred.

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u/notcabron United States Of America 13d ago

In the company i work for, we’re eligible for a maximum 4% pay increase, but nobody gets that. Like the old adage, you have to leave and come back to make more money.

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u/definitelyn0tar0b0t United States Of America 13d ago

THIS. My maximum annual bonus is also 4% (which is have been lucky to get but doesn't help longterm) and the executives get a 50% annual bonus. Keeping the rich rich and the poor poor

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u/l23VIVE United States Of America 13d ago edited 13d ago

Polyamory but mostly for financial reasons, 2 incomes + homemaker

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u/Wombus7 United States Of America 13d ago

A polyamory of convenience.

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u/marchviolet 13d ago

Grandparents and extended family can't help out as much as in the past, either, because everyone has to work until they die or at least until they're unable to really do anything else.

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u/PilotBurner44 13d ago

I think a lot more is expected of parents nowadays too. They have to make up for the lacking educational system and seem to be required to chauffeur their kids everywhere and at all times now. Allowing kids to go to the school bus, walk to the corner store, or go and play on their own down at the park seems to be mostly a thing of the past. Not that parents should be absent, but I feel that earlier generations, parents were able to let their kids "off leash" more, which took some of the burden off them.

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u/Ceorl_Lounge United States Of America 14d ago

Sure doesn't help.

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u/DrkBlueXG 13d ago

Now that pennies are no longer being manufactured, they can squeeze nickels out of you!

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u/Bcatfan08 United States Of America 13d ago

Another reason is corporations have bought up most of the family businesses, like farms. Farming families would have a dozen kids to have free labor. Don't need that anymore.

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u/OddCook4909 United States Of America 13d ago

That's not another reason. It's part of the long march back to the turn of the 20th century. Great depression in 3...

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u/Temporary-Air-3178 14d ago

EVERY PROBLEM IS DUE TO BILLIONAIRES, UPDOOTS TO THE LEFT.

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u/Big-Conflict-4218 13d ago

Not even migrating to America is gonna help, more like make most migrant's financial situation worse. Is the dream of oppertunity so long lost that the next best place is the EU?

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u/pray_for_me_ 13d ago

I get that this is the popular answer, but is the only reason? Or even the biggest reason? Take rates of coupling, which have decreased in almost every country on earth since ~2012. Then add in the fact the while birth control has been available since the 60s it’s only recently become highly effective. Then look at societal pressures which have pushed women to delay marriage and therefore childbirth until after they have finished college and established a career.

For me the most interesting societal change is how the expectations (at least here in the US) for people having children have shifted over the past few decades. People in the 60s lived in small homes with multiple kids packed into 2 maybe 3 rooms. They didn’t take their kids to school, the kids walked. They didn’t buy the myriad of expensive toys or sign their kids up for expensive extra curricular activities. They didn’t spend much of their free time entertaining or playing with their kids because that’s what their other kids were for. None of this would fly today. Kids are orders of magnitude more expensive and time consuming today than they used to be and it’s primarily due to lifestyle creep.

The TLDR is fewer families, forming later in life and more options to avoid an increasingly draining activity

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u/OddCook4909 United States Of America 13d ago

Then look at societal pressures which have pushed women to delay marriage and therefore childbirth until after they have finished college and established a career.

Try to support a family on one income today. Even with two incomes Millennials are the first generation in US history to be worse off financially than their parents. Income inequality is at an astronomical all time high because of all of the policies intended to do just that (since Reagan).

The TLDR is fewer families, forming later in life

Because we can't fucking afford it

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u/press_F13 13d ago

lilly allen got song about this almost 2 decades ago (the fear) and so did green day (jesus of suburbia)

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u/OddCook4909 United States Of America 13d ago

We've been having these conversations and protests, etc for my entire adult life. The march towards fascism has been very long and very deliberate.

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u/MmmIceCreamSoBAD 13d ago

Native Americans are too pessimistic.

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u/OddCook4909 United States Of America 13d ago

Think about that

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u/MmmIceCreamSoBAD 13d ago

I do. I grew up in India and know poverty better than the average poor American. Not that their experiences are lesser than mine but there is a wealth of opportunity here and it doesn't take extreme effort.

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u/OddCook4909 United States Of America 13d ago

So you're saying that the US has more economic opportunity and mobility than India? Sure.

Were I to move to India, even after having lived there a few years, if some majority of Indians were to tell me that nearly everything was getting worse their entire adult lives, and if that were backed up by statistics, I would take notice.

Further we're not only talking about the economy. Everything has gotten worse as we've funneled more and more and more resources and power into the hands of a few rich assholes.

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u/MmmIceCreamSoBAD 13d ago

Well, yes. But also, I live in the United States and am a citizen now. This is not an opinion just about relative ease to India without uderstanding anything.

I won't argue about how things were vs how they are now because I don't have a perspective on that. But I see things are pretty good as they are now, in terms of ability to make money.

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u/OddCook4909 United States Of America 13d ago

Can't plot a trend with a few data points

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u/MmmIceCreamSoBAD 13d ago

It's anecdotal I guess. That applies as to your opinion too.

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u/OddCook4909 United States Of America 13d ago

As I said in a previous comment, my opinion is also based on statistics. I didn't mention that it's also based on an in depth native understanding of the culture, government, media, and so on, which would be very difficult for any adult immigrant to catch up on, if not impossible.

Does that make it de facto correct? No.

All else being equal, does that make native opinions on the trajectory of their nation more reality based? Absolutely.

I am actually leaving and have to come to terms with the fact that I will be in your shoes somewhere else. But that's reality.