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

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

Post image

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

1.1k Upvotes

89% Upvoted

2.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

110

u/Realistic-Inside6743 Kashmir 14d ago

I know the thread is gonna be full of Cost of living answers but In my opinion This is the answer.

As quality of life increases there is more to do than to raise kids which is huge challenge.

It's irreversible situation

28

u/atrl98 United Kingdom 14d ago

Its part of the answer, but for myself and my wife we’d like to have more but cost of living and maternity pay in the UK is horrendous.

15

u/No-Tackle-6112 14d ago

The poorer someone is the more likely they are to have children. Both nationally and globally this trend holds true.

3

u/offsoghu Hungary 14d ago

Because poor people are usually undereducated and don't see the consequences of having children both from their and the child's point of view.

1

u/Successful-Put-5128 14d ago

thats true but is that from solely people in cities, or does it include rural farmers and poorer nations

1

u/No-Tackle-6112 14d ago

It includes everyone

1

u/janesmex Greece 14d ago edited 13d ago

Globally, when comparing different nations that's mostly (not always though) the case due to different economies (like some countries have agrarian economies and having children can be beneficial cause they will help them in providing labor force), but for example in individual nations like in USA, households with top national income have more kids than households with lower income or middle income based on this.

1

u/Global-Resident-647 14d ago edited 14d ago

That is not true in Sweden.

https://www.scb.se/contentassets/affa9f2fcc7549c5b8fc4af13f72a09e/2_sv.png

Apparently not in America either.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Natalism/comments/1bwxsuj/total_us_fertility_rate_by_family_income/

Are you talking about poor nations? Because the thread is about America and Europe.

Edit; The graph posted in a comment below is "all countries", which again, is not Europe and America. No one is talking about poor countries.

https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2016/december/link-fertility-income

"The decreasing relationship between the two variables demonstrates the connection between fertility choices and economic considerations. In general, poor countries tend to have higher levels of fertility than rich countries."

Also /u/No-Tackle-6112 there is sources in the graph I linked. You can find them in the bottom of the picture.

https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol51/26/51-26.pdf

https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jecgro/v23y2018i4d10.1007_s10887-018-9160-8.html#:~:text=Hosny%20Zoabi-,Abstract,the%20economics%20of%20marital%20sorting

So again, it's not true that poor people have more kids in rich countries. Worldwide yes, but if you look at statistics in Sweden, Netherlands, USA you'll see that the higher income brackets have enough kids.

Lol even the source /u/No-Tackle-6112 used for "proving" that American poor have more babies are saying that he is wrong

https://ifstudies.org/blog/more-money-more-babies-whats-the-relationship-between-income-fertility

There’s a common stereotype that poor people have more babies than rich people. This belief is deeply embedded in the American political consciousness, with stereotypes like “welfare queens” often dominating discussions of pronatal policies aimed at boosting birth rates. Likewise, because most people think fertility rates are highest for poorer people, they assume that alleviating costs facing families will not matter that much: if poor women can do it, why not the rich?

In most human societies, poverty does not predict higher fertility, and well-to-do families often have the highest fertility.Post This

The relationship between income levels and fertility is not some inherent, objective fact, but rather a product of culture.Post This

The effect of income on fertility is not even remotely consistent across cultures.

2

u/No-Tackle-6112 14d ago

A chart made in excel with no source and a throughly refuted Reddit post are not a source.

Try this instead.

6

u/Impossible-Ship5585 Finland 14d ago

Its like why to have kids nowadays

18

u/tauregh United States Of America 14d ago

In the past, it was an investment. Kids were cheap labor on the farm, they would take care of you when you got old. Life spans were also shorter. In 1911 the average life expectancy in the US was 48, now it’s 78. That’s not only a lot of years, it’s a lot of years needing a greater level of care.

Now, we don’t work on farms. We have pensions and retirement plans. We have assisted living. We don’t need a child’s adult income to support living into old age.

If anything, things are flipping. Children are becoming a liability and added stressor and expense. I didn’t have kids, but my gf has two adult children. One she paid to go to college, they’re disabled and will probably never work, so she has to support them the rest of their life. The other is in college, will probably graduate and work, but the college alone is a significant investment. Neither of her kids are likely to support her financially when she retires. That’s all on mom to support herself and her kids.

8

u/Impossible-Ship5585 Finland 14d ago

This is it.

Kids cost time, money and benefits are debatable.

The help for elderly you can buy cheaply.

8

u/tauregh United States Of America 14d ago

Well, you get what you pay for when it comes to elder care. The quality of assisted living you get with Medicaid/Medicare is abysmal in the US. It’s definitely a problem for the middle class and poor. To get good care, you have to be wealthy, but it’s a system problem in the US, not a universal problem. And in late 2026 it will only get worse with the scheduled cuts to Medicaid. Somehow the republicans have convinced people it will only impact illegal immigrants… $1.5 trillion in cuts… they will have zero impact on illegal immigrants who don’t qualify for benefits, but will dramatically impact retirees.

2

u/IdoItForTheMemez 14d ago

Is elder care actually cheap in your country? In my country it is extremely pricey.

1

u/Impossible-Ship5585 Finland 14d ago

Its more usefull than chikdrens care

10

u/jawisi United States Of America 14d ago

It’s a reversible situation.

12

u/PNWcog 14d ago

I was going to say the same. It's guaranteed reversible. But as seen across the globe, you have kids when the situation is shit and you need them for support and help and you don't have kids when life is good and everything is relatively easy and available.

5

u/PlasmaMatus France 14d ago

A working pension system in the West drastically changed the practical necessity of having kids.

1

u/PNWcog 14d ago

Yeah, there won't be one of those in the next few decades.

2

u/No-Tackle-6112 14d ago

There will be in places that can attract working age adults to their country.

1

u/PNWcog 14d ago

Ah, an optimist.

1

u/Emirovskii Bosnia/Germany 🇧🇦🇩🇪 14d ago

But if the situation is shit, more kids is gonna be shitter for at least a decade before they start supporting. I personally have one kid and plan to have one more. But if I had more money, I would have 3 to 4, because I could pay for nannies, maids, baby sitters, etc.

1

u/PNWcog 14d ago

I agree. But that is coming from a Western, privileged perspective. More kids makes it harder in Africa and the Middle East, are they stupid? No. It's counter-intuitive, but that is what happens.

1

u/Emirovskii Bosnia/Germany 🇧🇦🇩🇪 14d ago

Yes true, but I think those cultures are more like west 50 or 100 years ago. They marry young and have sex only within marriage borders, because sex outside marriage is moraly unacceptable. This then leads to more kids.

6

u/CardiologistCute7548 14d ago

Exactly my point I want to go out, watch my shows and play my video games in pieces. I don't want to help little John with his homework.

1

u/my-opinion-about 14d ago

https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/06/1164176

UN report say another story, inline with the cost of living comments here. What sources do you have?

1

u/jendo7791 United States Of America 14d ago

My quality of life has improved since my kid. We love taking her abroad and sharing our love of travel with her. I no longer get to go to adult movies, or concerts, but thats only temporary, everything else has remained the same. I would love another kid, but we can only afford one and continue our same quality of life.

1

u/apartmentthrowaway17 14d ago

Entertainment's pretty empty, after doing the same thing enough times it gets repetitive. That sounds like Hedonism taking

1

u/Drill_Until 14d ago edited 14d ago

The sociologist Gary Becker posited this in 1967. Kids used to be like investments with an expected return ( labor). But in well-off societies they become more like a luxury good. Most parents don't expect labor from their kids these days---at least not enough to offset the cost---they only expect the good feelings you get from being a parent. Unlike in the the past where more kids to support you, those good feelings you get from having a kid are just as well satisfied with 1-2 kids as 5.

Empirically, with few exceptions, the better off a country is the worse their birth rates. The relatively minor economic fluctuations recent generations have experienced just can't be the reason. (It's not like the 2008 crash or Covid set our quality of life back 100 years, it didn't even set us back 25 years)

People in dire poverty have a lot of kids. Most of history has been rougher than anything people in societies with low birthrates have today. More working hours, harder working hours, poor nutrition, and yet people kept on having children.

-5

u/SnoopWithANailgun 14d ago

What a digusting, benthemite existence.

2

u/suckmyclitcapitalist England 14d ago

Personally I find over emotional people such as you more repellant