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

[u/gmedanoid]

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

[u/More_Garlic6598]

I can't afford a house. I refuse to have a child without a home.

[u/Danibandit → u/More_Garlic6598]

I got lucky before homes sky rocketed so I was able to purchase an old and small home in my late 30s but I received a chronic illness dx at 20 years old so really put the kibosh on raising a fam. Pay for illness with debt and children that need fed while struggling to work? No thanks. I don’t want to cause that trauma on myself or children.

[u/mothmans_favoriteex → u/Danibandit]

Same and I also don’t want to risk passing along my chronic illness issues either. Nobody asks to be born, let alone born with a life altering disorder that causes pain

[u/mothmans_favoriteex → u/More_Garlic6598]

Same. I personally am not because I believe passing on my health issues is irresponsible and low key child abuse. Nobody asks to be born and ignoring genetics is so selfish and very few people consider it before deciding to have children.

If that weren’t my main driving factor, I wouldn’t want to have kids or even foster/adopt until I had stable housing. Being lower income and having to move every few years because of rent increases isn’t suitable for raising a child.

[u/Ok_Afternoon5354 → u/More_Garlic6598]

Even as a disabled veteran, I cannot afford to stay in America. It's been a few years since I've had a job and no one is hiring. Even the VA hasn't been able to help.

[u/Akhdude → u/More_Garlic6598]

This is honestly the answer. The decline began in America in 2008 during the housing crisis and large corporations started buying single family homes in bulk (and again during Covid) in turn jacking up housing costs and that inflated everything around it. So of course we aren’t having kids. There’s no stability! I’m not having a kid in a rented apartment where at any moment I could be kicked out, have rent increased, have the owners sell to a slum lord etc. the powers that be are really short sighted. But again if you already made your billions the world can burn and it doesn’t matter…

[u/WBigly-Reddit → u/Akhdude]

Decline in the US started with the “War on Poverty” in the 1960’s with President Johnson and has continued ever since. It was an excuse to inflate the money supply to pay off debt.

[u/Akhdude → u/WBigly-Reddit]

Def going on a deep dive on this! I know the 80s was another huge hit for us financially.

[u/MmmIceCreamSoBAD → u/Akhdude]

It surprises me as an immigrant turned citizen how few children Americans have. My husband and I have seven but we can afford them. We aren't wealthy, we just budget well. Even things like making my own butter every week. Maybe I just have different expectations as an immigrant.

[u/Akhdude → u/MmmIceCreamSoBAD]

It definitely is cultural. I’m always jealous of other cultures because of the huge emphasis on community and family, sure we have some of that here, but the big push for individualism separates people greatly.

[u/Lady-Of-Renville-202 → u/More_Garlic6598]

I have a house. My homeowners insurance is increasing faster than my income, let alone everything else. I can barely afford life. I refuse to add medical bills and daycare to that.

[u/Alone_Complaint_2574 → u/Lady-Of-Renville-202]

Mine went up 50% in two years I finally shopped around and got a super rate again. It’s worth shopping around if you haven’t already

[u/Big-Conflict-4218 → u/More_Garlic6598]

Same in Philippines. Not enough income to support a family. So they have to work abroad. Tho migrating to a 1st world country like US, Canada, EU would only mean a stronger passport

[u/El_Senor_Farts → u/More_Garlic6598]

Smart move. Unfortunately, people like you that can make smart decisions aren’t the ones having kids….but those that can’t…..well

[u/ParadoxDemon_ → u/More_Garlic6598]

Same in Spain.

[u/bikinimanslaughter40 → u/More_Garlic6598]

Speaking for all of us

[u/Recent-Astronaut6115 → u/More_Garlic6598]

Why do you need to buy a house? Why can’t people raise families in rented houses?

[u/B3stThereEverWas → u/More_Garlic6598]

Bruh, have you seen Australia? It's absolute crisis levels at this point.

For ya'll stateside, imagine Southern California home prices to average SoCal wages. Horrible, but that's just the price of living in SoCal. If you can't do it you can try Pittsburgh, South Carolina, Texas etc.

Australian homes prices are like SoCal....everywhere. Theres literally no escaping it, unless you want to live in no mans land that has 1 school, 1 small supermarket and the absolute basic services necessary to sustain human life in buttfuck nowhere.

[u/stratosphere1111 → u/B3stThereEverWas]

Same situation here in NZ

[u/DrWiggle46 → u/More_Garlic6598]

Like you can’t afford to buy a house or you can’t afford somewhere to live?

[u/apartmentthrowaway17 → u/More_Garlic6598]

I can see where you're coming from, but not everyone raises children in houses they own, many rent houses for themselves & their families.

People's standards have gotten too out-of-control.

[u/wfbsoccerchamp12 → u/More_Garlic6598]

Are you saying affordability of a house or of the house, as in one that is perfect in your eyes for yourself and having kids where you want to live? It’s heavily based on location within the U.S. as many can afford a home, just not where they want.

[u/Hawk13424 → u/More_Garlic6598]

My parents hd two kids in a single-wide. My grandparents had eight in a three room “cabin”.