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US fertility rate dropped to lowest in a century(1.62) as births dipped in 2023
- Thread starter CrazyDude
- Start date
No one can afford to have kids, financially or for their own wellbeing mentally. Everyone's being churned into a paste by the machine and simply don't have the money or energy.
Wife and I can't afford children even if we wanted them. It's no surprise that no one is having children.
For reference, the average daycare cost for one child (in Denver) is $1,500/mo. For daycare.
Who can afford that, and on top of everything else? Of course no one wants kids in this 2024 silent depression.
Who can afford that, and on top of everything else? Of course no one wants kids in this 2024 silent depression.
Whew that's expensive we pay a little over $1k a month, that doesn't include activities that we have them in outside of that.
I got married right out of college and ended up divorced RIGHT before we were planning on starting a family.
Every day I realize how grateful I am I didn't end up a single parent or even married to that specific person with kids. When you consider the skyrocketing costs here in the US now, I don't know if I ever want them. Which is insane to me because being a dad was everything I wanted in my early 20's.
Every day I realize how grateful I am I didn't end up a single parent or even married to that specific person with kids. When you consider the skyrocketing costs here in the US now, I don't know if I ever want them. Which is insane to me because being a dad was everything I wanted in my early 20's.
Welcome to European levels.
I have a son and wouldn't want to change that. But if I would live in the US with your health care and costs for daycare, no parental leave. I would also not consider a child. Pro life my ass.
I have a son and wouldn't want to change that. But if I would live in the US with your health care and costs for daycare, no parental leave. I would also not consider a child. Pro life my ass.
Even as my wife and I start really considering that we're at a point in our lives where we want kids, it's such an absurdly difficult thing to even make sense of financially.
I've always been interested why immigration is seen as the answer. Sure, it increases the overall tax base and is eventually a net positive to the economy but what specifically about immigrants makes them more likely to have children than the native born population?
It just seems like a giant patchwork to avoid making conditions for the population better and enforce a race to the bottom. Meanwhile continuing to operate a permanent exploited class of workers globally in less developed countries for the chance of a golden ticket to a developed country.
It just seems like a giant patchwork to avoid making conditions for the population better and enforce a race to the bottom. Meanwhile continuing to operate a permanent exploited class of workers globally in less developed countries for the chance of a golden ticket to a developed country.
Oh man, $1500? It's $2200 in Superior/Boulder area. It's basically kept my wife and I from having another kid.
My wife and I were in a decently comfortable 'if it happens it happens' mode, and well it happened. Absolutely treasure being a parent but, my wife and I both work full time and I couldn't even fathom having the energy or money for a second child.
That acronym lol.
I expect conservative states will use this to further push anti-abortion laws despite it not being even close to a major factor.
My wife and I are on a great financial position. The best ever. We are both 35, we have careers and we have our own house and zero debts. We've always both been against kids but recently we had an "itch" of what if and older age. We still decided against it, not financially but because we didn't want to bring a life into this world in this state. Don't get me wrong, I am not a nihilist. I love and enjoy life and wish it'd go on forever (healthy of course!) but the state of the world is depressing and I have a disdain for SOME other human beings that I wouldn't want to imprint on my kids. We went with "fuck no" although we are open for discussion; the clock is ticking though! Meanwhile we'll keep traveling and getting great food.
The actual report isn't publicly available until the 30th. Looking forward to reading it as a whole.
Our childcare costs are €35k per year. We are both working good jobs but it's still such a huge drain. Once they are in school it'll be like having another income.
But aside from the money the stress of having kids is nuts. I feel out parents generation didn't have to deal with half the shit we have to think about. I remember my father saying he had never changed a nappy.
But aside from the money the stress of having kids is nuts. I feel out parents generation didn't have to deal with half the shit we have to think about. I remember my father saying he had never changed a nappy.
Even ignoring the financial component I'm just too mentally unstable for it. For a lot of human history I feel like I probably wouldn't have been allowed to participate in normative society though, so someone like me not reproducing isn't too atypical.
If it was something I really wanted to do and I had a spouse who also did, I could always move to a LCOL area I suppose. I'm not against ever having kids, it's just not something I see happening realistically.
If it was something I really wanted to do and I had a spouse who also did, I could always move to a LCOL area I suppose. I'm not against ever having kids, it's just not something I see happening realistically.
The most pro family countries in the world also have low fertility rates. People just don't want to have kids.
Money seems like a factor but so does modern day women empowerment.
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Since declining birth rates are a global problem, a lot of these developing countries are going to suffer exponentially when their shrinking youth population start moving to rich countries. Immigration is a temporary solution for rich countries to the detriment of developing ones.
I have a 2-and-a-half-year-old 'oops baby' whom I love to absolute pieces and would die for. But knowing what I know now I would absolutely not choose this for myself in the circumstances my partner and I were in. Because damn has it been hard, and that's with it not being quite as nightmare inducing raising kids in Australia as opposed to the US. The amount of stress this has added to my partner and I's relationship, both from a lack of energy, lack of money, and lack of time has been quite debilitating. I'm happy despite all of that, but boy is this not the life I imaged for myself even half a decade ago, and having our baby has single handedly put owning a home from a reality we could have achieved this year, to probably another decade away at least.
I don't blame anyone for choosing not to have kids, particularly these days.
it's pretty much only a problem in developed nations. Developing and undeveloped nations tend to have high birth rates, hence why global population is still going up
Checks out. We had ours at 29 and 34. My wife wanted to get established a bit in her career before having kids
My wife and I are DICK's (dual income cute kitten) and it owns.
Everyone's time and energy is currently spent on working for a meager paycheck just to be able to have their own basic survival necessities like shelter and food addressed. So yeah, not shocking news.
Money only goes so far. Just throwing money at programs is one of those 'necessary, but not sufficient' things in the equation.
Culture really matters. It's not just women's empowerment and education, though that definitely plays a part.
South Korea, Japan, Singapore, all have calamity-level birth rates despite spending a lot, because once you get into ideal, high-intensity parenting cultural noms and pressure you just run out of time and energy. People can't do it or do it once and swear off doing it again.
More on this at the link below. The podcast ep was excellent, but here you can get the transcript and go right into the cultural conversation, which I thought was the most profound section.
My wife and I didn't have kids because we're both just wholly unsuitable parents when put up against expectations from our peer group and we knew it.
In BC, Canada, daycare is pretty cheap now. It's like $400 unless you go for a super premium place.
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Also the global population will peak eventually. Countries need to start implementing policies to deal with a contracting population.
Among people I know this would still be considered young lol. Most are waiting until well into their 30s for even just one kid.
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It is not just an issue of costs. Nordic countries for example have plenty of social programs, benefits and safety nets for mothers and people still are not having children.
As hard as it might be for people in power to accept, it feels like there simply cannot be such thing as an industrialized and urbanized society that also has high fertility rate.
I live in Tokyo , and have two children . We just had a second child a few months ago and my wife went back to work as of today .
Daycare is 200 dollars a month for the both of them as second kid onward is free . The other child's daycare is still heavily subsidized as it only costs 200 dollars or so . Medical care for my children is free, we get a stipend every month from the government of about 200 dollars per child , and they just made it so in Tokyo high school tuition will now be effectively free.
I can't even imagine how my family would survive if we had to pay for these things like people do in America .
Yet the birthrate is even lower here due to the work culture just being horrible. I made my wife promise she will only work an hour of overtime a day instead of the 3-4 she used to do when we only had our first child .
Daycare is 200 dollars a month for the both of them as second kid onward is free . The other child's daycare is still heavily subsidized as it only costs 200 dollars or so . Medical care for my children is free, we get a stipend every month from the government of about 200 dollars per child , and they just made it so in Tokyo high school tuition will now be effectively free.
I can't even imagine how my family would survive if we had to pay for these things like people do in America .
Yet the birthrate is even lower here due to the work culture just being horrible. I made my wife promise she will only work an hour of overtime a day instead of the 3-4 she used to do when we only had our first child .
declining birth rate is a good thing overall. Just doesn't fit with infinite growth, capitalism and the way retirement is paid for by those in work.
Dont' make poeple have more babies, fix the system. Ironically the system being a key driver to the lower birth rate
Dont' make poeple have more babies, fix the system. Ironically the system being a key driver to the lower birth rate
I want kids but having kids seem like financial suicide if you aren't prepared. It's sad. America's priorities is all over the place. I hate politics