Re:How South Korea’s Birth Rate Dropped Below Japan’s
by vidarh on Friday September 01, 2023 @01:15AM
(#37347071)
And I think that is the key to dropping fertility: Once you experience relative wealth, you increasingly want to give the same to your kids.
It's not that we can't afford more children, but that we can't afford to give more children and ourselves the level of comfort we've come to expect.
I could afford to give quite a few children the standard of living we had when I was a kid, but while it was fine for it's time, it's not what I'd want to go back to for either myself or my kids.
It's also why I don't think this is a crisis in the long term on a global basis, though it may become one for individual countries:
Once wealth catches up to a level where we have sufficient buffer, I think we can balance things out.
It's not that we can't afford more children, but that we can't afford to give more children and ourselves the level of comfort we've come to expect.
I could afford to give quite a few children the standard of living we had when I was a kid, but while it was fine for it's time, it's not what I'd want to go back to for either myself or my kids.
It's also why I don't think this is a crisis in the long term on a global basis, though it may become one for individual countries:
Once wealth catches up to a level where we have sufficient buffer, I think we can balance things out.