Re:India's surprise baby bust is a warning to the world
by nemomarx on Friday June 05, 2026 @04:16PM
(#48417600)
I don't mean it as a cost benefit thing, but people thinking that family is important, that they want and need family there for them in their old age, and so on.
The need for all of that is considerably different in modernity and more people choose to live without their family close by, and certainly don't depend on them for housing and care as often?
Re:India's surprise baby bust is a warning to the world
by voiceofchoice on Friday June 05, 2026 @04:39PM
(#48417936)
Hard wired to want children and hard wired to want sex are two very different things.
When given the choice there are plenty of people putting the latter over the former, and the number of women stuck at home while their husband went out to have affairs suggests the reality of kids doesn't actually interest most people. Plenty of folks just want a status symbol, not the responsibility of raising a child.
Re:India's surprise baby bust is a warning to the world
by autoexec on Friday June 05, 2026 @05:36PM
(#48418662)
I think just about everyone wants more sex than children. That said, many people would love the responsibility of raising a child but don't feel like they can afford it.
Re:India's surprise baby bust is a warning to the world
by voiceofchoice on Saturday June 06, 2026 @02:17PM
(#48427490)
That's valid for sure.
Most people are biologically wired to want children. "Survive and reproduce" is pretty much the driving motivation of all living things. Most children weren't conceived as a carefully planned retirement strategy. No cost/benefit calculation is required to convince most people to have children, but you can certainly force them into a position where they have to start thinking in those terms. We've just hit a point where societal and environmental factors are discouraging people from doing what they'd normally do.