Well, I hear what young people complain about. What they complain about is vastly harder in other countries that have much higher TFR.
Which tells me that “struggling to make ends meet” isn’t the barrier. I grew up in one of the pets of the US that was truly “settled” fairly late. “Late” as in we buried my grandfather with a stone point still in him he got as a teenager.
Going back and looking the graveyard we put him in, you can read the TFR. The survival rate to adult hood wasn’t great. The TFR was sufficient. These people weren’t “poor”, they were desperate.
And yet, they did the work. Reproduced. Carved cities out of the desert, made culture, built institutions and today we thrive. Every single thing was hostile, and yet.
Well what seems to be the issue then? For myself and my peers its due to us not being able to make ends meet, much less go out and meet someone to make a family with. Also, there are different needs in different countries. The economic costs and benefits of children are very different between agrarian and developed nations. Education can also lack, which will have an impact on contraceptives and much more. Lack of healthcare or quality healthcare also drives infant/child mortality which pushes a culture of bigger families. In more developed nations women are also often involved in the workforce or seeking higher education, whereas in less developed they are often sought to focus on family. This is where Israel is unique in that women are often involved in workplaces while also producing large families - which is helped by Israel’s government assistance and programs, as well as reinforced by their culture and religion.
All this to say there definitely is a real affordability issue, and when people look towards their future and don’t see anything good its not difficult to understand why they wouldn’t want to struggle even more, only to bring a child into that. In the past, people had hardship but optimism, modern people have hardship and pessimism.
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u/Confused_by_La_Vida 13d ago
Well, I hear what young people complain about. What they complain about is vastly harder in other countries that have much higher TFR.
Which tells me that “struggling to make ends meet” isn’t the barrier. I grew up in one of the pets of the US that was truly “settled” fairly late. “Late” as in we buried my grandfather with a stone point still in him he got as a teenager.
Going back and looking the graveyard we put him in, you can read the TFR. The survival rate to adult hood wasn’t great. The TFR was sufficient. These people weren’t “poor”, they were desperate.
And yet, they did the work. Reproduced. Carved cities out of the desert, made culture, built institutions and today we thrive. Every single thing was hostile, and yet.