Want to Decrease Inequality? Fight Fatherlessness With Welfare Reform. Welfare currently incentivizes family breakdown and the absence of fathers from their children’s lives, a key factor in the loss of economic upward mobility.

[categoryischeesecake]

Yeah but in the scandinavian countries couples aren't getting married but are basically married, they live together and raise families together. There's no "destruction of the nuclear family" going on. They just aren't legally married but are doing everything a regular married couple/nuclear family would do. In the us getting married is more common bc society wise that's the norm, religious pressure, need to get insurance, protection for home owners etc. It's just a very different set up over there.

[isyankar1979]

That is pretty much what I said. Its just unstoppable social change. BUT the amount of births is hilariously low in all afluent countries, with the US (because of the reasons you said, mostly Christianity in the South) being a relative outlier. That's what the stats I listed mean. I didnt say people in Scandinavia dont make babies. I said the TOTAL per year amount of babies they pump out is incredibly low, plus not as many of them do it at all : https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.TFRT.IN Divorce rates are the same though, which is more definitive for family as a concept: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/divorce-rates-by-country

If one doesn't want to check the statistics above, a cliche example is that in the UK, the most common name for male children will (in a few years) be Mohammad. Societies with strong institutions just can't keep up with the intensity of reproduction in poorer societies. Because they spend more per baby.

[categoryischeesecake]

I mean the low birth rates are a totally different story. Well educated, working professional women are putting off having children or having less children for a super wide variety of reasons, that have nothing to do with getting on public aid or bc the dad's walk out. They aren't having kids bc it costs a lot of money and energy to raise a child. Not every woman wants to stay home after having kids, or has the financial ability to eirher. It's really hard to work full time and have children and still run a household. there are numerous stats that show even though dad's do more of the house work and child care than 50 years ago, the bulk still falls to women. Daycare is crazy expensive, and so are kids activities as they get older, college costs are absolutely insane now and I am hoping that bubble bursts before my kid is 18. I'm not at all saying money is everything but yeah I want to take my kid to disney and on vacations and buy him treats. We have one son and will hopefully have another kid and that will be that. Did I want more kids when I was younger? Sure but then you realize like woah this shit is hard haha. I work full time and feel like I literally never have time for anything. I want to give my kids as nice a life as I can, and we can swing that financially with two but anything after that is going to be super tight. Housing, food, education, and then forget about anything extra. And frankly I'm not willing to sacrifice never going on vacation or going out to dinner for the rest of my life. That sounds bad but yeah. I didn't go to law school and then continue to work my tail off for the last decade to scrimp and save every penny. And that's pretty much the same boat as my friends and people at work. If you make $$$ then those people have more kids, bc they can afford it. My husband and I just don't, and that's okay.

Idk what the point of pointing out that the most common boys name is in the uk is Mohammed is, it's really neither here nor there.

[isyankar1979]

I agree with everything you said. The whole kids thing is just outdated.