[ExI] From the baby boom to the baby bust

[Adrian Tymes]

On Mon, Jun 3, 2024, 5:31 AM efc--- via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> What I find very interesting, is why fertility rates are falling. Is is
> medical, cultural or both? Probably both, and if so, what's the medical
> reason?
>

Having a baby has always been medically risky and stressful for the woman.
With much longer life expectancy, in much better condition (between the
economy, and technologically improved quality of life), there is that much
more to risk by creating a baby.

But I would say the problem is more economical.  Raising a child from 0 to
18 is far more expensive than just having a child (e.g. if given up for
adoption), especially if one adds in a parent-funded college education, and
with uncertain futures, many women and men are less certain it is worth
their time and money.  This is due to conditions that predated the 21st
century: notice the falling birthrate in country after country as they gain
access to modern Western standards of living (Japan being among the first,
many African countries being much later).

One possible solution is political: pro-natalist funding that consistently
and substantially offsets and/or lowers the cost of child raising.
Universal state funded daycare, for example.  Your mind's ear can probably
already predict the howls of outrage from certain sectors, who claim to be
about "family values" (and in practice mean valuing their own family above
all others), at the mere thought of providing such services to the poors
(or insert whatever minority grouping, but it is usually disdain for anyone
in no position to potentially fund the legislators' political careers).
There is the possibility of a focused technological effort to radically
drive down the cost of raising a child so as to achieve much the same
result, but I am unaware of any large scale effort that explicitly has such
a direct goal at this time.

>
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