“I think it probably should be a concern for the government, the declining birth rate,” Sarah Brewington told NPR. “There is going to come a time when everyone is retiring and there’s not going to be a workforce.”

Many researchers believe this accelerating global shift is being driven in large part by a positive reality. Young couples, and women in particular, have far more freedom and economic independence. They’re weighing their options and appear to be making very different choices about the role of children in their lives.

“It’s not that people don’t like kids as much as they used to,” said Melissa Kearney, an economist who studies fertility and population trends at the University of Notre Dame. “There’s just a lot of other available options. They can invest in their careers, take more leisure time — it’s much more socially acceptable.”

This change in decision-making and behavior appears to be accelerating. New research from the United Nations found that the number of children born to the average woman worldwide has reached the lowest point ever recorded. In every country and every culture, women are having fewer than half as many children as they did in the 1960s.

I, for one, am glad I got snipped. I’ve no interest in contributing to this pyramid scheme.

  • collapse_already@lemmy.mlEnglish
    6·
    18 hours ago

    Positive reality? World is flat out dystopian and they think people are not having kids because not having kids is more socially acceptable? Maybe it is because of rampant inflation, job insecurity, rising fascism, imminent climate chaos, and all of the other awful things that make people consider against parenthood.

    • Powderhorn@beehaw.orgOPMEnglish
      2·
      11 hours ago

      You can always check the modlog.

      The reason I provided was “Blaming falling fertility rates on Covid vaccines via a preprint is not appropriate for this community.”

      You provided no context for irrelevant links. That’s not how Beehaw works.

      • sic_semper_tyrannis@lemmy.todayEnglish
        1·
        2 hours ago

        One was a preprint and the other a completed study from PubMed which doesn’t even say it’s covid, but the timing sure is coincidental. A preprint still has relevant data. When we everyday people see patterns, we then make deductions from them that tend to be accurate. The preprint is full of great data and shouldn’t be discounted because of what it is. Let people see evidence and make their own deductions. It being a “preprint” wasn’t hidden.

        The context was is the data in the links. They were directly relevant being one study is about decline in conception and the other a decline in sperm motility, by significant numbers too.

  • Gaywallet (they/it)@beehaw.org
    7·
    19 hours ago

    “There is going to come a time when everyone is retiring and there’s not going to be a workforce.”

    Well there certainly wont be a workforce if we keep framing immigration as only murderers and thieves and trying our hardest to deport them all (and a bunch of legal citizens in the process).

    I find it interesting that this article takes the framing of freedom, options, and a positive reality. Where’s the mention of cost? If your average worker is struggling to get by paycheck to paycheck more than 50 years ago, is it really surprising that less people are willing to take on the financial burden of kids?

    And what of thinking about the future of our planet as a whole? We’re cooking the planet and many of the young adults alive today know they’ll be facing dire times in the upcoming decades. If I were younger and considering kids I would surely think twice knowing my kids would be drafted into the climate wars…

  • JackEddyfier@beehaw.org
    2·
    18 hours ago

    This is the inverse hyperbolic threat I suffered from as a kid. Underpopulation replaces overpopulation. I wonder how much longer the elitist neo-eugenic narratives of climate change, and eco-collapse will continue now that they’re a hindrance to our elites?