Hi Pavene,

As a Brit I must be honest I do not know the in-depth details of the American situation as our situation over here is different. For example, we have the NHS and a lot of child support systems, including free access to contraception et cetera.

But thanks for sharing your thoughts, interesting to hear! Especially the cost of having a child, which is the big problem in all the developed countries and is the main point I’ve been talking about in this post.

Though regarding the final point, implying the problem is that women are tired and that education and financial independence of women are one of the reasons for the lower birthrate.

It’s often forgotten, that women’s rights actually are the same as men’s rights. For example, when women got the right to divorce so did men and men utilise that right just as much as women. When women got the right to vote it was at the same time as the vast majority of men. When abortion rights were created it also benefited large numbers of men who didn’t want children and wanted their pregnant partners to have abortions.

When women entered the general workforce it did not just give women financial independence it also liberated men from having to finance women and children — meaning it also gave men financial independence. It’s often forgotten that there were two in this situation, and once women could work it liberated men and gave them freedom of not having to provide for women. Large numbers of men fully embrace this freedom just as large numbers of women do.

The reason I highlight these pointers is because we have a bad habit of always focusing on things from the female rights perspective — especially how that has led to the decreasing birthrate.

But studies frequently show that it's men who are the most adverse to having children and it’s also men who typically have the least desire to settle down into a stable relationship. Funnily enough, a friend of mine who works as a researcher of relationship psychology postulates that if men wanted children as much as women then there would not be a birthrate crisis happening in developed countries.

That would mean arguably the best way to up the birthrate would not be by coercing women to have more children, it would be by getting more men to be open and willing to have children. That’s because the women who want children are pretty much already there. Arguably.

Though the situation is complex and different in different countries and in different demographics within those countries. However, the one common denominator is in developed countries the cost of having children is simply too high. For a sustainable population, which is necessary to retain our way of life, we have to change this. Once we do this, we will gain a true picture of whether we do have a problem with people wanting children or whether the problem is simply that too many of those that do simply can’t afford them. I suspect that will prove to be the case, but who can say for certain.

Anyhow, thanks for reading and for your comment!