Nah, I don't buy for a second the reason is economic. I remember how the conditions were much worse when I was a kid and my parents raised me anyways. And I look at how countries getting richer leads to less kids.

I know that this is the rhetoric around why people are not having kids, but it's a pretext, it's not the real reason.

You can deny it all you want, or you can ask people why they're not having kids.

https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2024/07/25/reasons...

33% say "not finding the right partner". Everything being too expensive such that we're working all the time and don't have any down time is a huge part of that. Economics play into leisure time, stress, and things that kill relationships and the desire to have sex/kids.

> Nah, I don't buy for a second the reason is economic.

Mass Mutual, 2024: Of those surveyed who plan to remain child free, 43% cited “inability to afford children”[0].

Pew, 2024: Of those who feel it is unlikely that they will have children, 41% of people under 40 cited “can’t afford it” as a reason they are not having children, versus only 22% for those 40+[1].

Morning Consult, 2020: 41% of adults without children cite “it’s too expensive to raise children” as a reason; 24% say it is a “major reason”.[2]

BadCredit.org, 2024: 86% of adults who have delayed having children did so for financial reasons[3].

The Morning Consult survey may be particularly useful if you want to look at just one, because it has more granular age cohort breakdowns which show a clear trend for younger people not having children for financial reasons.

[0] https://www.massmutual.com/global/media/shared/doc/q3_2024_m...

[1] https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2024/07/25/reasons...

[2] https://assets.morningconsult.com/wp-uploads/2020/09/2806512...

[3] https://www.badcredit.org/studies/plans-to-have-children-in-...

Was there pervasive access to birth control back then?

What are the real reasons you think?