[Bill Konnoway]

Don't know what 'bout you, guys, but I really fed up with all these staff. Seems like I'm surrounded by homosexuals and childfree only.

"Sitting around a table at a hookah bar in New York’s East Village with three women and a gay man, all of them in their 20s and 30s and all resolved to remain childless, a few things quickly became clear: First, for many younger Americans and especially those in cities, having children is no longer an obvious or inevitable choice. Second, many of those opting for childlessness have legitimate, if perhaps selfish, reasons for their decision.

I like seeing people with their children, because they have their special bond, and that’s really sweet, but it’s not something I look at for myself,” says Tiffany Jordan, a lively 30-year-old freelance wardrobe stylist who lives in Queens in a rent-stabilized apartment and dates a man who “practically lives there.

Jordan and her friends are part of a rising tide. Postfamilial America is in ascendancy as the fertility rate among women has plummeted, since the 2008 economic crisis and the Great Recession that followed, to its lowest level since reliable numbers were first kept in 1920. That downturn has put the U.S. fertility rate increasingly in line with those in other developed economies—suggesting that even if the economy rebounds, the birthrate may not. For many individual women considering their own lives and careers, children have become a choice, rather than an inevitable milestone—and one that comes with more costs than benefits.

“I don’t know if that’s selfish,” says Jordan, the daughter of an Ecuadoran and an Ohioan who grew up in the South Bronx, explaining her reasons for a decision increasingly common among women across the developed world, where more than half of the world’s population is now reproducing at below the replacement rate. “I feel like my life is not stable enough, and I don’t think I necessarily want it to be ... Kids, they change your entire life. That’s the name of the game. And that’s not something I’m interested in doing.”

The global causes of postfamilialism are diverse, and many, on their own, are socially favorable or at least benign. The rush of people worldwide into cities, for example, has ushered in prosperity for hundreds of millions, allowing families to be both smaller and more prosperous. Improvements in contraception and increased access to it have given women far greater control of their reproductive options, which has coincided with a decline in religion in most advanced countries. With women’s rights largely secured in the First World and their seats in the classroom, the statehouse, and the boardroom no longer tokens or novelties, children have ceased being an economic or cultural necessity for many or an eventual outcome of sex.

But those changes happened quickly enough—within a lifetime—that they’ve created rapidly graying national populations in developed, and even some developing, countries worldwide, as boomers hold on to life and on to the pension and health benefits promised by the state while relatively few new children arrive to balance their numbers and to pay for those promises."

See the rest of the article here

[quetzalcoatl]

So, why is this bad and what do you propose to do about it?

I generally tend to disregard such complaints on the ground that the people doing the whining are the ones who enacted the policies that demolished a stable working class.

[The Immortal Goon]

I think of myself as child-free rather than childless.

I don't think it's necessarily selfish to limit my reproduction in an attempt to keep my species viable.

Finally, I work 80-90 hours a week oftentimes. It would be irresponsible for me to get a cat, let alone a dog, let alone a child.

[mikema63]

Garsh darned gays not having children.

What? Gays adopting kids? NEVER!!

[Pants-of-dog]

This is decidedly not my fault. I long ago shot past the number of kids needed to replace me and my beloved, so the rest are there to replace all the kids our friends are not having.

Having said that, I have no problem with others deciding to be childless. Nor do I see it as a problem. It is the consequence of two things: the belief that we should not have kids until we are financially stable, and the fact that we do not become financially stable until our late 30s, if we get there at all.

[anasawad]

I don't think this is really a matter of concern.
Kids are huge responsibility and some people simply don't think they can handle it at the given time.
When they can they would probably have kids just like everyone else.

[Scheherazade]

One could say it's a problem inasfar as it's grounded in a lack of respect for life or human condition.

However from an economic perspective it's not that simple.

My personal view is that society massively over-multiplied following the post-WWII baby boom, which resulted in many unnatural and deleterious social and economic effects.

Other negative cultural factors in America play a role, such as the notion that the sole burden of raising a child falls on the individual parents rather than the 'community' or 'tribe', as well as the poor economy.

Likewise much of the economy which more children might replenish is likely fueled by greed, immorality, and oppression - the pornography industry for example, or sweatshop labor abroad run by corporations, so letting the economy deteriorate and no longer sustain itself due to lack of population replenishment, might be a good thing if anything.

Hell, one could even argue that the world would be a better place if humans had never multiplied beyond a single tribe, in a state of nature, of 150 people or so.

Seems that many ancient sages, whether St. Paul or Buddha also knew the potential consequences of recklessly creating more children, and how many of society's ills are based on that.

[Decky]

It is primarily an economic problem (assuming it is a problem in the first place which is far from proved). People can barely afford to scrape by and they are expected to have kids as well? Not going to happen. Rents are high, utilities bills are high and wages are low.

[elsec]

The alternative is to all have children, raise them in homes where they are either not wanted, not able to be looked after for economic reasons, or do not interact with their parents since they are always at work. These children will not be well adjusted.
Not to mention that the low birth rate will most likely look to be a stabilising factor for the economy in the future, since unemployment will be down and job competition will decrease.