Tyranomaster
Guy who writes stuff
- Joined
- Oct 5, 2022
- Messages
- 746
- Points
- 133
As someone who is married, and is planning on having children in a year or two, there are a lot of reasons people aren't getting married and having kids in the US. Interestingly, most of the reasons are actually not what people think. People point out all sorts of garbage that empirically we know the opposite to be true. "It's too expensive to buy a house, or food" Historically and even in current times, the poor have the most children, it's just a fact. It has very little to do with, 'lack of knowledge of birth control', and a lot more to do with life horizons.
In a wealthy country, many of your daily stressors are outside of your own control, and your expectation to continue living is very high. As your life horizon expands longer, you don't feel the biological drive as much to make a family. It is rare (but obviously not unheard of, all of you who will chime in with "oh oh, I know one, therefore your statement is false") that elderly people regret having a family. Animals thrive in challenge and, to a lesser extent, suffering. If you have a pet, and especially more intelligent pets like dogs or rats, you know that they want to be constantly challenged with new toys or games. They don't like sitting around and only doing the same thing all the time. Humans are like that on steroids.
Often times people mistake satiation with long term happiness. A dog that is kept in a cage and given all the food and water it wants is not a happy dog. Humans thrive on new challenges and difficulties. A few people get that from their jobs (I used to as an engineer), but most only get it from raising another human being.
There is also something to be said about being able to absolutely trust someone to have your back is obviously a big boon as well. No fault divorce has absolutely devastated that aspect of most people's marriages.
In a wealthy country, many of your daily stressors are outside of your own control, and your expectation to continue living is very high. As your life horizon expands longer, you don't feel the biological drive as much to make a family. It is rare (but obviously not unheard of, all of you who will chime in with "oh oh, I know one, therefore your statement is false") that elderly people regret having a family. Animals thrive in challenge and, to a lesser extent, suffering. If you have a pet, and especially more intelligent pets like dogs or rats, you know that they want to be constantly challenged with new toys or games. They don't like sitting around and only doing the same thing all the time. Humans are like that on steroids.
Often times people mistake satiation with long term happiness. A dog that is kept in a cage and given all the food and water it wants is not a happy dog. Humans thrive on new challenges and difficulties. A few people get that from their jobs (I used to as an engineer), but most only get it from raising another human being.
There is also something to be said about being able to absolutely trust someone to have your back is obviously a big boon as well. No fault divorce has absolutely devastated that aspect of most people's marriages.