Why Are Westerners Having Less Kids ?

Dicehunter

Dicehunter

Dicehunter

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Something that I've noticed more and more in the last few years among all of my friends is a growing trend.

Now, Around 50% of my friends are Indian that I grew up with and the other 50% are western i.e English, Irish, Scottish, German, French and a few Americans and the thing I've noticed is that all my Indian friends aspire to have a family with at least 3-4 kids which is great and bearing in mind most of my Indian friends aren't rich, They are just working 9-5 jobs like everyone else.

The other 50% of my friends who are westerners maybe 1 in 5 has 1 kid with the rest deciding to get a dog, Cat or maybe both.

Now what a couple decides to do is their own business but I've asked other people and they've all told me the same thing that I've observed happening.

I'm curious as to why westerners are deciding to purposefully diminish their own population, Even the UN has said that the USA, UK, Germany, France etc... has a birth rate so low it might as well be going backwards.

Again this is just my own observation and what I've learned so far, Thoughts ?

EDIT

A few sources for declining western birthrates -

A UN article points towards replacing Europe's ever decreasing population with immigrants as a solution

http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/migration/migration.htm

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...g-despite-an-increasing-world-population.html

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/23/baby-crisis-europe-brink-depopulation-disaster

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32929962

http://www.forbes.com/sites/joelkot...d-europes-decline-its-the-birth-rates-stupid/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/current...or-developed-countries-declining-birth-rates/
 
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Dogs are less like horrible little gremlins. That aside i feel it's probably the different views of life. Westerners tend to have a " i want to live MY life attitude " and i know several who would consider having a child a " hindrance " to there uninteresting adventures. Whereas Eastern block people tend to have a more prominent " i want to have a happy successful family attitude "
 
Stress probably.

A lot of Indian families I know have a lot more family members living in the same household, rather than the typical arrangement seen in Western families. There are usually grandparents, aunties, uncles, etc. Perhaps that makes it easier to have more children due to the extra help available?
 
Two reasons.

We prefer to put fewer eggs in our basket. i.e we'd much rather have fewer children, but invest more time and expense into each child.

We have families later in life in order to enjoy a longer responsibility free time in our 20s and early 30s. This makes larger families much more difficult.

I'm 35 and my wife 40. We have one child of 18 months old, and another on the way in April next year. We won't be having any more, we're already pushing our luck.

Many people are also put off by the expense of having children, and the expense of running a stable family home etc.
 
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Selfishness, its not wrong either.

This is the society we allowed to happen, liberal living conditions mean people want to enjoy their life more, naturally kids ruin that.
 
Well it's the demographic economic paradox along with few others theories that link higher socio-economic development with lower overall fertility rates which are largely observed in most developed nations. Pretty popular debate in social sciences actually with quite a few reasonable explanations.

Not saying your Indian friends are poor or poorly educated but it is a culture that is normally linked with higher birth rates so it would only make sense that it would still influence the current generations. I have Eastern European roots and I also have expectations on me to have few kids but I think my parents are coming round to the idea I may just want to skip that since I largely grew up here.

My view is that kids are a huge responsibility in both time and money, not to mention in some countries religion still has a large part in birth rates too.
 
Probably because people like reenacting porno money shot scenes and it goes everywhere but where its meant to :p
 
I've never heard anyone with kids actually say they regret having them. It makes me wonder if they genuinely feel that, or if they feel they couldn't say something so risky.
 
The general idea seems to be people are wanting more out of their own lives before having to commit time to bring another being in to existence, or atleast this is my feelings on the matter.
 
StriderX said:
Selfishness, its not wrong either.

This is the society we allowed to happen, liberal living conditions mean people want to enjoy their life more, naturally kids ruin that.
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Yeah I personally don't see the appeal of kids. That's without even thinking about the average cost of having one, which runs into hundreds of thousands of pounds, I think (remember reading that somewhere).

And then you factor in the likelihood of being able to stay with the child's mum, which these days is almost a rarity. I do wonder if single-parent upbringing is now statistically more common than growing up with both parents?
 
Don't complain, anything that slows population growth at the moment must be a good thing surely? We're currently using 1.5 earths worth of resources a year as it is, which essentially means if we continue like this the human race is boned...
 
Greed, lack of selflessness, easy life, nice house, car, nice job, poor health,the worry of losing employment, housing pressures, lack of housing, not enough bed rooms, relationship problems. There is an all most endless list, a few gernerations in and your Indian friend's childern will suffer them same pressures as the locals.

Raising childern is hard work and giving birth can be dangerous but some of us locals still have large families. Those that dont are just removing themselfs, it will leave room for those that do.
 
Liquiduk said:
The general idea seems to be people are wanting more out of their own lives before having to commit time to bring another being in to existence, or atleast this is my feelings on the matter.
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If our forefathers had this same attitude I'm pretty sure we wouldn't be here :p

Cat_J said:
Don't complain, anything that slows population growth at the moment must be a good thing surely? We're currently using 1.5 earths worth of resources a year as it is, which essentially means if we continue like this the human race is boned...
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Tell that to every country who's birth rate is increasing minus the EU/UK/US/Japan :p
 
Dicehunter said:
So far this makes the most sense to me.
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Selfishness would make sense on the surface of things as people want to have more out of their lives due to higher levels of income and education. It's also become easier than ever to travel and move around the world. Not to mention women's rights have moved forward an awful lot over last half century and so far they are only ones who can produce those babies. More and more women are now working and taking time out to have kids means losing valuable years in a highly competitive job market.

That creates another argument though, is having children a right or a privilege? We mention that it's selfishness that's stopping Western world from having kids but is it not selfish to think that we can all keep making 3-4 babies or even more like we see in poorer countries? All in a world with already strained resources with burgeoning global population and plenty countries out there that can barely sustain its citizens yet their populations keep rising.

Now certain birth rate does need to happen in order for our species to survive but we seem to be working under assumption that current population trends and birth rates as a whole on this planet are sustainable.

EDIT: Forgot to add a sentence that maybe the populations in developed world and Western nations as you put it are simply starting to reach their saturation point.
 
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