Americans’ Ideal Family Size Is Larger Than the Birthrate Suggests
The data provides a fuzzy but important look at preferences.
Yeah, and many Americans might be happier living in different sorts of groups than a single-nuclear-family house — such as an extended family, a group of friends, or occasionally even a monastery or something.
What's more, it's probably healthier for children to grow up with a larger set of caring adults; and people might have more kids if there were more and better ways to spread the costs and work of raising children!
it's probably healthier for children to grow up with a larger set of adults
That's how it was for pretty much all of history up until around the ~15th century when the "family unit" became a lot more defined. It wasn't at all uncommon for a few people in a community (typically women) to help raise the village children while the parents were away at work. Not to mention the fact that most housing for the average person was communal, meaning children got a lot more exposure to adults outside of their biological family.
The idea of "parents should be the sole guardians of their children" didn't really come about until the concept of private land ownership for the peasant class, which didn't reach widespread adoption across Europe (and later the Western World at large) until around the late 1400s.
Archive Link : https://archive.ph/NbViJ
Also, if people can't afford homes and have less job security, you can see why there is a difference
I make more than the average household in my state as a single man.
I can barely keep my life afloat.
I have a girlfriend who so makes more than the average household in my state.
She can barely keep her life afloat.
We are both in relatively stable positions.
Ain't no way in hell we could afford to buy a house and have a kid. We would need at least 100% more money. At a minimum.
I have a friend who, between his wife and him, do make nearly 100% more than us. They have a kid. They... Are hoping their lease agreement doesnt change because what's available for housing is a joke, and expensive.
Thanks for the archive link. From the article:
A person goes to college, works a few years, meets somebody and doesn’t want to rush into anything—maybe wants to pay off student loans first or save for a house, which takes a few years or more.
Maybe? Most people I know in this scenario wait until they have their financial lives in order (have enough money to save a little something after paying for all of their expenses including student loans) before even getting married. If they can't save they are typically not getting married. And then they try to save more before buying a place before considering having one child. By the time they reach a stable financial level they may have aged themselves out of a larger family.
The only people I know who are having kids in their 20s or earlier into their relationships are having unplanned pregnancies.
Sure. A lot of people in the U.S. are choosing to not have children in the U.S. because the environment within the country is so bad.
While correct, kids are expensive and require large incomes to raise them safely.
Maternal mortality rates (especially Black maternal mortality rates) are sky-high for the OECD, and a good chunk of the country has banned abortion. Maybe people who can bear children also want to minimize their chance of death.
Edit: Also? Climate change. People want a better future for their kids, not a smoldering hellscape.
Also, this: https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/endocrine/index.cfm
People might be having trouble actually having the babies they want.