Not really a surprise. Obviously cost of living, home prices, wage stagnation, etc are pretty bad right now. Labour is kicking in austerity again. Future prospects look uncertain.
In general, it’s hard to find a job. It’s honestly hard enough to meet new people sometimes, as the article suggests.
Not the first time of course in history, but the way people know about and relate to the world is different. Plus contraception and abortion are more reliable and accessible than ever (to be clear, this is not a negative).
I’m in my late 20s, most of my friends are in their mid 20s. Most don’t want children, usually due to their own physical and mental health concerns, but also just due to the socioeconomic and political situation. The ones that do are trying to find a decent place to live and get a job that pays enough to support children. That takes time, you actually need to move up the corporate ladder now, at least if you want to give your children what you had while growing up or better (all uni graduates, mostly from what we’d consider middle class backgrounds).
But of course at the end of the day: does this even matter? Does not having enough births to replace deaths change a thing? Does not wanting children really mean anything?
Of course I bring up a lot of issues, but most of my friends wouldn’t want children even in a perfect situation. Sure, it’ll pressure the social safety nets maybe down the line, but perhaps that is just inevitable and we should be looking at modernising our systems instead. Who knew 50-150 year old ideas wouldn’t hold up forever?
The wealthy need consumers, but as a society could comfortably live with a lot more and a lot fewer people.
Most of the world’s problems are driven by excessive population growth. Even our capitalist economic systems seem to demand an expanding population. It’s pretty obvious that endless expansion is just going to explode or maybe we will have destroyed the climate before then.
The long and the short is that we should be reducing population and find ways to live with fewer billionaires.