• switcheroo@lemmy.worldEnglish
    14·
    11 days ago

    And to incentivize having kids, we’ll make sure you can’t afford daycare, or groceries, or rent. Also we’re gonna make sure depending on the state you live in, that if there’s complications, you’ll just fucking die because we don’t approve of you have a life saving abortion no matter what.

    Also no days off work and insurance isn’t going to cover all that.

  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
    71·
    11 days ago

    Why Won’t You Have [White] Kids

    Plenty of people are having kids. They just aren’t the kind of kids the plutocracy wants to see.

    • deadbeef79000@lemmy.nzEnglish
      7·
      10 days ago

      That’s always been allowed :-)

      The ‘crisis’ is that there appear to be a lot of people who would ordinarily want to have kids except for… gestures broadly at capitalism.

      • blarghly@lemmy.worldEnglish
        52·
        10 days ago

        Hot take: this isnt because of capitalism.

        We’ve had capitalism for a while now. Birth rates were higher during the robber baron era.

        It isn’t because raising kids is hard now. People had kids in Dickensien England when they worked 16 hour days, 6 days a week, in the get-kicked-in-the-nuts factory.

        Its not because the future looks bleak. Native tribes in the far north have been reproducing for millenia, despite knowing for a fact that they will suffer perpetual night and horrifically cold temperatures with scarce food and not enough warmth for every winter. People also had kids during the cold war, when many had legitimate fears of nuclear annihilation.

        Instead, it is because (1) people have a choice, and more are choosing no, and (2) because people are not indoctrinated with the belief that having children is their purpose in life anymore.

        (1) is due to condoms, birth control, and abortions. Remove these things, as in the past when they were not available or were significantly less available, and birth rates will go up. Many would be unhappy about this… but birth rates would go up.

        (2) is due to the breakdown of organized religion, communities, and family structures. The church told people - women especially - that their job was to make as many babies as possible. But fewer people go to church these days, and having children or having a career or having children and a career is considered a choice that any woman is free to make without judgement. And with family and community setting an example, it is both visibly more possible to care for children and also more pressured. If you are a young woman in 1950, and you go to church every sunday where they tell you your purpose and responsibility is to have children, and all your friends are having children, and you saw your mom raise 12 kids in a shotgun shack, then you too will feel like you should start popping out kids regardless of your life circumstance.

        • greyscaleAEnglish
          1·
          10 days ago

          I could believe this in the 90s, but in 2026, its literally too expensive and why the fuck would you squirt out a kid into THIS situation?

          • blarghly@lemmy.worldEnglish
            12·
            10 days ago

            its literally too expensive

            It isnt. If you had a kid tomorrow, you would figure it out.

            why the fuck would you squirt out a kid into THIS situation?

            Because God told you more babies = more good.

            • greyscaleAEnglish
              2·
              9 days ago

              You realise “you’ll figure it out” is just what people say when someone else is heading into a desperate situation, right?

              • blarghly@lemmy.worldEnglish
                11·
                8 days ago

                I mean, the reality is there are levels and levels of desperation. The world’s poorest, living on less than $2 per day, have had and continue to have children. As someone on Lemmy, the odds are overwhelming that you are in a developed nation or are on the wealthier end of the population in a developing nation. So we have two possible conclusions:

                1. If you had kids, you would still be better off than rural villiagers in Pakistan who also have kids, and would probably be able to get them to adulthood without death occurring prematurely.

                2. If you had kids, you would be worse off than the worlds poorest people. So to achieve your goal of having children, you should move to a rural, impoverished Pakistani villiage and convert to Islam, since we can see here a clear and regularly successful path to achieving your goal.

                This idea is quite persistent on Lemmy, that people need to have some level of comfort, or post-child expected comfort, or expected comfort for their children, before they have kids. But they don’t. Literally every mammal that successfully passed down their genes since the dawn of time has been having children in precarious situations and figuring it out. Sure, you might not want to work 3 fast food jobs while being a single parent just so your kid can live the same life - but you could, and deciding not to do it is a choice.

                And you may ask the question “Well why would I ever make that choice? That seems dumb.” And I agree with you. I also wouldnt make that choice. Personally, I have very little desire to have children at all. But that would probably be different if I’d been more successfully indoctrinated to believe that Jesus is Lord, and Jesus Wants More Babies!