Whereas previous economic shocks such as the oil crisis of 1973 caused a temporary dip in fertility, the 2007-2008 banking meltdown was different because birth rates continued to decline even after the economy started growing again, says to Daniele Vignoli, professor of demography at the University of Florence in Italy. He believes the turbulence a decade and a half ago marks the point at which people’s uncertainty about the future began to take hold.
Yep. We’re in the actual late stage capitalism — the majority of politicians are full-blown corporate sociopaths bought and paid for by the wealthy; so much so that most of them don’t even attempt to act competent anymore. “competition” is 1/10th what is was decades ago due to corporate expansion and consolidation/acquisition. Greedflation is extracting whatever value remains from the collapse of the middle class. Economic mobility has been destroyed across the developed world from decades of neoliberalism. Wealth inequality is higher than it was during the Great Depression, and the opportunity to own a home or provide for a family is non-viable without a significant reduction in quality of life/standard of living for the first time in at least a century. Automation and AI are rapidly advancing to completely devalue/replace human labor. There is a near scientific certainty that climate change will cause ecosystems and agriculture to collapse around the world, and billions to starve, sometime in the next 20-50 years.
If anyone wonders why people are not having in kids in 2023, I auto-assume they’re a complete simpleton dumb cunt or suffering dementia.