Less Sex, Fewer Babies: Blame The Internet And Career Priorities

[Sherman A1]

Nate Koch isn't sure what to make of the online dating scene.

"There's no rules," the 23-year-old Colorado resident says. "We don't know what to do on these apps. It feels like kind of, like, the Wild West."

And it can often feel extremely time-consuming and unproductive, says Koch, a recent college graduate. "I'm literally applying to jobs at the same time that I'm dating. The similarity between the two is a little, like, horrifying to me," he says.

The confusion over the rules of romance in the digital age shared by Koch and so many others might explain why millions of Americans are having less sex than previous generations did at the same age. Add in a focus on building a career before having a family, and it all may be contributing to a national birthrate that keeps falling.

https://www.npr.org/2019/08/06/747571497/less-sex-fewer-babies-blame-the-internet-and-career-priorities

[Kurt V.]

1. Fertility rates have been dropping world wide for decades ( a few pockets are the exception) .

It's the empowerment of women that's the reason and nothing to do with men at all. lol

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. As Kurt V. says.

This is hardly breaking news. People have been having fewer and fewer babies, with most countries reproducing at below replacement rates for some time now. Even traditionally Catholic countries as Spain (1.33 births per woman), Italy (1.35), Brazil (1.73) are well below replacement rate. Even China, that scary monster of demography is currently at 1.62 births. India's women are still having babies at a higher rate, about 2.33 births.

But despite ongoing claims that the planet's population is spiraling out of control, it's going to level off probably by mid-century, and will start declining well before the end of the century. Sooner if climate change starts killing lots of people.

Read Empty Planet by Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson. It's very good.

[Farmer-Rick]

3. Yes, so many people think women want 6 to 18 babies at a time

Many people think women will just have baby upon baby until they can't afford them anymore. But that's not what is happening. Almost every developed country has dropping birth rates. Women just want to see their babies live.

In fact women as hunter gatherers could only take care of 2 children at a time. It wasn't until agriculture and desert goat herders came along that women exceeded 2 babies at a time.

It's what men want, more and more children. Goat herders especially saw their children as property, free labor, a sign of their wealth. And of course then Women were considered property too. Women just wanted to see their babies live through adulthood and not get thrown aside for another wife.

If their babies are dying at a young age because of disease, war or starvation, they have more babies because they just want some of them to live through adulthood. Or they have more babies to keep their husbands from throwing them aside for another younger model. They want their babies to live and a husband whose favor you have lost doesn't take care of your children as well as they do the favorite's.

But in societies that have health care, plenty of food and little violence, women can see their babies live through adulthood. In societies that allow women to be autonomous adults, women don't fear their children will be set aside with her. Babies in developed countries are almost guaranteed to live through adulthood. So, women have fewer babies.

Women are not thoughtless baby making machines. They are mothers who can figure out for themselves how many babies to have. Don't worry excessively about overpopulation of our planet. The women have this, just give them a chance.