re: How dynamics of the average US household changed since the 60s

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You're right. I want to spend a day on the lake instead of a birthday party where everyone cries. I want to go on a fun date with my wife instead of arguing about who will cook and who will help with homework. I want to try a new hobby instead of trying to get a toddler to eat a chicken nugget. That's just plain selfishness.

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I’m married with 2 kids and my life is more aligned with all of your former propositions (outside of one child and chicken nuggets) than the latter.

I read your prior post too, and I don’t know a single person in my friend group that feels like you’re describing everyone in your friend group as.

Yes we are all busy, but I don’t know a single person that’s nearly as miserable as you make your friends sound.

This is because single income families aren’t possible for most lower and middle class people anymore. Both spouses working severely strains childcare responsibilities. This makes having children increasingly unaffordable.

The negative social issues we see are largely the result of economic changes. Purchasing power and wages have stagnated relative to cost of living, and this is the result.

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This makes having children increasingly unaffordable.

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Yet lower income and the dependent class are having more children than those in higher economic strata

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the joys of parenthood.

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oh, spare us. parenthood is a fricking slog.

I would say that the female considerations to have kids has been “educated” out of them. Higher education, “liberal art degrees “ teach women to be cerebral and being cerebral about birthing leads to terrifying, bloody, and painful thoughts about the process.

Women and men are built for procreation. Women being hit over the head time and time again that they are equal to men is just force-feeding them bullshite. Women are left without a real identity except for their degree/ education letters after their name and there is no appealing degree for motherhood. Women quietly get taught to hate the idea of themselves as a traditional woman.

Downvote away!

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Yet lower income and the dependent class are having more children than those in higher economic strata

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Because they are paid to. The middle classes are PAYING to. Big difference. You get more of what you subsidize and less of what you tax.

I know the LBJ effect

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Money aside, outsourcing the ‘raising’ of your child the majority of most weeks has more costs to family than just money.

Throw in the parents who also hit the gym after work, have date nights, travel overnight days at a time for their jobs…or parents who are not “present” when they are present (thinking about work while at the kids’ soccer game, for example).

Many kids are getting parent scraps at best.

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Throughout history, the children of wealthy people have been raised by nannies.

Do a little research on the royal families of Europe. Those kids hardly ever saw their parents. And if you weren't a male, you got sold off to the highest bidder at an early age.

And those people were all "Christians", BTW.

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Yep. The welfare state and the decline of the Christian values that this country has caused this. I’ll throw porn, abortion, and the sex industry in there, too.

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Now go look at South Korean and Japanese demographic changes and see it isn’t a Christian issue at all.

It’s an education and economic issue that all developed nations end up facing.

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It depends on what your priorities are.

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It's the economy. I'm sure a lot of it is a value shift but for most normal people, it's economics. There's still a lot of nuclear families out there that want to have kids but they can only afford 1 instead of 3.

If I had another kid, my budget would have to dramatically tighten given my income and how everything keeps going up. I doubt I have another kid unless I get another promotion soon.