Why Are Americans Obsessed With Having Children? (generations, Christmas, statistics)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I have noticed that the majority of Americans are very keen on having children and find it weird when someone doesn't want to have kids. Why are Americans so obsessed with having children? What's so great about it?
And why do people call women selfish when they don't have the desire to have children? I think it's better to admit you're selfish than have kids you're going to resent later on. And with how uncertain the economy is these days, how do people even afford to have children?
Sometimes people have kids for selfish reasons, other times people opt to not have kids for selfish reasons. It goes both ways
Teen birthrate hit it's lowest point in2013 since the stat has been tracked. Women are having children later in life on avg, in fact birth rates drop for women in their teens and 20s but rose for women in their 30s and 40s. The overall birthrate fell to 1.8 births per female which is below the replacement rate of 2.0 that some researchers say is needed to keep a population from dropping
I have noticed that the majority of Americans are very keen on having children and find it weird when someone doesn't want to have kids. Why are Americans so obsessed with having children? What's so great about it?
And why do people call women selfish when they don't have the desire to have children? I think it's better to admit you're selfish than have kids you're going to resent later on. And with how uncertain the economy is these days, how do people even afford to have children?
A lot of the commenters were very hostile and said these women were deranged and selfish for not wanting to pop out a few kids.
Does anyone else have trouble understanding the fascination with having kids?
In your own post, you call them selfish, then just say it's ok for them to be selfish.
As for how do people afford kids, typically they give up things for themselves in order to provide for their children. People who choose not to have children strictly because they want the money for themselves, are selfish.
As you've pointed out, there's nothing wrong with being selfish, but you need to recognize that it is selfish to choose not to have children based entirely on the fact that you want more nice things for yourself.
Parents who choose not to buy christmas gifts so they can go on a cruise are being selfish. It's their money, so they are entitled to do whatever they want with it, but they are focused only on themselves.
Taking that a step further and choosing not to give life and raise children so you can go on a cruise meets the very definition of selfish.
That said, everyone is selfish to some extent. I don't think there's anything wrong with it. If I guy points a gun at me and says he'll either kill me or a stranger next to me, but one of us is going die, given the choice, I'll pick the stranger next to me. In a rather indirect way, that same selfishness is behind the decision to have kids or not have kids, especially if you're on a tight budget.
Sometimes people have kids for selfish reasons, other times people opt to not have kids for selfish reasons. It goes both ways
Teen birthrate hit it's lowest point in2013 since the stat has been tracked. Women are having children later in life on avg, in fact birth rates drop for women in their teens and 20s but rose for women in their 30s and 40s. The overall birthrate fell to 1.8 births per female which is below the replacement rate of 2.0 that some researchers say is needed to keep a population from dropping
To further reiterate this point, worldwide, we are looking at serious declines in population stating in a couple of decades and continuing into the foreseeable future, barring changes in behavior, at least according to this source:.
For years, we have been warned about the looming danger of overpopulation: people jostling for space on a planet that’s busting at the seams and running out of oil and food and land and everything else.
It’s all bunk. The “population bomb” never exploded. Instead, statistics from around the world make clear that since the 1970s, we’ve been facing exactly the opposite problem: people are having too few babies. Population growth has been slowing for two generations. The world’s population will peak, and then begin shrinking, within the next fifty years. In some countries, it’s already started. Japan, for instance, will be half its current size by the end of the century. In Italy, there are already more deaths than births every year. China’s One-Child Policy has left that country without enough women to marry its men, not enough young people to support the country’s elderly, and an impending population contraction that has the ruling class terrified.
And all of this is coming to America, too. In fact, it’s already here. Middle-class Americans have their own, informal one-child policy these days. And an alarming number of upscale professionals don’t even go that far—they have dogs, not kids. In fact, if it weren’t for the wave of immigration we experienced over the last thirty years, the United States would be on the verge of shrinking, too.
What happened? Everything about modern life—from Bugaboo strollers to insane college tuition to government regulations—has pushed Americans in a single direction, making it harder to have children. And making the people who do still want to have children feel like second-class citizens.
What to Expect When No One’s Expecting explains why the population implosion happened and how it is remaking culture, the economy, and politics both at home and around the world.
Because if America wants to continue to lead the world, we need to have more babies.
That seems strange because you see women popping out at least two to three kids, especially in poor neighborhoods.
Anecdotal evidence is no evidence at all. Replacement level is 2. live births (some sources say 2.3) per woman of childbearing age over her lifetime. Here in the United States we are well below that.
China is an even more interesting case. After many decades of waging a zero population growth war, China is facing severe reductions in poulation over the next century or two:
The latest numbers, released on April 28th and based on the nationwide census conducted last year, show a total population for mainland China of 1.34 billion. They also reveal a steep decline in the average annual population growth rate, down to 0.57% in 2000-10, half the rate of 1.07% in the previous decade. The data imply that the total fertility rate, which is the number of children a woman of child-bearing age can expect to have, on average, during her lifetime, may now be just 1.4, far below the “replacement rate” of 2.1, which eventually leads to the population stabilising.
This is happening all over the Western and industrialized world, leading to smaller and aging populations, which eventually means severe declines as the aged die off.
Some may not think this is a problem at all. Others may think that these declines would eventually lead to severe economic consequences as well. Of course we wont know until it happens.
I have noticed that the majority of Americans are very keen on having children and find it weird when someone doesn't want to have kids. Why are Americans so obsessed with having children? What's so great about it?
And why do people call women selfish when they don't have the desire to have children? I think it's better to admit you're selfish than have kids you're going to resent later on. And with how uncertain the economy is these days, how do people even afford to have children?
A lot of the commenters were very hostile and said these women were deranged and selfish for not wanting to pop out a few kids.
Does anyone else have trouble understanding the fascination with having kids?
No.
A simple understanding of evolution brightly illuminates the powerful drive to procreate.
As for the United States, it does not have a particularly high birth rate. As of 2011, the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development ranks the U.S. birth rate as 166th out of 234 countries and semi-sovereign territories, with a birth rate of 12.7/1000 (the global rate being 19.4/1000). List of sovereign states and dependent territories by birth rate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
On a side note, it's embarrassingly ludicrous to use the comment section of an online paper, particularly a rage that thrives on being outrageous such as the New York Post, for being representative of... well, of pretty much anything.
PS - Your use of inappropriate terms such as 'obsessed' is telling. Pot, meet kettle.
I will try again since my post was strangely deleted.
I don't think Americans are obsessed with having children. The birth rate is barely above replacement now. Americans are having fewer babies than ever. The OP should explain where she gets the idea Americans are obsessed with having babies.
I will try again since my post was strangely deleted.
I don't think Americans are obsessed with having children. The birth rate is barely above replacement now. Americans are having fewer babies than ever. The OP should explain where she gets the idea Americans are obsessed with having babies.
I hear about it in day to day life. I always hear people around me talk about how great it is to have kids and when I'm going to have some. And if you read the comments section of the article I posted, you can see how many people were outraged at the fact that some women wanted dogs instead of children.
I hear about it in day to day life. I always hear people around me talk about how great it is to have kids and when I'm going to have some. And if you read the comments section of the article I posted, you can see how many people were outraged at the fact that some women wanted dogs instead of children.
The comment section of another site is not usually worthy of the great debates section. It's also not usually worth of being read by anyone.
What is your actual stance? Do you think not having children is selfish, or not? Do you think being selfish is a problem, or not?
I'm not sure I follow your argument here.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
