Coincidentally, I’ve been looking into why developed countries (especially East Asian ones) have such low and declining fertility. My conclusion so far is that people really really value positional goods, i.e., things that signal social status, such as prestigious degrees and jobs, homes in the best locations in the biggest cities, luxury goods like cars and handbags, children and mates that one can “show off”, and to such an extent that it often overrides their desires for family, companionship, comfort, leisure, even respect for tradition and filial piety. Many choose to have one high status (i.e., “successful”) child instead of two or more lower status children, or choose to remain single instead of marrying someone perceived to lower their social status, or choose to have no children instead of harming their career prospects, or force their kids into after-school lessons instead of giving them happy childhoods.
Aside from making it hard to raise fertility rates (South Korea’s just declined from 0.78 to 0.72 in one year, despite government policies aimed at increasing fertility), the existence of positional goods is also a counterweight to non-rival goods, implying that higher population can make me (and everyone else) worse off as it increases competition for positional goods.
ETA: Found a Twitter thread giving a bunch of other (perhaps more tractable) reasons for low fertility.
Coincidentally, I’ve been looking into why developed countries (especially East Asian ones) have such low and declining fertility. My conclusion so far is that people really really value positional goods, i.e., things that signal social status, such as prestigious degrees and jobs, homes in the best locations in the biggest cities, luxury goods like cars and handbags, children and mates that one can “show off”, and to such an extent that it often overrides their desires for family, companionship, comfort, leisure, even respect for tradition and filial piety. Many choose to have one high status (i.e., “successful”) child instead of two or more lower status children, or choose to remain single instead of marrying someone perceived to lower their social status, or choose to have no children instead of harming their career prospects, or force their kids into after-school lessons instead of giving them happy childhoods.
Aside from making it hard to raise fertility rates (South Korea’s just declined from 0.78 to 0.72 in one year, despite government policies aimed at increasing fertility), the existence of positional goods is also a counterweight to non-rival goods, implying that higher population can make me (and everyone else) worse off as it increases competition for positional goods.
ETA: Found a Twitter thread giving a bunch of other (perhaps more tractable) reasons for low fertility.