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Maxim Lott's avatar

While I think these are fascinating theories that likely have some degree of truth...

What about the very simple theory that people have fewer kids when their opportunity cost to having kids rises?

I bet that explains most of the decline.

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Salpinx's avatar

You are making this waaaaaay too complicated. If you were to visit some of these poorer countries, you would immediately find that in most of them, the idea of parents providing a quarter century or more of full financial support for their children is a totally alien concept. Before WW2 in this country, it was still pretty common for kids to start working full time immediately upon completing primary school. They would continue to live with their parents, helping with the household expenses, until they got married in their teens and began the cycle for a new generation. Children in such societies are a huge financial boon for their parents. Not having them makes survival more difficult. In our society, parents are expected to shovel most of their life's earnings into the bottomless pit of child rearing and college educations in the hope that maybe their kids will one day help defray the cost of three bowls of gruel a day in a nursing home.

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