• FourteenEyes [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    2 days ago

    Remember back in the 90s when the message was that overpopulation will starve us all and now that the birth rate is declining in response to environmental and economic stress that’s an equally huge crisis

  • Cimbazarov [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    2 days ago

    Made me realize, the nuclear family is a failed concept under capitalism. When every facet of raising children is commodified, the working class is going to just stop having children. Though I also think there is a psychological factor to it too, with the alienation under capitalism making one question what is the purpose of bring a child into this world. And yet all of this is necessary for capitalism to reproduce itself, which is a huge contradiction that is only alleviated a bit by immigration.

    Besides Engels’ book, is there any other marxist analysis of the family structure?

  • Buptendo [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    2 days ago

    thats why they want to control women.

    Women control birth rates and can choke the machine.

    They don’t really have an answer to the natural reaction to austerity. Women can just stop fucking the loser men who support it and/or just stop having kids entirely.

    That’s why theyre pushing all this religious crap.

  • Sebrof [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    2 days ago

    I remember over the summer hearing on NPR (mandatory puke sounds) about how the fertility rates are dropping below replacement everywhere (it’s not) and nobody knows why (we do)

    Nobody has a single clue as to why this could possibly be happening!!!1!!! Why does no one wanna kids!!!

    Anyway it was real fucking frustrating to have pundits and the supersmart scientists dancing around the causes and painting all the white countries having declining birthrates as the biggest existential problem the world has ever known.

    • WoodScientist [she/her]@hexbear.net
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      2 days ago

      Animals in captivity usually don’t breed in large numbers. The animals we domesticated historically were the handful of weird species that would breed in captivity.

      Humans are animals. The more and more people feel they are in captivity, the fewer children they will have.

      • dat_math [they/them]@hexbear.net
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        2 days ago

        The animals we domesticated historically were the handful of weird species that would breed in captivity.

        Do you have a citation for this claim? My understanding from work experience when I was younger is that in modern agriculture, most stock is forcibly bred.

  • vegeta1 [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    2 days ago

    Yeah all thw other comments on here I agree with but… Have you seen the men thats-why-im-confused There’s even more redpill brainrot around and mf use AI to chat with women. Can you truly blame women its slim pickings thats-why-im-confused

    • Wertheimer [any]@hexbear.net
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      2 days ago

      My friends: “If you hate America so much, why do you still live here?”

      Me, aloud: “I don’t have any money.”

      Me, muttering: “If you love your children so much, why are you raising them here?”

    • DragonBallZinn [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.net
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      2 days ago

      Basically.

      Personally, I think I’d be a fine parent as long as I get my shit together (and a fuckton of therapy.)

      And it is for that reason I think that if I got a gf and pissed out a baby now, especially in Amerikkka, I’d be worried the pearly gates would flag me for child abuse just for that.

    • nfreak@lemmy.ml
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      2 days ago

      My wife and I just don’t want kids in general, but even if we did this would completely put a stop in any plans. It feels morally reprehensible to bring up a kid in this country today.

  • Acute_Engles [he/him, any]@hexbear.net
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    2 days ago

    It’s really expensive here and I didn’t have to pay a dime for the hospital and clinic visits or delivery or anything. I truly dont know how US people do it

    • oddlyqueer@lemmy.ml
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      2 days ago

      A lot of us don’t. I mean I guess that’s the point of the article. My partner and I have said for years “maybe, someday, when we can afford it” and just… never could afford it. Now pushing 40 and still can’t. A kid would be a catastrophic cost for us at the moment. Simple as.

    • mickey [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      2 days ago

      The people I know with kids started families in their 30s when they had 2 partners with PMC jobs and lived near grandparents or other extended family. The boomers were able to have kids in their 20s and buy a house with one full time income. Shit is totally unsustainable.

      • redchert@lemmygrad.ml
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        2 days ago

        It was also way more common for relatives/neighbours to watch & take care of the kids if the parents were busy. It does take a village to raise a child and now the village got bulldozed for 8-lanes of traffic and black and white condoslop.

        • mickey [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          2 days ago

          Yeah the dissolution of community is a big part. I remember when Sister Hillary had a book titled “It Takes a Village” and people were roasting her, but the people lambasting her grew up with that extended support! They might even talk about how it used to be that way!, and then not make the connection that losing that informal extended support is a factor in people having fewer kids or having kids later.

          Something else that I think disrupts this is the expectation that people will have to move away from their home towns and families to become established economically. And even have to pick up stakes and make significant moves every few years to maintain their standard of living through moving for jobs. Capitalism has uprooted people and now the upshot is that people aren’t reproducing the workers, this is not complicated to savvy.

    • they fight, get divorces, move in with parents, work extra hours at shitty jobs they hate, carry debt at 20% interest, and jobs that have OK insurance + parental leave are very competitive, and many don’t blink twice at directly exploiting many others if it means their offspring are secure. because that’s all that matters: the legacy of direct lineage.

  • SmithrunHills [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    2 days ago

    porky-happy : Capitalism is so good and freedom-inducing that we’ll continue raising prices and worsening material conditions for the working class. Want a family? You gotta hustle and work 900000+ jobs to earn a fifth of what 1 job could have earned you before

    porky-scared-flipped : WHY AREN’T YOU MAKING BABIES