Quote:
Originally Posted by Carth
The fertility rate - the average number of children a woman gives birth to
Big families, thing of the past to be honest. Advances in many areas have meant we no longer need 6 kids to ensure 2 survive to adulthood.
And then there's the cost, have you seen the price of 'named' trainers 
all kids want a phone, TV, laptop/tablet, games console etc etc
Children eh, to be honest, I reckon many families are lucky to afford one 
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The shrinking size of families was at one time about reduced need to ensure some survived. But now it’s about child-bearing as just one of a broadening range of things a woman can choose to do with her life. It’s an interesting conundrum because it sets that most prized of Western cultural achievements - freedom of individual choice, especially in the sphere of sex equality - against the sense of obligation to perpetuate the species.
There is a very serious imperative to fix this, as it is the labour and the taxes of the young that cares for the old. But by the time you’re 80 years old, you face the consequences of your generation’s choice not to replace itself at the same time as finding you’re way too old to do anything about it.
Today’s BBC report makes some half-hearted suggestions about tax incentives for larger families but the problem is rather more fundamental than that. In the longer run, our conception (pun intended) of the balance between our personal freedoms and our obligations to society is going to have to shift, and simple biology means that is going to have more of an impact on women than on men. Interesting times ahead.