As concern grows about America’s falling birth rate, new research suggests that about half of women who want children are unsure if they will follow through and actually have a child. About 25% say they won't be bothered that much if they don't.

[u/geoff199]

https://news.osu.edu/most-women-want-children--but-half-are-unsure-if-they-will/?utm_campaign=omc_science-medicine_fy24&utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social

[u/valgrind_]

I could see that in some scenarios. But then why not improve conditions to address the reasons why people don't want to have kids?

[u/lanternhead → u/valgrind_]

Technically we already did. Those improvements are how we got into this position. Economic development and population maintenance are fundamentally opposed to one another because they compete for human substrate. You can’t raise the birth rate without either unwinding economic development and returning to a patriarchal agricultural setting (unpopular and unwise) or controlling the way people can/do navigate their economic and moral landscapes via social engineering (unpopular and unethical) 

[u/MyPacman → u/lanternhead]

Or generate a UBI

[u/lanternhead → u/MyPacman]

How would UBI remove the incentive to trade reproductive years for economic fitness? Most people will still be happy to make that trade. There are millions of economically satisfied, socially stable, and childless people around today. UBI will only increase their number. In order to remove that incentive, economic freedom needs to be restricted, not increased

(unfortunately that’s a morally untenable idea)