Warum die Geburtenrate in Deutschland weiterhin in Sturzmaterialien
https://www.dw.com/en/why-the-birth-rate-in-germany-continues-to-nosedive/a-73499182
Von diacewrb
Warum die Geburtenrate in Deutschland weiterhin in Sturzmaterialien
https://www.dw.com/en/why-the-birth-rate-in-germany-continues-to-nosedive/a-73499182
Von diacewrb
50 Kommentare
Kids in this economy? No thanks
Well, how much for the appartment?
Like people making children in the past did that for altruistic reasons.
Children were a retirement investment (especially for the women that didn’t own the land), free labor and social prestige “asset”.
Countries still having lots of children still hold those traditional values.
Once your lifelong professional career suffers from childbearing interruptions and childcare, that labour is either automated or offshored and that the state/the market gives you better and safer ROI, you don’t “need” children anymore.
Pretending past generations were more altruistic is simply a lie.
People will make more children when it will be worth it egoistically again, that’s all.
The answer is simple: there isn’t a place to make babies (meaning, housing is too expensive) and not enough resources to grow them up (meaning, food is too expensive).
obviously young people can’t afford anything, how would they afford a child?
It’s crazy everyone knows the answer but everytime the question is asked, leaders put their head in the sand.
We’re broke bitch. And there’s no housing.
Low salaries, high taxes and social security contributions and no pension security.
What a mystery!
No need for any big articles. Everything is extremely expensive, especially housing. With my girlfriend and our 2 full salaries we could not even really afford a 3 room apartment in my city.
Combine that with the future outlook looking like complete shit, especially in regards to wealth inequality, and it’s pretty fucking easy to see why.
In every country it nosedives
We don’t have the necessary day care. Simple as that.
The mothers have to severely reduce their working hours to make it work. A lot of people only have one child because of that reason alone.
If you don’t have grandparents nearby who can help out from time to time your screwed if your child gets sick or the Kindergarden is closed again because of some „development measures“
The mothers on the other hand who stay at home are missing in their line of work. Most often as nursing or social workers. It’s like an endless circle.
As long as conservative politicians don’t accept that the old family model no longer work, we won’t see an increase in births.
Well it’s a good thing we have AI and robots to replace us.
Why I only have only one child:
When I was young, I couldn’t afford enough living space for two more kids (although I always wanted 3 children).
Now, when I earn enough to sustain my family and theoretically, I could spend an additional €1000 for two more bedrooms, I am just too old. I don’t want to put my wife through the risk of child bearing at her age, also I don’t want to be an ancient man when my kids will only grow up: I want to support them, not require their support.
So the main issue for me always was insane property prices: in Germany as well as in back in Moscow.
All the parental leave in the world, all the housing in the world, and all the money in the world cannot make a woman want kids who has decided that the physical, mental and social risks are too great.
It’s not just the money. It’s the mental load, the risk-reward ratio, and the notion that being a mother is not the pinnacle of existence for every woman.
Absolutely there are women who would love to have (more) children but can’t because of housing and money issues. But not all of them.
https://www.the-scientist.com/universe-25-experiment-69941
Having kids would ruin me financially, and it’s not like the costs of living are getting better here, so that’d screw *them* too. Especially if they want to go into higher education.
I’m terrified for the prospects of a future society for any kids I bring into the world.
This is a global phenomenon
There are a couple things:
* Housing affordability: You need a home and stability. Rent and buying prices basically keep rising faster than salaries, that gives uncertainty.
* Education: When you are educated, you factor in everything. Do the maths and decide if you can provide a good life for your kid.
* Job market: When the job market does not keep up with costs of living or is flaky. People will not jeopardise what they have. Think like a company, if no growth prospect, no hiring. So, if no growth prospect (job stability and pay rises above inflation) no kids.
* International instability: There are wars everywhere and some of them very close. That does not call for making kids.
If any of the above rises doubts to people, they will use birth control. You don’t want to bring a soul here if you think they won’t have a good life.
Housing, housing is expensive!!
Education is long and has a diminishing return, outside the fact of just having diploma paper. In the end you still must gather valuable professional skills somewhere outside the school/uni.
Layoffs and mass-layoffs previously virtually unknown now become more and more frequent
Job search time increased!
The only improvement that I see i regards of a family creation, is an appearance of remote works and (until recently) an IT job heaven.
Germany’s age demographics are terrible.
The large dominant generation of the last 70 years is retiring and will be supported by a much smaller cohort of taxpayers.
It’s a mushroom demographic. A small bunch of taxpayers, struggling with cost of living increases and unaffordable housing, can’t afford to have kids and must support great numbers of the elderly, themselves, and also pay for the country’s infrastructure
It’s not achievable. Something will collapse. And then anger and division will ensue.
It is not only economic problem. People just don’t want to have children. Personally, I don’t like most of children. My husband also. We have enough money to raise children, not in luxury, but comfortable life, but we don’t want to change our lives. Yes, we have pets. Problem is that economy is based on generational substitution. We should think how we can change that. I am 30 but I don’t believe I am going to have sufficient retirement, so I save money myself.
Being childless is revolutionary? It is the BASELINE now.
Having kids is like being a rebel nowadays.
And why is that?
In my opinion it is because parenthood is culturally OPTIONAL!
that is main reason. It is no longer one of the default activities in life, something people expect others and themselves to do.
You can have kids, but you don’t have too. If you feel the price and sacrifice is too big – you don’t.
And truth is – the price and sacrifice is too big. Not simply on material level.
Having kids is a pain in the ass. I really don’t think it’s about money. Why in the world would I have kids? It would destroy my fun lifestyle.
we all know why. i’m so tired of these headlines
Ironically, Ursula’s (vdL) twitter profile bio mentions: “mother of seven”.
While Europeans can’t afford raising a child or two..
Because Quality of life is better than quantity of life?
Well I don’t feel so bad about our situation now
With what I earn ( not Germany) I’d struggle to live on my own, let alone having kids
Because society makes children a burden, not an asset. And, quite frankly, you can’t exit society to go live in the woods these days, now can you? Therefore, because people want to live and succeed in society, children are born more because of „oops“ than „let’s do this“ (higher birthrates in lower income areas), when they’re born at all. Because mom and dad can’t afford a house or apartment, and can’t afford food, and can’t afford clothes. Because all their money went to the top before they were even able to get a taste.
Long term, you can’t have growing societies with all the profit going to the top and scraps going to the bottom if you want your country to survive. People have to be able to earn enough money to comfortably grow families and create the next generation. You can’t hire people to stock shelves and perpetuate your country’s culture if those people are never born to begin with.
Too expensive
Next
My partner and me are planning on having children but want to save up money first… It’s a financial commitment and not to be taken lightly nowadays, at least in my opinion… If I hear from older generations it was like “ oh well we felt like it and then just got 3 kids right away“ I mean you can still make it work but to give the kid a good basis you have to have some money stashed away I think… And then you need to love off of something and you need retirement plans and so on and so on….living just got so expensive I don’t want to have to put that pressure on a potential kid in any way
>Above all, young female academics are increasingly remaining childless. For this reason, Bujard said, the only way is to improve the compatibility of work and family.
>“The worst-case scenario is that there will be even more serious problems with social insurance in the long term with a continually sinking birth rate in 2030. That would cause serious harm to prosperity: Contributions for social insurance would have to go up, pensions would be lower, and there would also have to be more cuts in the health system and the care sector,“ he said.
Yes, that means turning to a CARE ECONOMY instead of production and service economy. Capitalists really hate care economy since it means investing in individual humans instead of investing in undead capital accumulation for a rich minority.
Maybe because politicians make policy for the benefit of old people and rich people.
It is hard to be a normal young person having kids in a place build to appeal old people and the 1%.
I think the answer will remain a mystery.
It’s not just finances. Women just have a choice now not to be „just broodmares“ with no own income at the cost of their physical and mental wellbeing. That is not to insult mothers but I would rather be miserable without being forced to carry some man’s offspring that splits me open after several pregnancies of children that bring me no joy because it is seen „“as my duty““.
Finances play a role for many families, but most of these articles neglect the role of choice and autonomy for women. Many women are now putting off having kids until later (for disparate reasons), having fewer children, or having no children at all. Women didn’t have much control over their fertility until a few decades ago, and now that people have somewhat changed their view of women’s roles in society, the idea of having many children isn’t as palatable.
Children used to be an investment, and now they are a consumption good in our current situation. If the capitalist state wants its citizens to have children it has to make the venture profitable, just like we accept is the case for every other thing.
When you know a child costs almost 200.000€ here in Belgium, it’s something to think about. I am one and done and even then its very expensive and have no one to take care of my child if needed. No village anymore, insane work hours with commute, etc.
Short answer: Cost of living up, money available for said cost not there.
Germany has new law when family makes 175k € brutto, you get no money for child support for whole year. Which translates to now entire family of 3+ has to live from single salary. And Germany isn’t cheap place to live. Kids aren’t cheap either. Now I don’t want to have kids, because we would live from salary to salary. And government is like “surprised pikachu face”.
Why is the solution always „drive up the birth rate by doing x y and z“ instead of adapting to a new normal where for the first time in human history people do not have to have children they dont want and should not be coerced, forced or bribed into it by politicians?
The countries with the highest birth rates are the poorest.
Why in all those articles they bemoan the state of social security systems and how future pensions are going to be super low but no one tries to change the system? Surely there must be a better way than relying on the next generations to support the elderly.
Sadly it doesnt have a single short answer, because its a mix of everything
Housing is expensive and we include a lot of „luxuries“ nowadays.
Woman can decide now to not have children and there is less pressure on them to be mothers, combine it with easy to get contraceptives and with women having to sacrifice their career if the want to be mothers and its normal that the women that have children has plumeted, specially in educated and middle class women.
We also have more and more entertainment than ever, while acording to my gfs grandma back in the day there was not much to do so they fucked.
Jobs have become more stationary with us being sited in front of a screen all day or dealing with customers, wich is tiring mentally and reduces libido.
Having high living standars changes the philosophy of parenthood, poor people have more kids a lot of the time because more hands are needed earning money , plus in those countries women have less rights be it legally or in practice, while rich people only have kids if they want and in most cases if they feel they can afford to give the kid a good living standard.
Talking with most milenials and genz that want kids but are not having the most common answer isnt just the price of everything, its that you cant give the kid a proper living standard, education and also fear the future.
Our perspective is that we would have to sacrifice most of our life to give them a kid a meh life at best, with internet being the most dangerous it ever was and if its a woman or ends up being gay the future looks bleak compared to a when i was a teen/young adult when the feeling was that everything was going better.
What I don’t understand is why this is not considered a priority in most countries (it is hardly being talked about in the medias or mentioned in politiœal programs).
Most* financial issues come from the fact that elderly, non-working, non-healthy, dependent population becomes higher than the productive population. If the fertility issue is not addressed, the problem will only worsen and worsen, and it will also become harder to conduct birth incitative policies.
As far as I understand it, adressing plumetting birth rates should be considered one of the first emergencies before it becomes too late.
*: well there is also the concentration of wealth and the fact that capital is paid more than workforce
Gee, I wonder why. Everything’s expensive but income didn’t rise, way too few daycare and kindergarten spots, bad support for single mums, a huge shortage of teachers, an incredibly outdated school system, a government bashing part-time jobs and demanding more work hours while completely ignoring the millions of unpaid overtime hours in 2024… I honestly can’t think of *any* reason why people don’t want to raise children anymore.
The global fall of birth rates is not a bad thing per se. Our planet cannot sustain infinite growth. The issue is that our current capitalist system is completely shaped around infinite growth, with no alternative
once the working population is so low and immigration no longer helps them make more money, the Rich and powerful will clone people and grow them in labs/human farms, I know it’s pretty far fetched but there is no low on how far they will go to stay above us
WE CANT AFFORD TO LIVE ANYMORE, fucking he’ll, it’s not rocket science
Because everything is getting more expensive while wages stagnate, retirement is damn near impossible and nobody wants to bring a child into a world where they’re likely to grow up experiencing the effects of unchecked climate change and the constant threat of nuclear fucking annihilation
Literally no idea why this is happening. Or, probably I feel and know as being a dad:
Really. I mean, the government is focussing on the elder people. All „generation“-contracts are cut lose. The elderly and boomer generation giving a big F but asking for more money. They cannot understand the burden the younger ones are going through. Young families cannot effort to buy their own home or rent a big enough place often. Food prices are raising. Gas prices are raising. Taxes are raising. A good amount that the new government told us to do for us, is just not happening – the opposite is. The system is hard to understand for families. Kindergardens are bad maintained, educaters poorly paid. School system is outdated and teachers are overwhelmed. Neurodivergent research and connected issues are raising quickly. No perspective for your next generation at all. Younger generations seems lost. Wars are raising around you. Both parents need to work, full-time in average. Kids are behind. Just bad news everywhere. Social Media and Smartphones, the „all-access-everything“ is a threat and you are afraid. Salaries are going down. Doctors are completely overwhelmed and often „full, no new patients“. In general the benefits to be a family is more a burden. Families are forgotten and talked down.
And we cannot do anything but vote and voting seems to be off as well now. So what is going to happen in Germany? Its going downhill, even more from here. The younger generation are either voting completely LEFT oder completely RIGHT. And the old parties cannot comprehend because they are stuck with their boomer/zoomer base until they are gone and the same for the parties.