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by Analemma_ 2227 days ago
I suspect you're wrong. Economic uncertainty hammers birthrates, and this pandemic has been the ultimate demonstration of uncertainty: in the space of a few weeks, we went from a humming economy to 20% unemployment. It's a brutal reminder that in the contemporary economy you can have the chair kicked out from under you at any second, and that's not conducive to having children.

There also seems to be a lot of anecdotal evidence that people are having way less sex right now, for what that's worth.
2 comments
save_ferris 2227 days ago
> It's a brutal reminder that in the contemporary economy you can have the chair kicked out from under you at any second

This is how I’ve felt my entire career. There are no guarantees for future success, but family planning requires an incredible amount of stability to pull off responsibly.

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tonyedgecombe 2227 days ago
I'm not sure about that, if you are waiting for everything to line up perfectly then you may never be satisfied.
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lotsofpulp 2227 days ago
There’s a certain minimum people should have though, like a stable residence such as house, which is a stretch for many, many young people.
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dumbfounder 2227 days ago
I briefly looked for numbers around the Spanish flu but couldn't find any.

My gut says you will see a mini-boom though. A lot of dogs are getting adopted right now, and adopting a dog is a gateway drug to children for a lot of couples. Would be interesting to see how many kids are "happy accidents" vs intentional though. Oh, I just looked it up and one article says 45% in the US... yeesh.

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jbeam 2227 days ago
The chart in the article shows a dip around the time of the Spanish flu and an over-correction a few years later. But it's probably impossible to isolate the impact of flu vs WWI.

Could definitely see an increase in accidents, but I really doubt that there will be an increase in planned births at least in the short term. Lots of economic uncertainty + general fear of going to the hospital.

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lotsofpulp 2227 days ago
With the advent of IUDs, I would be surprised to see many “accidents” anymore. No one in my social circles has accidentally had a kid.
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