[jdthedisciple]

> because they are always inconvenient

This strange obsession with materialism is what lead to kids being considered "inconvenient".

Rather, materialism is and should be considered inconvenient when it comes to what really matters in life (children).

That's the root of the issue.

[caeril]

Materialism has long been a driver of human behavior, and children are no exception.

The only thing that's changed is the migration of children from net capital assets for the family to net cost centers. The same thing has happened to animals. What used to be productive workers on the farm are now wholly decadent useless eaters, earning their keep only by being adorable.

Imagine how the calculus of couples saying "we can't afford children" would change if little Timmy could start defraying his own costs in only eight years by doing some basic bookkeeping, junior development tasks, running errands, cooking, personal assistant work, etc for the family. And then becoming a net capital asset from 12 to 20. That's how it was for most of human history, just with slightly less modern tasks.

[rtz121]

> Rather, materialism is and should be considered inconvenient when it comes to what really matters in life (children).

The problematic part is that most people only understand this after they have children.

[anovikov]

About half of women never understand it having or not having children. They don't want to admit it because it's a shame to regret one's own children, but many of them do. Vast majority of men never understand it (mostly because they are married off before they want it, if they married at appropriate age i.e. 45-50, they'd be ok with it, but this is not what women want, they want to take men before they understand they don't want it).

Key is choice. People are not having kids for one stupid simple reason - because they can.

This is why the problem is just the same in every civilisation or culture, it is not at all confined to "Western", "Christian", "Liberal" or "Rich" world. It's everywhere without exception, maybe (hopefully) except Israel. Because Haredim don't give their women a choice.