[tomtheelder]

Then why does the birth rate steadily go down as you move up the income curve? My experience is that my wealthy adult peer group just has almost no interest in having children while my high school friends, many struggling badly financially, all already have families.

[throwawaysleep]

Higher standards. The person you are replying to wants stable housing on some of the most desirable land in the world. The conditions for upper middle class people to have kids are exceedingly high by any standard.

[angmarsbane]

I don't think it is an absurd or even high standard to want reasonably priced (30% of income) shelter (whether owned or rented) within a reasonable commuting distance (30 mins one-way) of a job.

Am I truly out in left field on this?

[speakfreely]

You're solving for this with the constraint being your job. If you tried to solve this problem with family being the constraint and the job and financial situation being more variable, all of a sudden your options open up. Your constraints show your priorities.

[throwawaysleep]

You don't want just a job. You probably want an elite and interesting job, which for a dev to be paying out a large percentage of their salary is probably in San Francisco or Seattle or New York.

You could take a boring remote job with more average pay out in Kansas if family were a priority and pay off a house in a year or two.

[BeFlatXIII]

If you're poor, children make you more poor. If you're tenuously upwardly-mobile, children can derail you into being poor.

[angmarsbane]

The more money you make the higher the potential loss in terms of child support and alimony should there be a divorce.