[numbers_guy]

Somebody should superimpose the U-curve with the fertility rate graph. It might be that women employment picked up again when women gave up on having children/families. If you live in a 1st world country and you're too poor to afford to have a family (and by this I mean to be able to raise children with a certain standard of living) you might as well have a career... just to have some semblance of meaning in life.

[jncfhnb]

Income negatively correlated with family fertility rates in the US. That doesn’t mean that economic strife doesn’t lower fertility as some folks will jump to claim though. But I find this proposed explanation to be unlikely.

[numbers_guy]

It's a U-curve as well. Very poor people have low standards when it comes to raising children and less qualms about raising families on welfare with limited opportunities. Once people become educated and middle class but still poor, they have higher aspirations for their children and are less prone to have children if they know they won't be able to provide an adequate standard of living. Rich people have typically an above average number of children. I was mostly talking about the middle class, the ones who are educated but still poor.

[jncfhnb]

I agree with this! But I don’t think the effect size here is enough to drive the outcomes we’re talking about.