[lotsofpulp]

> Living your entire life without really worrying about geopolitical bullshit that you have no agency over may very well be the optimal strategy.

But they do have agency. For example, if you don’t like the deal being offered where you have kids and then work to the bone to skirt by so that someone else’s line goes up, you can choose to not have kids.

Eventually, this will impact the other person who wants their line goes up.

[grumpyinfosec]

i'm not sure many people would deny themselves the self-actualization / biological urge of becoming a parent for something as nebulous as sticking it to the man. People certainly didn't stop having children when we all where subsistence farmers or worked in glided aged era sweatshops to save them from the burden of being alive under the boot of capitalism.

[lotsofpulp]

A comparison cannot be made between times when women did not have access to contraception / financial independence to times when women do have access to those things.

And from my mid 30s cohort and younger acquaintences, I think that while they do not explicitly say their decision is about someone else’s line going up, the implication is there that if they cannot afford their kids a certain minimum quality of life, then they are willing to go without kids.

More specifically, if they are going to have to deal with living in a cramped apartment (in their preferred location) and the volatility of rents or a giant mortgage, then they are willing to forego having kids.