[robertjpayne]

The primary cause of population decline has nothing to do with incomes. You see high income earners having a smaller number of children.

It's because women frankly have better options than motherhood and what stay at home parenting entails.

[nothercastle]

Well there are no security guarantees with being a SAHM. Your husband can easily cheat divorce you now and you don’t get much alimony and only some child support. Its better for the woman and the child to have a backup plan.

[pempem]

I just had this conversation with a friend today.

Yes - given a small number of rights that frankly we should have always had - women have found all kinds of representation in education, salaries and diverse paths in life. Paths not previously open to us and pursued at tremendously high cost.

But population decline frankly is occurring because society is uninterested in changing its relationship with child bearing and child rearing. Men have limited interested in stepping up, women are doing work at home, work at work, work in society. Corporations have less interested in flexibility where women are near continuously penalized or held back. Even in a "progressive" presidency there were more CEOs named John than women CEOs. There's disinterest even when the next generation of workers is on the line and the government...well they are actively moving to unwind the rights we've won.

[HumblyTossed]

> It's because women frankly have better options than motherhood and what stay at home parenting entails.

It's not about having better options so much as knowing that they'll be bringing a child into a world that's only going to get worse. A child who may never own a home, who may struggle to make ends meet. A child who may go bankrupt if they lose the healthcare lotto.