“It’s hard to have children in the United States right now,” said Hayford, who is also director of Ohio State’s Institute for Population Research. “People feel more worried about the future than they might have been several decades ago. They worry about the economy, child care, and whether they can afford to have children.”
Source: Myth Busted: Falling Birth Rate Not Due to Less Desire To Have Children
Some past surveys have found such extreme fear in people under age 30 that they believe humanity might go extinct by 2030. Seriously. Consequently, they think having kids is condemning them to certain death. This is what happens when the media spins constant fear, anxiety and hysteria, doom and gloom – never any messages of hope, even though history teaches us the next 20 years will be better than the past 20 years. Yet throughout history, there were always people holding up “The End is Near!” signs.
“We need to make it easier for people to have the children that they want to have,” she said. “There are clear barriers to having children in the United States that revolve around economics, around child care, around health insurance.”
The implied goal is the U.S. should have similar social benefits (and high taxes) of the Scandinavian countries. However, the Scandinavian countries also have low fertility rates in spite of long standing and generous family benefit programs.
