Well that's a fun science fiction scenario, but at present, having destroyed the infrastructure that allowed people to settle down and start families- people aren't settling down or starting families.

im past age my parents had me and I’ve just learned fingerboard kickflip

This would mean that “child free ideology” arbitrarily preceded the material and social conditions that support its adoption

Which, frankly, is horseshit

I somewhat agree with you, but I think this “destruction” was not willing, in fact is it not in the interests of the “powers that be” to encourage people to have children? Hence why Elon is heavy on the pro-natalism tip, and governments throw tax breaks and free daycare at people to very limited results. My thinking? It’s not so much the infrastructure that allowed people to settle down or start families, but the infrastructure that forced them to, and in the absence of this, they just don’t, without it being an active choice either.

Or rather, they didn’t realize that destroying this infrastructure would have the effect of people not starting families/having kids

Big facts

Enjoying my child free life while giving love to my nieces and nephews and raising my pup

My whole thing is “child-free ideology” isn’t really an animating factor for most people who don’t have kids and is people grasping for a justification or a “reason” for their not having children. The thing I am describing is not an ideology but a drive, or maybe the lack thereof, inherently within people, or maybe that the drive to have children only exists when it is socially compelled

Tbf generations before relied on children to help with work and also lacked contraceptives amongst other variables to consider

good f*** em kids

Nah I know a lot of folks who don’t want to have children purely off ideology and lifestyle preference, some older folks who are well off and some of my peers who are on their way to be doctors and for whom finances could hypothetically be manageable. I don’t think it makes sense to say the infrastructure that encouraged bearing children was destroyed and that’s the reason - a lot of infrastructure for everything and for normal levels of mobility have been destroyed for certain, but there’s also new social and material infrastructures that are enabling people to feel good about not having kids. The ability to travel the world (a totally new phenomenon for 99% of people, which having a child would limit), to physically prevent birth, etc. @Ronin making pts

Finances are obviously a consideration that are pushing ppl away too - I want 3-5 kids and have no idea how tf I’m gonna do that bc raising a kid in NYC in 10 yrs will prob cost $2mil per child.

Also, government encourages high rates of birth and does in fact give subsidies etc to encourage it esp among low income populations bc the state wants as many workers as possible. Weirdly, though they seem dichotomous, both sterilization and encouragement of high birthrate for the sake of labor have targeted POC forever.

Elon is not "heavy on pro nationalism" lol. He is doing online culture war while extracting tax revenue and commiting securities fraud. It's rhetoric.

The destruction wasn't willing. It was however intentional. Renting someone a home, giving someone a bad mortgage. These are better outcomes for the market than home ownership. People don't even want to get a pet when they live an apartment. Let alone raise a kid.

having children ≠ fun

Chicken and egg

im not anti-natalist but it genuinely feels unfair for me personally to have kids

everyone deserves the option but for me personally i couldn't fathom bringing a kid into this world at this point in time

In some ways sure
But it’s also impt to recognize that were we to fix all of these glaring material issues around home ownership, cost of living, cost of education, etc… we’d still be dealing with a declining # of people who want to have kids, bc that’s a new phenomenon emerging from much more than just material crisis. It’s a significant cultural development in human history. And in some ways comes from material excess

Something happened and people started realizing you shouldn’t have kids if you aren’t able to financially support them

If only this happened decades ago

Looking at my kid rn, they are literally the best

Yeah it’s definitely not as doom & gloom amongst people as the media is making it seem

Well at the same time it also shouldn’t be so f***in hard/expensive to raise kids in America.

But also shouldn’t be having Mexican sized families if you can’t support it.

Idkk….

It’s been very fun for me, and my son has a blast all the time.

Yea they're expensive af maybe when when I make more money

Real

Another Drizzy fan in the making