We are fed this myth growing up of ‘upward mobility’ and ‘pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps.’ This is complete bull. Our birthrates are down and the rich and politicians wonder why. They try and pass abortion bans to make people have more kids that they can’t afford, and try to treat it as murder in some states. All the while, continuing to protect the rich, corrupt and those who prey on the weak.
The birthrate is going down for a number of reasons; we are becoming more aware of our effect on the planet, insufficient wages, and people simply not wanting to have kids and valuing their personal time. There are a few solutions that I can think of to provide the structure for people to feel comfortable having kids again. Companies can start paying people a living wage, we can also start providing more support programs for families, such as ‘housing first programs.’ People are also taking interest in their own personal lives and are desiring less kids. They are also taking steps to try and help the planet. Perhaps if we had a cleaner planet, people would feel better raising kids.
Other organisms in nature have more kids when the environment allows for it, and that is what humans are choosing to do. They do not have the structures needed to provide for kids, nor do we want to raise our children in environments detrimental to their safety. When we have a world where people have access again to clean air and plentiful food at any income bracket that is actually good for you, and have made good progress in stopping polluting the world and the structures are better able to help care for kids, we many see more people having kids again. More people are looking into unionizing and co-ops, if we are going to keep a profit system. If not, we will become a divided country.
People are also resentful that the rich keep getting tax breaks and are not feeding those breaks into better pay, public infrastructure and helping communities. If this continues, we are likely to see another version of January 6th. Both sides of the isle are mostly under control of mega-corporations, and people are growing tired of the stagnation of the political system and not caring about the common people. It’s also needing to provide structure so that people don’t need to be born rich in order to advance. There are many solutions that will save us money in the long run.
Helpful programs would be ones such as ‘baby bonds,’ universal income/housing-first programs, along with passing noticeable fines on the rich. Housing-first helps start a chain reaction, where people are less desperate, so they may be less likely to get into drugs, costing them and taxpayers less money from needing safe injection sites or ER visits. Baby bonds would help give everyone money, which then feeds into the economy, because if people are more confident in the economy, they are more likely to spend money, and I don’t know, maybe have kids. Universal income helps feed the economy the same way, with less desperation, less violence is likely to occur and would save us money in other places, such as being able to have less police.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/02/traffic-tickets-income-adjustment-rich/621452/
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/basic-income.asp
America's Failing System 
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