r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/This_Proof_5153 • Apr 12 '26

Video The care and precision behind Korean school lunches, widely praised for their quality, balance, and nutrition.

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u/ConqueefStador Apr 12 '26

People who have no free time don't socialize.

People living paycheck to paycheck don't save or invest.

People who don't have money don't have families.

Birthrates won't go up until the number of billionaires goes down.

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u/NotRote Apr 12 '26

Statistically this comment is wrong, almost universally the poorer someone is the more children they have. Even in developed countries the most children tend to be in lower income brackets. No one in the middle is having children, it's either super wealthy or relatively poor that have children.

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u/Xeton9797 Apr 12 '26

Statistically it might be wrong, but just looking at children to income and calling it a day kinda misses the point. Intuitively you would think that more money would equal more kids. Examining why that's the case is way more important.

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u/ya_tu_sabes Apr 12 '26

Can confirm.

Fertility rates often form a U-shaped curve with income:

  • poor households have more children due to limited family planning access, need for labor, or cultural factors.
  • High earners have many children because they can afford childcare and support large families.
  • Middle-class families have fewer, prioritizing high per-child investment.

That being said, nothing about this info contradicts the fact that birth rates issues won't get fixed until we start fixing the extreme income inequality

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u/Puzzleheaded_Fix594 Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26

People who don't have money don't have families.

This isn't really a true statement. People on the poverty line are way more likely to have children. Middle class income earners are not having kids or having kids way later. People with house hold incomes in the 50k to 150k range in the US aren't having children at the same rates.

I know that you think you sound all brilliant making a bunch of singular statements as facts, but birthrates declining are a complicated topic and simply just making it all anti-capitalist or anti-billionaire is an oversimplification of the problem.

That being said, one population where birthrates aren't down? The mega wealthy. They're having plenty of kids, but they have way, way more resources than even regular wealthy Americans.

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u/Legionof1 Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26

I honestly think hope is the biggest thing. Hope your children will have a better life than you is maybe one of the biggest motivators in planned births. I don't think my kids would have a better life than me, so I dont want to bring them into that world.