I think economic arguments are clearly wrong given that poorer people have more children, both across countries and within a country. However I’m not sure that a lack of meaning, as opposed to the availability of other sources of meaning, is the most likely alternative explanation. Women I know personally have either no children or one child as late as possible (late 30’s or early 40’s) despite having significantly more financial resources than the average American. These women have other things that they would rather do.
(Those other things are usually their careers, which they consider the core part of their identity. That makes me wonder whether the idle rich have more children than the professional class.)
I think economic arguments are clearly wrong given that poorer people have more children, both across countries and within a country. However I’m not sure that a lack of meaning, as opposed to the availability of other sources of meaning, is the most likely alternative explanation. Women I know personally have either no children or one child as late as possible (late 30’s or early 40’s) despite having significantly more financial resources than the average American. These women have other things that they would rather do.
(Those other things are usually their careers, which they consider the core part of their identity. That makes me wonder whether the idle rich have more children than the professional class.)