Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Philalethes's avatar

Apparently households with a yearly income of one million dollar and above are the only ones exhibiting above-replacement level fertility. The most immediate explanation, namely, the availability of hired help to facilitate parenting, is partial at best: hired help is available also to affluent households well below the one million threshold, who however exhibit a markedly lower fertility. A plausible explanation is that only the truly rich feel secure enough about their status to afford the handicap in the ‘meritocratic’ competition for status implied by having and raising children. In fact, at the top end of the income distribution the currently prevailing low status associated to raising children may invert, in line with the concept of ‘counter-signaling .’

The new reproductive technologies allowing a reduction of the downside risk of having children are likely to become available first to the rich. This should further raise their fertility: the rich would have smarter kids and more of them.

Expand full comment
Martin Mertens's avatar

What about housing? I'm guessing there are people who would be more inclined to have kids if they lived in a place with more bedrooms.

Expand full comment
102 more comments...

No posts