Birth rate in Italy reaches new record low - eviltoast
  • itscozydownhere@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    We just have very low paychecks and you can’t really afford to have children unless you accept to have a shitty life. I didn’t for example. Freedom and money? Sign me up for that shit

    • frequenttimetraveler@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s a common justification given, but it’s not true. The same happened in almost every advanced european society in the 80s, when things weren’t unaffordable. Urbanization is probably the largest contributor to this, because children are absolutely optional in city dwellers.

      We should stop pretending we can reverse this trend, and the whole doom-saying around it. Instead southern europe needs to plan for the medium-term future, which necessarily include the transformation/abolition of the unsustainable welfare state paradigm built in the 80s.