• Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de
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    2 days ago

    * in the US

    We currently pay something in the range of 250€ a month for after school care of our 2 kids, including lunch; full kindergarten care for both was around 500€ before in Germany.
    Funny thing though: birthrates here are dropping even worse than in the US…

    • veni_vedi_veni@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Birth rate is, as inconvenient a truth that it is, inversely proportional to education and the liberty of women. You’d be hard pressed to give any developed nation that has a high birth rate.

    • VitoRobles@lemmy.today
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      2 days ago

      Are you serious?

      This shithole country I live in. We have funds to create a gestopo and ice camps here in the US and there’s no real support for new parents.

      • P1k1e@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Comical that Republicans constantly bitch about people not getting married or having kids, then make sure there’s no way they can support said kids. Fucking dimwits

        • Mulligrubs@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          Wages have been falling for 50 years. If only the Democrats win, they could reverse this! Maybe someday ¯_ (ツ)_/¯

            • Mulligrubs@lemmy.world
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              1 day ago

              After a few decades, it starts to get old

              Fortunately, my wellbutrin cuts the edge off, it’s a Brave New World!

      • Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de
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        2 days ago

        In many municipalities child care is even completely free of charge.
        (Only for low-income families where I live.)
        From society’s standpoint it is also a good idea to let pedagogues mentor young kids and give them social interaction with same age peers. Also best way for foreign kids to learn the German language and customs, reduces possible later social problems.

      • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        There’s also a lot of stupid laws that prevent like a small daycare from operating in like a suburb area. Certain types of smaller businesses should be exempt from zoning and they’re all things that are super expensive.

    • maplesaga@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      What are housing prices in Germany?

      I find housing is the thing that really drives down birth rates, coupled with rapid inflation that the CPI doesn’t capture.

      • Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de
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        1 day ago

        Housing prices in the last few years have exploded in Germany, but the reduced birthrate preceded that rather recent effect.
        When looking at the statistics, main reason is less that parents decide completely against children, but more that they have less children. So the average nowadays is just 1.35 children per woman compared to 2.5 children in the 60s.
        Main driving factor here seems to be more self determination of women and a more rational approach to family planning overall, tied to increased levels of education.

        • maplesaga@lemmy.world
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          23 hours ago

          Why is the rental rate so high, and median income so low relative to the average income in Germany?

          I’d also be curious how many bedrooms the average house has relative to the US. I’d assume the number of bedrooms is far lower, and that they prioritized cheap small housing to attempt to boost affordability, which lead to renting being more desirable.

          This then would cap family sizes as the median income can’t afford more rooms, and actual ownership of a family bearing home is prohibitive.

      • pahlimur@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        $1500usd/mth for 1 kid here. Thats considered low in the US. I know people paying more than $3k.

        • Corhen@lemmy.world
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          22 hours ago

          Yea, I have a friend that recently moved to the states, and their rates jumped too.

          They were on a local, government subsidised, $10/day program too!

    • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      The US isn’t fully industrialized and we do kind of have some protected “pre-industrial lite” style religious communities like the Amish that distort population rates and previously used high immigration rates to sustain the economy until like sept 11th 2001.

      Like the real problem is time and diversions. More diversions = less boredom = less fucking. More hours and jobs = less fucking. I’m pretty sure you can directly correlate advertising revenue with lower birth rates.

      • Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de
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        1 day ago

        I’m not convinced the fucking has declined. :-)
        I guess it is more that by now it is decoupled from family planning, which combined with more rational considerations (tied to higher education levels) lead to reduced family sizes.

        • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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          17 hours ago

          Education is tied to delayed children not reduced children. Again, the birth rate drop precedes education.

          The explanation I recall is that in agricultural communities, kids have historically been able to do a lot of the labor. This means the more kids you can have the more goats you can feed, etc.

          In industrial environments, kids tend to not be able to do the labor. They lose fingers etc. So parents educate their kids in hopes it will increase job prospects. Each kid then costs more money and are not good investments.

          Its just the calculus of child labor.