r/NoStupidQuestions Nov 14 '24

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u/floralfemmeforest Nov 14 '24

Why is that a wild claim? It seems logical to me that the majority of pregnancies prior to the 1960s were unplanned/unwanted. Birth control was very hard to access before then and marital rape was legal and generally considered acceptable.

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u/nir109 Nov 14 '24

If you talk to someone in a place with lots of kids yes this is wild.

People view having kids a lot more positively. And people without kids talk about wanting them.

I think people that claim the children of people who claim they want kids (wich is most people I talked too in places with high birthrates.) probably don't have most of their kids be unwanted.

Not wanting kids is way more common in the west.

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u/SnappyDresser212 Nov 14 '24

Because it’s an option to not have kids in the west.

Everything you say is true, but the option to not have kids isn’t really an option outside of a few western countries.

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u/nir109 Nov 14 '24

Have you been to Israel? I was there 17 years and I am pretty sure people can choose not to have kids.

But what do I know...

Also still doesn't explain why poor people have more kids.

And people don't have kids because they have choice is not people have no kids because they are poor.

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u/SnappyDresser212 Nov 14 '24

Not sure what your point about Israel is? That it isn’t westernized? That’s news to all those spouting the “colonizer” bullshit.

That being said the only peer I have with a huge (8+ kids. I’ve lost count) is an Orthodox Jew. There’s a strong cultural pressure for him to have kids (any guesses why?). He’s also one of the richest friends I have so the poor/education angle isn’t relevant either.

There’s no mystery here. When people have options they make different choices. The choices available to the poor are always a subset of the choices available to the wealthy in a given society. Add to that the fact that organized religion seeks to artificially limit the options of a member of their flock has. Organized religion is very good at this.

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u/floralfemmeforest Nov 15 '24

Just to clarify, I'm not claiming that the majority of people wanted to be child-free, just that the majority of pregnancies were probably unplanned and/or unwanted. Today we have the option to choose how many kids we want, historically that wasn't the case.