@puddingtader Just because people in history usually HAD to have kids if they had sex regularly, doesn’t mean it IS the best option to have a lot of kids now.
People died in childbirth, babies and kids died of diseases, unsupervised children died in preventable accidents. Nutrition deficits caused health issues. Abuse. All kinds of issues happened because people couldn’t help reproducing.
On top of that, there are plenty of people with lots of (& few) kids that did/do a horrible job parenting.
There is still no where near equality in genders, their roles, the way people view them in the workplace, or their pay in the workforce. That’s largely bias based on having children.
And I’m barely going to mention the cost of childcare - or that having a parent stay home full time has its own set of issues.
It comes down to priorities. Being able to give kids a level of life we are comfortable with, and still having enough for ourselves can be important.
I’m not morally superior because I decided to have kids instead of traveling the world regularly. I’m not morally superior because I chose to live in an expensive city and not have kids.
There are hurdles that could be decreased if people want birth rates to go up.
Earth’s population going down also wouldn’t necessarily be the worst thing.