69 Comments
“"The number of births, however, is driven by a more complex mix of social and demographic factors that change over time."
The bigger issue is money. You just can’t afford to raise a family on one persons average income anymore. If both you and your partner work who will raise the kids?
You send them to pre-school for $7 - $8 per hour, while being lambasted by people (some even comment on this site) for being "bludgers" and having kids you cannot afford because when a child turns 3 you get 20 hours free childcare. So if you work 40 hours a week, you'll only have to pay $160 per week per child.
Agreed. I have friends where she makes $50-100 per week after daycare costs for their kids with the work she does but they need the extra for mortgage, basics etc. These days having kids has to be well planned if you wish to have the freedom of a parent at home for a couple of years.
Donny11 "The bigger issue is money". Yeah, nah. The bigger issues is deaths. Births are down 2.7% on June 20 and deaths are up 12%.
Did the friendly Rebekah/Interest.co.nz not notice that deaths are the story here not births? Anybody looking at that chart can see the blue births line is boring but the yellow death lines is interesting. Why are deaths only "slightly lower" than the record 2022? Dry tinder of 2021 can't account for all of this.
The increase in deaths is still much higher "...than the average annual increase over the previous decade (1.4 percent)."
https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/births-and-deaths-year-e…
"The number of births, however, is driven by a more complex mix of social and demographic factors that change over time."
Financial considerations also have an impact.
Unaffordable cost of housing is delaying couples buying housing (as it takes longer to save for a deposit, and borrow enough to buy at current high price levels). This will have an impact as couples delay having children, have fewer children or choose not to have children.
Since most mortgages or rent require 2 household incomes, it can be difficult to make finances work, if one stops work to parent the child / children.
As i understand this isnt unique to NZ nor is it a bad thing.
Less people means less damage to the environment.
Unless u are a slave to delivering a growing gdp so that central and local government can waste more tax its good
In my book (and maybe contentiously) the more wealthy you are the more kids you can afford. But then those kids are more likely to goto skool, be healthy and study and contribute poaitively to society.. and afford a house and have kids.
Expecting everyone to have an automatic right to the same resources isnt viable when the world hqs a huge population and is capitalist...
The situation is a result of darwism merging with capitalism.
I've three daughters each with a partner - all six working. The eldest daughter has two children and is the poorest; the second daughter has a daughter and is struggling to pay her rent and keep a car running so they can deliver child to school. The youngest daughter has no kids, smokes and drinks and the lifestyle of a DINK.
As i understand this isnt unique to NZ nor is it a bad thing.
It may not be a bad thing in some respects, but for the many that wish to have children and a family unit, perhaps have their kids remember their grandparents, it is devastating when something that has never been and issue in life goals gets pulled so far out of their reach. This is the real impact of the housing ponzi we have.
You reap what you sow. It's an absolute disgrace. Young people should be able to work hard and support a family and own a home without both parents working themselves to death. The policy settings around housing need to change now - everything needs to thrown at this. A house should be a home not a speculative investment.
I think many responsible humans would be more inclined to have children if shelter and other basic human needs weren’t so hideously expensive.
Anecdotally talking with friends, this seems to be a significant contributing factor, but of course there’ll be others, such as access to contraception.
Emphasis on the importance of the career and how it dominates much of life is possibly another factor.
It’s all a bit strange really. Perhaps we humans are not by nature very well suited to the society that we’ve set up for ourselves…Kind of like pandas not willing to breed when in confinement. Might go a fair way too in explaining the appalling mental health issues present in todays society.
I'm not sure how much evidence the government need that our system is unsustainable. Young people are getting gouged regardless if they rent or own. Cost of living is outrageous. Tax the shit out of property investors and recycle the money into building the right types of housing. Happy to hear other solutions?
Our only saving grace is they have act and NZF acting as anchors for their decisions. Else Nats would already have let foreign investors help themselves to build and own houses.
So far the nats have managed to reduce ev car ownership, and kill a ton of other policies like the ferries. Whilst i dont agree with how labour was running most of those projects nats need to get on with replacing them ... but i hace a feeling they dont actuallt have any plans and especially no plans their partners will support.
Not everyone agrees with you, NZ 3rd best in the world
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/rankings/family-friendly
I wouldn’t call it modern feminism personally, more so the level of opportunity is so much more for women now that having children becomes a conscious choice more so than a societal expectation. If you used have the option of 3 jobs or being a housewife as the 4th and now you have the choice 10,000 jobs with large opportunities in pay and experience, as well as the option to live in a variety of countries and cultures, then statistically more will chose not to have children. Common sense
The best thing we could do to right this ship is allow income sharing between tax to the father / mother couple....... coupled with the first 10k of income tax free to get people off the benefit.... we are so stuck and cannot see the way but its so clear.
Sick enough that the west island looks better every day....
Because every child is an investment to the future. Universal and generous child benefit makes sense - it reduces the rorts, it nudges parents to stay together, low admin cost similar to Super. Agreed we need a declining population not a growing one but any sensible immigration policy achieves that.
Banana republic without the bananas
maybe a milk and honey republic
https://youtu.be/RDscbVWRBCw - planet key
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