Oh, and on a different topic -- the fact that we can now have a meaningful option to have sex without having kids is historically anomalous.* Healthy young people generally want sex (the desire manifests differently in men versus women, but both are so feel sexual desire). For most of history, this would naturally lead to kids. Broad acc…
Oh, and on a different topic -- the fact that we can now have a meaningful option to have sex without having kids is historically anomalous.* Healthy young people generally want sex (the desire manifests differently in men versus women, but both are so feel sexual desire). For most of history, this would naturally lead to kids. Broad access to mostly-effective birth control puts us in uncharted territory.
*I am aware that birth control methods existed historically, but aside from straight abstinence, they were significantly less reliable than modern methods.
Oh, and on a different topic -- the fact that we can now have a meaningful option to have sex without having kids is historically anomalous.* Healthy young people generally want sex (the desire manifests differently in men versus women, but both are so feel sexual desire). For most of history, this would naturally lead to kids. Broad access to mostly-effective birth control puts us in uncharted territory.
*I am aware that birth control methods existed historically, but aside from straight abstinence, they were significantly less reliable than modern methods.
The idea that they were less reliable in practice is false. It was spread by sex educators trying to scare kids away from sex.
Observe the TFR in France starting in the late 1800s
Pre-moderns knew how to not conceive