Welcome to this episode of the award-winning Best of Left Podcast. This is a sample of our recent bonus episode usually only available to members.

These episodes are comprised of our crew of researchers, Amanda, and myself all getting together

for a roundtable discussion on topics that we find interesting. So here's a few minutes for free so you can

know what all the fuss is about.

Next up, continuing to stare unblingly into the future, we're going to discuss the real reason people aren't having kids.

The Atlantic wrote this article, trying to explain that the way policy arguments about birth rates, which first of all seems a little odd anyway, like having policy discussions about birth rates creeps me out from the go, but they generally

revolve around the economics of raising families.

The economics of raising families, I don't mind so much.

Like, families are going to exist, people are going to need help.

Maybe the government can do things to help families.

If the government has the,

it's trying to put a thumb on the scale to get people to have bigger families.

I don't know, find something else to do.

But this article points out, like economics is clearly not the only factor.

Quote, one of their interviewees notes that if money were no object, she would be at least

neutral on the subject of having a child, which is still some distance from

positive. So like people are having a hard time figuring out the meaning of life, basically, it seems like.

And they're like, yeah, you know, money's tight,

so I don't need a child because money is tight.

But even if I had lots of money, I still haven't figured out if it's a super good idea.

And so that seems to be like more of what's at play in the current spate of low birth rates?

So I do believe in economic supports for parents

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