Why are People Having Fewer Kids?

Reason magazine Science Correspondent Ronald Bailey reports total fertility rates are plummeting around the world. Bailey examines the trend and finds "according to happiness researchers, people don't really enjoy rearing children. 'Economists have modeled the impact of many variables on people's overall happiness and have consistently found that children have only a small impact. A small negative impact,' reports Harvard psychologist and happiness researcher Daniel Gilbert. In addition, the more children a person has the less happy they are. According to Gilbert, researchers have found that people derive more satisfaction from eating, exercising, shopping, napping, or watching television than taking care of their kids. 'Indeed, looking after the kids appears to be only slightly more pleasant than doing housework,' asserts Gilbert in his bestselling, Stumbling on Happiness. Of course, that's not what most parents say when asked. For instance, in a 2007 Pew Research Center survey people insisted that their relationships with their little darlings are of the greatest importance to their personal happiness and fulfillment. However, the same survey also found 'by a margin of nearly three-to-one, Americans say that the main purpose of marriage is the mutual happiness and fulfillment of adults rather than the bearing and raising of children.'" Read the full article......