The Molecule of More

THE MOLECULE OF MORE

the last time she checked, 15 minutes ago. She’s got everything under
control.
With so many ways to have fun, so many years to devote to educa-
tion, and so much time to spend working, something has to give, and
that something is family. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, between
1976 and 2012 the number of childless women in America approxi-
mately doubled. The New York Times reports that  2015 brought the  first 
NotMom Summit, a global gathering of women without children by
choice or circumstance.
In developed countries, people have pretty much lost interest in
having children. Raising kids costs a lot of money. According to the
U.S. Department of Agriculture it costs $245,000 to raise a child to the
age of eighteen. Four years of college tuition plus room and board costs
another $160,000, and after college there’s graduate school, or maybe
the kids will move back home. Add it all together and you might be able
to buy a vacation home or travel overseas every year, not to mention
restaurants, the theater, and designer clothes. As one newlywed who
planned to have no children succinctly put it, “More money for us.”
Future-focused dopamine no longer drives couples to have children
because people who live in developed countries don’t depend on their
children to support them in their old age. Government-funded retire-
ment plans take care of that. That frees up dopamine to move on to
other things like TVs, cars, and remodeled kitchens.
The end result is demographic collapse. About half the world lives
in a country with below replacement fertility. Replacement fertility is
the number of children each couple must have to prevent a decline in
the population. In developed countries the number is 2.1 per woman in
order to replace the parents, and a bit more to account for early deaths.
In some developing countries replacement fertility is as high as 3.4
because of high rates of infant mortality. The worldwide average is 2.3.
All European countries as well as Australia, Canada, Japan, South
Korea, and New Zealand have transitioned to below-replacement fer-
tility rates. The United States has enjoyed a more stable rate, largely
because of the  influx of immigrants from developing countries who 
haven’t yet lost the habit of continuing the survival of the human race.