Introduction
It is quite obvious that people always make adjustments in relation to the economic situation at a given period of time. In this case, people can limit their spending as a result of economic woes because they will not be able to take care of their needs effectively. As far as this article is concerned, people are not ready to have children because they fear that they will not cater for their needs well.
This has been brought about by the current economic woes that are facing the country. As much as most of them are earning, they fear that their income is not enough to support a family and that is why we have seen a drop in couples who want to have children. This indicates that women who are capable of having children are delaying because of the economy. Marriage rates have also stalled because individuals are not ready to support a family with the current economic situation.
Discussion
There is a very big relationship between economic woes and having children. It is quite obvious that a child has to be supported by his/her parents and this can not be well catered for if the parents are not in a better position. The great depression has given women an opportunity to delay having children because they can not guarantee them good life.
A perfect example is a woman like Melissa Thompson who is always forced to put off having a family because of financial stress. People should first of all feel financially comfortable before they can commit themselves to other needs and that is why we have seen this correlation between economic woes and having children together with fertility. We can explain this scenario by looking at consumer spending in relation to the economic situation at a given time (Fortura, 2005, p. 42).
As far as the macroeconomic level is concerned this whole issue revolves around aggregate demand in the economy. From the article, change in fertility and economic indicators are closely related and that is why all this aspects can be evaluated from an aggregate demand point of view. In this case, we can say that people are not ready to cater for more expenses because of their current economic situation. This means that couples are not ready to spend more on a baby because they do not have enough income for such.
As a matter of fact, the economy’s aggregate demand has been seriously affected by economic woes. Personal consumption revolves around demand from households and in this case, they are not ready to spend more on babies or family (Fortura, 2005, p. 53). This whole interrelation can be described by the function below.
AD=C+I+G+(X-M)
Conclusion
The fertility rate fell by 4% and this is because individuals and families are not ready to expand their families. All this is related to spending and demand because if they could have been in a position to spend, they could have had babies. This point is reinforced by the fact that women admitted that the economy has been the major issue as far as having babies is concerned.
Pregnancy brings financial worries and that is why it is quite obvious that if we don’t have enough money we will always be cautious to spend. Our marginal propensity to consume is highly related to our disposable income and this will depend on the state of the economy. In conclusion, we can say that raising a child comes with costs and that is why families are not ready for this as long as economic woes are still persistent.
Reference List
Fortura, P. (2005). Exploring Economics. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.