To Keep Up With the Joneses, Affording a Good Social Life Means Not Having Kids

A study published by the Royal Society found that for many affording a good social life means not having kids. Keeping up with the Joneses has become more expensive as modern couples spend more to compete in real-life social ladder, which could explain why they’re having fewer kids. “The areas were we see the greatest declines in fertility are areas with modern labor markets that have intense competition for jobs and an overwhelming diversity of consumer goods available to signal well-being and social status,” says Paul Hooper, an anthropologist at Emory University and senior author of the study. “Our model shows that as competition becomes more focused on social climbing, as opposed to just putting food on the table, people invest more in material goods and achieving social status, and that affects how many children they have. The human species is highly social and, as a result, we appear to have an ingrained desire for social standing,” Hooper says. (thefiscaltimes.com)