I'm wondering why people who are already extremely poor gets as many children as possible if they can't afford giving them a decent living standard. I'm not talking of rich or middle-class families who've a decent wage and suddenly experience something bad making them bankrupt, but people who already are poor and may have been extremely poor their entire life.
Yesterday I read about a family in a developing country who had more than five children. Most of them were sold as child brides and sex slaves to get money to feed the parents, but it could be less expensive for the parents to not have them in the first place. They said they did it so they could feed their future children and themselves, not to be mean. If you had a child and saw you couldn't take care of, you've seen it ended up as a bride or slave, become very miserable, why making more children if they ends up with the same fate? Actually, many of the child brides are ca. 12 years old. Some are even sold as 5 years old and not all of the buyers are honest people. Some may be pedophile. Many of the parents would be less poor if they didn't have many children. You may earn more not having children at all than making many and sell them. #Poverty#Poor#Kids
I think there are many reasons why. A few I have considered are:
1. Lack of education. Not everyone in these poor communities experiences basic sexual health education. You would be surprised how many people in impoverished communities (even in America) have no idea how their own bodies work. I've met girls who had no clue that missing their period for 3 months was a strong indicator that she could be pregnant. If someone doesn't know the way their own reproductive system works, how can they possibly know the truth about how babies are made and, by extension, how to prevent it? There are also so many myths and misinformation about sex that circulates around these communities which is a problem.
2. Lack of resources. Even if someone does learn about safe sex, it may be that they don't have access to any resources or services in order to practice safe sex. Or they don't know what resources are available to them in their area.
3. I have read of some families having more children so those kids can work when they get older and help the family either monetarily or as simple as helping to get/find food, etc.
Ultimately, I understand why people criticize poor families for having so many kids but I think it's easy for us to say "don't have kids if you can't afford to feed them" when you're well-off yourself or have adequate knowledge about sex. But realistically for many of these families, I think the issue is much more complicated than that. Just my opinion.
A poor family. Cannot afford good food, shelter, healthcare and so on. They would WANT a child that will grow up well and eventually become a successful rich adult that can change their family's financial condition and improve their living standard.
However, as they are more vulnerable people and children die very easily (diseases, wandering around streets and getting killed by accidents or criminals, risky jobs and child labor) the odds are stacked against them. But you would wanna have more kids in such a situation. Think of it this way. If the odds of one child surviving and growing up to become a adult and to be able to have a decent job is 1/5, you would intuitively want to have more than five kids.
When you are living in a developed country you know your child has better security and facilities and even your wife/girlfriend will be able to have a safe and healthy pregnancy and childbirth, being less likely to suffer from complications or dying when giving birth. You can easily have one child and focus entirely on that one kid without worrying that they would die from diarrhea.
Lack of access to birth control, societal pressure for couples to 'show' that they are fertile by having more kids, wanting to have more sons (like you want a boy but have three daughters so you try having a baby one more time) these are some more reasons as well.
@RedThread It's not like that!! I just happen to be a biology student living in a developing, 'third world's country as well and anyone can actually understand this if they just think about it.
The problem is, people who comment 'why have more kids when you can't even afford to look after one' they don't understand what problems people face in poverty, especially in an underdeveloped area so they end up saying things like they are stupid and all. No matter what level of education or development, our brain and subconscious mind is pretty smart.
In less developed countries it has to do with them genuinely not knowing how to prevent it. There's the lack of sex education and the lack of healthcare which results in children dying which would in turn mean for the parents to have more children to help around their area. As for the U. S., it's not because they want to take your tax dollars. I grew up in a large family, 14 at one point including step, and our snap and tanf benefits were less than 2000 a month, we barely survived even with my mom working full time and my step father. As for my mother, she loves everyone of my siblings and she tried her hardest to make it work. Some times you'll find out your pregnant and you can afford an abortion or plan b because you're using your last dollars to buy food for your hungry kids. It wasn't done on purpose to use your tax money
I'm on a phone not a computer so there isn't a cursor to use and I'm pretty sure the app doesn't tell you what countries people are from or at least not from what I've seen
So they get more back when Income Tax season rolls around.. duh..
Sorry I couldn’t help myself haha. I think it has to do with the cost of contraception— birth control, condoms cost money. Abortions aren’t cheap either. It also has to do with education. I work with and around people who aren’t “stupid” but are uneducated. They don’t know that taking the pill at a specific time every day is extremely important to the effectiveness of birth control. They also don’t understand that at different times during a woman’s menstrual cycle she is more fertile. I think those two ideas alone contribute to a lot of unplanned pregnancies, along with the fact that birth control methods cost money. Finally, I think that people in poorer areas are forced to... grow up quicker. Their education ceases at a younger age, they enter the work force at a younger age, and with that in mind, I quick they get to that point where they want children at a younger age. Having children at a younger age adds to the possibility of having MORE children. Conversely most wealthy people have some form of higher education (bachelor’s, master’s, doctorate) someone who is in school is less likely to have children whilst still in school. Just my take, I don't know, I think there’s a number of contributing factors. I’m Not saying it’s a smart decision on their part, but those are my theories as to why it is that way, because I do agree with you.
Over here, "buying" a wife cost about USD10,000 (equivalent local currency).
Its published and advertised via sms and WhatsApp spams.
My nephew bought one and so did my neighbor. Both ended up "divorced" with their wives running away.
Nevertheless, USD10k is a lot of money to the family because a partial share is sufficient for them to buy farmland and build a house.
Sex trade and wife selling is very real. Fundamentally it's because there are buyers and hence willing sellers, only unwilling brides.
Until richer countries pass legislation to stop wife buying (which is difficult because the agent literally arranged for the marriage in the registry of marriages) it isn't going to stop soon.
And in the poor country, kids are not expensive to feed, because many are not well fed anyway. Look at your top photo. They're not even properly clothed.
No. It has a higher profit than feeding the kid until that age.
So sex is now a pleasurable pass time and profitable one too. So why stop?
PS: I'm against child marriage and sex trade. What I write are just facts that I know, not showing my approval.
Death rates are high in pre-industrial nations. People tend to die at younger ages, there is higher infant mortality, etc. They don’t have clean drinking water, adequate sewage, vaccinations, they get hit with famine/malnutrition, etc. So to survive you need to play for quantity rather than quality… Sort of R vs. K-selected species model. They don’t have social security nets built into their economy so typically they have to depend on multiple sons to take care of them when they are ill or infirm. So they keep on fuckin so they can keep on truckin.
Generally speaking it depends on what degree of "poor" we are talking about. If we are talking about some 3rd world farmer in Africa then its just a fact that they dont even have contraception and good luck stopping people from having sex.
If we are talking about for example poor people in 1st world countries then again its often a lack of contraceptives and condoms as well as the sexual education around them.
At no point do humans have less sex, we only differ in what actions we take to prevent pregnancy and what resources are available to us.
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Anonymous
(25-29)
+1 y
I guess the more children you have the more likely you are to produce one successful one. Also children in 3rd world countries and in rural communities are a major help to their parents earning money for the family. Look at farmers, a lot of farmer have maybe 4 or 5 sons that help out on the farm. A lot of daughters aid around the home minding kids, cooking and cleaning while their mother is out working. It's when families get depesperate that they marry their daughters to a wealthy man hoping for a better life for them. Children are used as prostitutes in western countries too, it's all kept hushed up mostly.
Because after being a country for 1000+ years they still haven't figured out not to pee and poo and bath in the same water source where their children drink. They are "different" and that is OK. Why do they poop and pee in their drinking water instead of walking 100 feet away and digging a hole. Think about it. The best thing that could have happened to them is for the Westerner never to have come there and influenced them with things like clothes, medicine or manufactured goods. It has just increased the number of people who can suffer badly
Usually these woman are raped or forced into marriage and contraception and healthcare is not easy to come by. Also its highly likely a few children will die of starvation so they constantly have children so they can bring more providers into family. If the mother or father dies they want someone who can go work and look after and feed the family.
You know we dump so many condoms in africa theyve actually invented products out of condoms. For example they store food and water in them. They just dont want to use them because they want kids and also doesn't feel as good.
@bamesjond0069 I know and your right. They don't use the contraception we give them and they don't really understand how to use them. Unfortunately the men don't really have much respect for the women in these countries so they won't use them anyway even if they could.
So they hold a condom in their hand. And some UN worker explains it to them and they come with instructions and then they are just do dumb they use the condom and turn it into a fish trap and catch fish with it. Sounds like a real dummy to me. Smh. Racist much? They aren't retards. Could you use a condom to catch fish? That im curious about. Lmao.
@bamesjond0069 were did I say they were dumb? They haven't been given the same education as use and are more concerned with surviving then spending time reading about contraception.
Also what did a say that implied racism there's other places not just Africa and Asia were people are extremely poor and don't use contraception you know? There's plenty of country's mainly populated by white people in the EU as well we're woman are having lots of children they can't afford to look after as well. "racist much?"
"... they don't really understand how to use them."
They are pretty simple to use. And come with instructions and often with educators training them. So no, they know exactly how to use them.
Re Africa, thats the only place as far as im aware that is given an overabundance of condoms. Sure there are condom programs in other areas of the world but only in africa is there ridiculous availability such that they use them to a large degree for non sexual purposes. I dont think that happens on a regular basis in other areas because they actually dont get enough.
Its related to education in some places. They did a study in India, they took a very poor area where the birth rate was very high among young girls (google India birth rate education). In only a short amount of time they were able to lower the birth rate dramatically.
It seems educating young girls/women to one understand what will happen and two to make them want to do more with their life, makes them less likely to have children at a young age
Often it has to do with lack of education. Stupid people are more likely to have careless sex which will result in unwanted pregnancies. However that doesn't apply to third world countries as they often just don't have access to birth control or other contraceptives.
If you live in a society where the only people who will look after you when you are old are your children (no Social Security), you're going to need to have more children in order that some survive long enough to do so.
Combine that with less education and expensive birth control, and it's going to happen.
High mortality rates in developing and poor countries. It may be a very innate primitive behaviour but it’s imprinted in us that the more offspring one has the greater chance they have in propagating their genetic line.
As far as I know is usually because they can't afford contraceptive methods, or they haven't had any sexual education to know about them or how to get them or because of religious beliefs they would never use them.
They don’t do it on purpose. Usually poorer people aren’t as highly educated, so maybe they just don’t know everything they should about safe sex and about avoiding pregnancy, or maybe they can’t afford to take the measures to protect themselves.
The two main reasons are: the high child mortality rate (people who want children have to make sure some survive) and parents needing help making money. In under-developed countries, access to birth control is limited. This is also a main reason.
Lack of sex ed and education. They can't think rationally but they can make use if their kids to support each other. Being the only person being poor is so much harder than having many people with you because you don't have to work for few but work for many.
I think it's because they don't have condoms / birth pills so when they have sex the woman get pregnant. And why they do not get abortion surely because it's too expensive or they aren't enough doctor or they have conservative views.
Honestly wonder do they ever pull out or why else do they have so many kids. I get not being able to afford birth control but damn just try to pull out.
It actually makes sense. Assuming they aren't in a bad situation of the sort no parent should let their child get into, their kids can help support the family.
Developing countries: survival of the family. While it seems counter-intuitive, more children means some are more likely to thrive and help the family.
First world countries: they can freeload off the taxpayer.
In poor country's the death rates of children are higher, so having more children increases the chance of you're family line counting. That's why the birth rates in 1st world country's are lower than 3rd world ones
I totally agree with you. You shouldn’t have more kids than you can take care of.
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Anonymous
(30-35)
+1 y
They can't afford contraception and having kids is their only safety net for when they get old and need their kids to take care of them and provide food and housing for them.
Not everywhere but many parts of africa the usa and other world organizations give them crates of free condoms. So many they dont know what to do with them, so they use them to store food and water, and as rubber bands to make little toys for kids and stuff like that. Its no about being unable to afford condoms or them being dumb, they just genuinely want kids. And you're right about why they want kids.
It's protection of your genes. If your poor many of your children are likely to die early. So if you have more then it is more likely your genes will pass on to a new generation.
Generally speaking, most people who end up poor are the type who don't think about their future. So they just keep popping out kids without a second thought.
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Anonymous
(25-29)
+1 y
Because they want their blood to keeo going and they know Only a few will survive. It's the same in the animals world
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Anonymous
(36-45)
+1 y
This is a very basic a-level population study question, which i assume people in the college age group should already know the answer.
Because poor does not equal weak. We are being over run by them through migration. They are removing us from our own homes and our own politicians are complicit in our destruction.
thats isane having to such childs i think lack of education
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Anonymous
(30-35)
+1 y
In some countries children are used as a workforce - the families need multiple children to care for their farms / fields to produce enough food for the family.
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Anonymous
(18-24)
+1 y
Lack of birth control, and they help with providing food for the family
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