In the 1960s, even well-off families lived in ways that would now seem modest. Think of the world depicted in “Mad Men.” Don Draper is a high-earning advertising executive. Yet his living arrangement wouldn’t strike anyone today as lavish. In the pilot episode, his children Sally and Bobby share a bedroom. The family owns one car. No one claims a good childhood requires constant activity, a private room for every child or elite educational planning starting in kindergarten.
Today the expectations are different. Many parents feel pressure to provide their children with a full schedule of extracurriculars, travel sports, private tutoring and tuition for an expensive college. Add to that list a smartphone and travel experiences.
Antinatalism increasingly looks like a luxury belief—an idea that confers status on the people who hold it while imposing costs on those further down the socioeconomic ladder. If childbearing is a status competition, the logical move for those at the top is to succeed at it while persuading others to opt out.