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ZorbaTHut  1yr ago (text post)   Edited 1yr ago   38252 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 12, 2022

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Maybe.

Your links do a decent job showing correlation of pet ownership and, more importantly, pampering. Causation’s going to be a bit trickier.

Is it possible that inability to find a house (inflated market) or a partner (many, many potential reasons) is suppressing child rearing, but not pet ownership? The latter remain a significantly lower commitment not only of money but of space and attention.

I also suspect that the rise of the Internet has warped luxury—or at least “impulse”—markets in general. Much like the video game industry has been completely transformed by digital distribution, luxury pet goods may just be reaching a wide range market. This seems like something that could be tested on other markets like clothing or entertainment which lack a link to child-substitution.

I admit causation is hard to prove. It's not like you can really just ask someone "hey, are you using your pet to fulfil you subconscious desire to have a child?" and get a genuine answer.

I think the key difference is that it is not simply pet ownership rates that have increased, but how people treat those pets, spending more on them (there are some ridiculous pet products now, like pet wet wipes) and pampering them like you would a human. My point was never to argue that pet ownership is causing a drop in fertility, but rather pet ownership, and treating pets like kids, is a reaction to low fertility rates.

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