CONVENTIONAL WISDOM AND FERTILITY POLICIES

In this section the two policies of fertility were discussed which were:
Larger families are poorer therefore have less spending abilities.
Poor families are larger because they are unable to control their fertility.

The professor as well as myself believe that these statements are wrong. One of the reason why poor families are larger is because they depend and benefit from the labor of their children once they are able to work for the family. In some places it is even a cultural idea to have a large family. The statement that larger families are poor because they are large is also a false statement. In certain areas large families are poor because they are either oppressed by their government or have very few economic opportunities.

Reflecting back on this section made me personally think about my family. I grew up in a family of 10 with 7 other siblings and two parents. In both of my homes in Sudan and Egypt we had other families living with us which doubled the size of my family. We were not in extreme poverty but we were definitely not better off than most families. My father was laid off from a very important government position when a new president came to power. My mother had never worked a paid job a day in her life and mainly was responsible for taking care of my siblings (This was before I was born).

 Well, after my dad was laid off my mom had to find some sort of work to cover our everyday expenses. She was a great cook so she decided to sell school lunches at the school markets. Although it was a difficult period for my family my mom knew she wanted more kids, especially more girls since she had 4 boys and only 1 girl girls. My mother had 8 kids because it was a cultural except-able thing to have. In my culture it is believed that the children will take care of their parents when they are older so having several kids gives a parent several options on where to stay.Another fact that most people do know about is that it is against my religion to take birth control pills and for that reason my mother and many other women in north Africa cannot take them.

So, when I hear statements such as "poor people have so many kids because they cannot control themselves" really upsets me because it is a vague statement that is no where close to the truth.