Hello,
your comment aroused my interest and I would like to refer to what you said. As it looks to me, you seem to mix "the world" with your personal experiences.
in a world where the social norms of our society encourage, support and even demand us to reproduce.
It is perfectly fine to remain childless or to have children, it is an intimate decision and shall remain so. If it was "even demanded of you" to have children, I ask: who demanded this of you? What consequence did you have to suffer or endure because you did not comply with this demand? Did you become unemployed because of it, were you threatened with prison, were you excluded from your family because of it?
Nowadays, at least in the (so called modern) societies I know and have personally visited, the decision to remain childless leads to the following: Nothing.
At the most, you have to put up with snickers in private debates or make yourself unpopular or argue within a family who, for example, is big. But if that's enough to publicly claim that childlessness is not socially accepted, then that's very far-fetched.
As long as you are not forced by your government and/or your fellow human beings to remain childless or to have a certain number of children, your criticism of the incentives or encouragement to have children seems a bit over the top. You can safely ignore these incentives and encouragements and therefore not become a social outcast.
It becomes dangerous when the law interferes with your decision to the extent that you do not have free choice over yourself and your body.
The current trend and the events of the last few years are not exactly pointing in the direction of free choice, and the pressure is clearly felt by everyone. It may even become very popular to remain childless and it may happen that the laws change and childlessness is favoured. The air smells of it.
Against this background I don't see why you mention that
it's mostly a social support structure for people who decide they cannot, in good conscience, have children...
As if it wouldn't be socially accepted in modern societies that tend to have fewer children than ever before, a large proportion of people live as singles (at least here in Germany), not even in a relationship, but alone in their homes. The stats show that in some clarity if you bother to look at them for your country. There you can see a trend.
Being a parent and receiving some benefits for having children: Do you find that unfair?
Greetings to you.
RE: Are you supporting the top 20 witness who is publicly pushing for the exinction of the human race?