Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Michael Barone: Is America’s birth rate about to start booming?
NYPost ^ | Michael Barone

Posted on 07/29/2018 3:10:20 AM PDT by RoosterRedux

Sometimes a society’s values change sharply with almost no one noticing. In 1968, according to a Gallup survey, 70 percent of American adults said that a family of three or more children was “ideal” — about the same number as Gallup surveys starting in 1938. That number helps explain the explosive baby boom after Americans were no longer constrained by depression and world war.

Those values and numbers didn’t last. By 1978, Gallup reported that only 39 percent considered three or more children “ideal.” The numbers have hovered around there ever since, spiking to just 41 percent in the late-1990s tech boom.

The change in values and behavior took time to register. Just before the 1972 presidential election, then-President Richard Nixon and a Democratic Congress goosed up Social Security benefits. They figured the baby-boom generation was just delaying producing a baby boom of its own. Wrong. Social Security has needed patching up ever since.

Similarly, the 1970s showed sharp increases in female workforce participation, divorce and single-parent households, as well as decreased participation in voluntary organizations — all unanticipated.

Is a similar values shift happening now? Maybe so, suggest George Mason University associate professor Philip Auerswald and Palo Alto hedge-fund manager Joon Yun in an article in The New York Times. They point out that the American fertility rate — the number of children per woman age 15 to 44 — has hit a post-1970s low.

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: barone; birthrate; trends
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-28 next last

1 posted on 07/29/2018 3:10:20 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: RoosterRedux
For the last several months I have notice many--MANY--new babies at the grocery stores I frequent.

Yesterday, at Walmart, there were a huge numbers of NEW babies. I don't know when these numbers will be reported nationally but this is a very good sign for the economy and America.

2 posted on 07/29/2018 3:13:29 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RoosterRedux

I’d be interested in how popular the name Donald becomes for baby boys, and Melania for baby girls.


3 posted on 07/29/2018 3:22:58 AM PDT by EvilCapitalist (It's Ok to be white.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RoosterRedux

I am not sure this article defends it’s headline. We are at the bottom, so maybe we are going back up? I was reading this last night hoping there was some reason to believe that our average family size was growing. But this article does not say that.


4 posted on 07/29/2018 3:29:18 AM PDT by poinq
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EvilCapitalist
I’d be interested in how popular the name Donald becomes for baby boys, and Melania for baby girls.

I'd be interested in how popular Donald and Melania become as middle names! (No cure in sight for Trump Derangement Syndrome!)

5 posted on 07/29/2018 3:31:18 AM PDT by Sooth2222 (Hanlon's Razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: EvilCapitalist
Baby name 'Melania' surged in popularity in 2017 — 'Donald' was unchanged
6 posted on 07/29/2018 3:34:25 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: poinq

I think we’ll have to wait until early 2019 for the actual numbers. That said, I think one could look at the quarterly sales of products sold to parents of new borns to get a sense of any baby boom.


7 posted on 07/29/2018 3:35:54 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: RoosterRedux

We need families with 3 kids to grow the country. I’m in Ireland now where it’s expensive. They don’t let that get in the way.


8 posted on 07/29/2018 3:39:34 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET (urope. Why do they put up with this.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: poinq; All
I think it's just too early for changes in revenues of baby products companies to show up. I looked over J and J baby products sales for the second quarter and first half of 2018 and they show nothing (see them HERE).

I think the first data on a baby boom would come from births as reported by hospitals. I haven't seen any info related to that.

9 posted on 07/29/2018 3:49:46 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: RoosterRedux

“By 1978, Gallup reported that only 39 percent considered three or more children “ideal.” “

That’s because the shrieking Leftists and the Watermelons known as “environmentalists” were running around screaming “overpopulation”.

They went hysterical and said “no more then replacement” and movies like Soylent Green and Logan’s Run came out with all sorts of dire predictions of doom if we kept having kids.

All of it WAS and IS BullS**t!!

But the damage was done. They got abortion and the EPA and changed the culture so that mainly white people stopped having children - the people in the non-white countries didn’t have TV propaganda beamed into their houses every day with this crap, so they kept right on reproducing.

So now we are all coming out that 40 years later, but it’s a different America: the Americans have receded in their own country while the aliens simply moved in and filled the vacuum.

So the culture change back from that only took the deaths of 60 million babies and the slow realization that the Enviros were full of crap with their apocalyptic BS.

Never needed to be that way.


10 posted on 07/29/2018 4:48:03 AM PDT by Regulator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Regulator

Watermelon=green on the outside but communist red all the way through under the surface.
A very apt description.


11 posted on 07/29/2018 5:05:41 AM PDT by Romans Nine
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: RoosterRedux

Hispanics have large families.

Saw this article yesterday. Not sure on the logic behind it, but the costs of raising children keeps going up unless you are on government assistance.


12 posted on 07/29/2018 5:15:45 AM PDT by redgolum
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RoosterRedux
Pennsylvania is home to three major gas station chains which also sell great food (Sheetz, Speedway and WaWa). Two of those three are also headquartered here.

A couple of weeks ago, I was in one filling up my car and belly when a young father walks in sporting one of those baby carriers which snap out of the car seats.

He's got one of the most contented grin on his face while a cute little baby girl is cooing at everyone at the lunch tables. "First one," I ask. "Yeah," he replies proudly.

"Enjoy them while you can," they grow up fast. "Don't tell me that," he says. "If you are a good parent," I reply, "they might someday bless you with an infant version of themselves. It happened to me."

His temporary scowl reverts to his original big grin.

13 posted on 07/29/2018 5:18:03 AM PDT by Vigilanteman (ObaMao: Fake America, Fake Messiah, Fake Black man. How many fakes can you fit into one Zer0?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: RoosterRedux

Sure it will when the illegal aliens are citizens. Most breed like rats


14 posted on 07/29/2018 5:26:11 AM PDT by eartick (Stupidity is expecting the government that broke itself to go out and fix itself. Texan for TEXIT!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: eartick

Libs have told their naions we are overpopulating our nation, need taxes, so the populace responded out of guilt and self interest with fewer kids or none at all. Now the libs tell us we need to let as many refugees come as possible. What happened to them being so concerned about the environment now? Liberals are a wrecking ball to the nation!


15 posted on 07/29/2018 5:55:22 AM PDT by inchworm
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: RoosterRedux

4 of my aunts are pregnant...


16 posted on 07/29/2018 5:56:30 AM PDT by ConservaTeen (Islam is Not the Religion of Peace, but The religion of Pedophilia...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RoosterRedux

When people feel better about their present situation and confident about the future, they usually have more children.

But the left shrieking about global warming and greed deters that trend.

In any case, if there is a baby boom, the left will have a cow and will blame Trump.


17 posted on 07/29/2018 6:21:47 AM PDT by randita (PLEASE STOP ALL THE WORTHLESS VANITIES!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: randita

Having babies is pure optimism


18 posted on 07/29/2018 6:27:01 AM PDT by xp38
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: ConservaTeen

Wow! That’s great!


19 posted on 07/29/2018 6:31:23 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: RoosterRedux

The Great Recession didn’t really end until Obama was out of office. They were lying about unemployment and under-employment rates.
As employment rates and wages go up, more people who wanted a child or another child will feel like they can afford to have it.


20 posted on 07/29/2018 7:10:54 AM PDT by tbw2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-28 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson