Posted on 05/29/2020 7:53:21 AM PDT by Kaslin
Believe it or not, there’s something better than a grande Starbucks Frappuccino, an iPhone, or an afternoon reading a good book.
As COVID-19 cases continue declining in many states, new threats are emerging: Alongside growing unemployment rates and an increase in depression, births are declining. According to provisional figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics, births in America are down to their lowest number in 35 years.
Nearly 4 million babies were born in the U.S. last year, but that was still a 1 percent birth decrease and 2 percent fertility decrease from 2017. Birth rate decline has historically been linked to economic crises, and this pandemic, which looms larger than the 2008 recession, could eventually be an even bigger threat to Americans’ economic status, happiness, and more.
In some ways, this isn’t news. It’s just confirmation of what we’ve already been learning the past few years: Overall, millennials are the age group most likely to have babies, but they’re not. Birth rates fell or held steady for women of all ages except those in their early 40s, which is understandable, as that’s when fertility begins to decline. Teenagers are having fewer babies, with their birthrate having fallen 73 percent since 1991.
Unfortunately, women of childbearing age aren’t having nearly as many kids as they used to, if they are at all.
The Wall Street Journal reported the total fertility rate — “a snapshot of the average number of babies a woman would have over her lifetime” — has dropped to 1.7, and experts say 2.1 is the number needed to replace the population, immigration not considered. If, for no other reason than to have a thriving population, people should support procreation.
Economists believe millennials “have been slower to form families than previous generations” because they are less financially secure. Experts have also chalked up the fertility decline to millennials having far more options in their adult lives, such as travel, career, and even how to spend their money. Think about it: In your parents’ day, they couldn’t buy an iPhone 11 if they wanted to. Life was simpler then. You grew up, got married, had kids, retired.
Reading statistics about millennials, spending habits, and family choices made me wonder which came first. Could they not afford a baby, so they didn’t have one? Or did they have ample resources they chose to spend elsewhere?
Not to knock my own generation — born in 1982, I am just barely a millennial — but I’m not sure I buy the “We aren’t financially viable so we aren’t having a baby yet” excuse. According to this 2019 Forbes article, millennials have some unusual spending habits when you compare them to previous generations:
Millennials spend more on comforts and conveniences:
- 60% of millennials spend more than $4 on a single coffee
- 70% of millennials will spend a little extra to eat at the hip restaurants in town
- 69% of millennials buy clothes for reasons beyond basic necessity
- Over 50% of millennials spend money on taxis and Ubers while only 29% of Gen X and 15% of Boomers do the same
Millennials spend more per year on:
- Groceries
- Gas
- Restaurants
- Their cellphone as nearly all own a smartphone and comprise the highest usage as well
- Hobbies, electronics, and clothing
I’m not saying millennials shouldn’t have nice things, but perhaps rather than $5 daily coffees, fancy restaurant brunches, and the newest iPhone, millennials could put some resources aside for something that lasts longer than a mimosa hangover or an Anthropologie shirt.
Now of course, if money isn’t the reason millennials aren’t having babies, it’s a deeper issue. Maybe they’re selfish. Maybe they just don’t want them. Maybe they don’t realize why they should have a baby.
When the New York Times flat-out asked millennials why they don’t want babies, guess what they said? “Wanting more leisure time and personal freedom; not having a partner yet; not being able to afford child-care costs — these were the top reasons young adults gave for not wanting or [not] being sure they wanted children.”
The article also hinted at another fertility killer: an increase in gender equality. “There are no high-fertility countries that are gender equal,” said sociologist Philip Cohen.
To the women who think there are better things to do in life than have kids, I submit that babies are a boon for men, women, society, and the economy. Babies are often the glue holding families together, an indicator of economic health, and a necessity to keep society thriving.
Having a baby is expensive — more than it should be. We need to work to reduce these costs with effective policy measures. W. Bradford Wilcox, a sociologist and senior fellow at the Institute for Family Studies, has some ideas about how to help America’s fertility trends increase: End marriage penalties and expand the child tax credit. He also suggests strengthening career and technical education and subsidizing lower-income work. Some combination of these efforts would reduce the financial burden couples face when having a baby.
Even if women can afford babies, they still won’t have children if they don’t actually want them. On this, no expert can change a couple’s mind.
But here’s one last effort at fertility persuasion. Of course, you have more leisure time or personal freedom if you don’t have a baby — probably more money too. But believe it or not, there’s something better than a grande Starbucks Frappuccino, an iPhone, or an afternoon reading a good book.
It’s the cooing sound a baby makes when you rock them to sleep. It’s the “I’ll do it myself” a 4-year-old declares when they’ve learned how to button their pants. It’s the “Mom, you’re the greatest” cards your 10-year-old slips into your computer bag before a work trip. It’s the “Mom, who do you think should win this election?” from your teenager who just discovered civics. How can you put a value on raising a child?
You could always have more in your savings before having a baby. You could have a bigger house or a more secure job. Or you could earn that Ph.D. or could go to Tahiti with your spouse. But some things you don’t get back in life, and the most precious is time.
In the time you’ve spent worrying if you’re totally financially ready or setting up yet another expensive brunch, you could be snuggling a tiny human who provides infinite and nearly indescribable blessings to the parents who love her.
The glamour of abortion may have something to do with it.
The glamor of abortion?
everything is bigger than this alleged pandemic
When those benefiting from so many of God’s Blessings decide to “manage” the gift of life, the earlier blessing are left to rot.
You shouldn’t create children if you don’t have a job and can’t afford it.
I hate to see it.But that lesson has finally kicked in.
I think a lot of people wouldn’t want to bring children into this world when you imagine how America is going to look in 50 years
The problem is not a lack of babies.
The problem is a lack of white babies.
It’s racial suicide. And women are to blame for it.
No wonder young men today are not dating and foregoing sex and going to porn.
Have you seen the loudmouthed, drunken, tatted up, pierced and fat Western women out there?
Well, societal and socio-economic conditions in most of the Western World these days aren’t actually conducive or encouraging for most folks to want to start families. Likewise, there are very VERY powerful disincentives to marriage.
If either or both of those problems could be tackled, the birth rate would mostly solve itself.
Expect a spike in childbirth around the holidays. People were just sequestered at home for 60 days.
I think birth control is a factor, because modern birth control is very effective when used properly.
Is part of it that people get set in their ways, and their life is a certain way, and they can’t see how children would fit into their lives? This is especially true for women climbing the career ladder, I suspect. Women and careers where they are expected to work late or travel a lot simply cannot see how a child would fit into such a work-life environment.
And let me give equal time to men as well. MEN who enjoy their bachelor Lifestyles may not want to get married in the first place. And if they do marry it is possible that a childless lifestyle is what they want.
Part of this is that fertility declines for both men and women as we get older. So if couples in their late thirties or early forties decide that now is the time in their lives to start having children, they may find that they cannot conceive.
It always takes 2 to make a baby. Even if it’s by artificial insemination.
That is true and is a shame.
It would ruin their hard-won careers as Chief Diversity Coordinators at GreenPlanet, Inc. :)
[[[Economists believe millennials “have been slower to form families than previous generations” because they are less financially secure.]]]
[[[Experts have also chalked up the fertility decline to millennials having far more options in their adult lives, such as travel, career, and even how to spend their money.]]]
Which one is it?
Millenials were educated to believe that having children is dangerous to the holy ‘Mother Earth’ what with carbon footprints and all. They think having children is selfish because that’s what they’ve been taught or indoctrinated into believing.
Well, here’s something I learned in high school: All life on planet earth is carbon based. This whole lie about carbon dioxide being pollution is nothing but a death cult.
I once had a couple in my car and they just had been married. The subject of children came up as they asked if I had any. So I turned the question around on them and asked them. They said they were going to wait. They had been the leftisdt propaganda about the world being over-populated, blah blah. In 2016, I was in the midst of schooling when I cam across some very stunning facts about how the Western countries were not producing sustainable numbers to maintain their indigenous population. At the time Canada needed two children per married couple to meet his demand. Canada birthrate was around 1.5 children per married couple on average. The United states needed the same rate, approximately 2.2 children per married couple on average, but at the time was just under that by having a rate 1.9 children per married couple on average. This rate around the Western countries has been steadily decreasing while the rate of children per married couple in developing countries were increasing. This tied into the immigration and emigration issue on how at the time Canada stated they needed immigration to sustain the current population.Based on the rate of children per married couple, this was true. Not only abortion that has decimated the populations of Western countries, but prohibitive reproductive policies and access to the medications preventing pregnancies have decimated the sustainable populations over the Western world. The interesting tidbit here was that China’s one-child policy was overturned because the leaders in that country saw the light and knew that if they continued the policy their population would also be unsustainable. Most don’t know China overturned this policy.
In the end, Canada was right that it needs immigration to sustain its population as it was too far along for the indigenous population to recover. The United states is getting closer to that point of no return. When the couple left my car, they thanked me and stated they were going to change their plans on when they have children. They were in their mid twenties and stated in the beginning they were going to wait 5 to 7 years before having children. When they left they said they were going to reduce that time.
I actually believe it isn’t about the over-population issue but more of an economical and career issue and that was from the research I came across several years ago on the issue. Couples are just waiting longer now to have children due to wanting to have money and career. This in turn limits the rate of births by married couples. The other issue is that at the time I was doing my research the lamestream media came out with a study that said that the older the man is and the woman is the more likely they are to have a child who would not be healthy and have some sort of disorder due to the parents age, for example the woman was over 40 and the man was over 45.
I believe that scared the millennials but since they are waiting to have children later in the marriage combined with the fear of having a child with a significant disorder once they passed a certain age, this in turn limits the number of births per couple.
They see it that way.
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.