Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Why are so many adults in rich countries refusing to have kids?
Unreported Truths ^ | 11/02/2023 | Alex Berenson

Posted on 11/03/2023 9:36:09 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

Humanity has never had it better.

Especially the couple of billion lucky folks who live in the United States and Canada, Western Europe, and East Asia (including, now, much of China).

The details of the miracle that is modern life are worth repeating, since they are the water we swim in and easy to forget.

Deaths in childbirth and childhood are nearly nonexistent. People live longer than ever and can expect to be (physically) healthy into their seventies, not stooped by hard farm, industrial, or household labor. War and conscription have largely ended. In Europe and East Asia, all deaths of violence are stunningly rare.

Formerly unthinkable material luxuries are not merely common but expected. Inexpensive, nutritious food is available everywhere. After facing the prospect of famine for all of human existence, we suddenly must deal with obesity.

Cars and airplanes have made movement easy. Once exhausting and risky, travel is now so cheap the biggest problem is the crowds it creates - of tourists and migrants.

Free schooling through adolescence has turned literacy from a luxury of the rich into a basic right. More recently information technology has opened the deepest banks of knowledge to anyone with an Internet connection, which is everyone.

In the face of this unprecedented bounty of knowledge, health, and abundance, more and more humans have responded by —

Refusing our most basic biological drive and failing to have children.

This depressing reality hit me again recently, after the wedding of a couple I know. Husband and wife are in their early thirties, stable, employed, apparently happy and in love - and insisting they will not have children.

Of course, they could change their minds. But they have been together for several years and have always agreed they want to be childless. I find that choice even more depressing and confounding than people who are childless because they cannot find a partner. These are heterosexuals who have decided to pair for life (theoretically, anyway), yet they do not believe having children is their natural next step.

They are far from alone.

The “replacement rate” - the number of children a woman must have on average to keep population stable - is about 2.1. Birthrates have been below that level in many wealthy countries for decades.

(With 23 million people, Taiwan will have about 130,000 babies this year - not even half as many as it needs to keep its population steady. The country is erasing itself.)

alt

SOURCE

You are probably aware of the baby bust. But you may not know how bad it has gotten. Since Covid, birth rates have fallen off a cliff.

Women in Asian countries like South Korea and Taiwan are now expected to have fewer than 1 child on average. Men do not have children (despite what the LGBTQIABCDEFGH+-* crew sometimes pretend), so you don’t need a degree in statistics to figure out that birthrate translates into demographic catastrophe.

Fertility disruption from mRNA Covid jabs may be contributing, but it is not the primary factor. The baby bust is occurring in countries that did not use the shots, too.

This choice represents individual tragedy and societal failure on an unprecedented scale.The American left pretends the baby bust is economically driven, blaming a lack of subsidized child care for young kids and the overall expense of raising children in the United States. As one feminist author said in September:

I had really been talking about a lot of these issues like paid leave, lack of childcare, and how they affected parents, primarily in the United States… People are not having their ideal number of children, even when they become parents, because they just can't make it work.

The only problem with this theory is that births are lower across Europe and Asia than the United States. And Northern European countries, which have much less income inequality than the United States, as well as the parental leave policies, heavily subsidized childcare, and national health insurance that the left demands, have seen some of the biggest recent declines.

No, whatever is happening cannot reasonably be viewed as economically driven. It is a cultural trend. And it is phenomenally powerful, because it is happening all over the world, across ethnicities, in countries and societies that are otherwise vastly different.

And it is overcoming basic human biology.

So what is it?

I don’t know if that question has an obvious answer, but I intend to explore it in the months to come. And I hope you will contribute your own views on the subject in the comments.

I’m not exaggerating when I write that nothing less than the future of humanity is at stake.



TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: birthrate; children; demographics; population
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-75 last
To: dfwgator
We’ve already conceded Africa by demanding they accept sodomy.

Perhaps. But Christianity is still growing in Africa even though they're under attack.

Nigerian states that implement some form of sharia law (in green)

61 posted on 11/03/2023 2:14:53 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 44 | View Replies]

To: Honorary Serb

RE: The Orthodox Christian wedding service includes prayers for many, many children!

So, how’s the population trend of the majority Orthodox Christian countries?


62 posted on 11/03/2023 3:32:48 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 52 | View Replies]

To: Organic Panic

At no time in my life have I wanted children.
When I was a kid I didn’t like kids.


63 posted on 11/03/2023 3:52:42 PM PDT by Reynoldo (BurnLootMurder)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

.......t’s hard to live up to for many of us, but there it is!!......

Russia, in particular has some catching up to do from its Soviet, pro-abortion past.

However, I know Serbian Orthodox families with between 4 and 8 children.


64 posted on 11/03/2023 4:41:24 PM PDT by Honorary Serb (Kosovo is Serbia! Free Srpska! Abolish ICTY!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 62 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

The sadist thing about having no children is what one has to face in old age. The number of children you have ladies determines how well you are taken care of in your old age. I know what I’m saying. Pay attention.


65 posted on 11/03/2023 4:43:03 PM PDT by WVNan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TexasFreeper2009
Also people have forgotten that children are who take care of your when your old and sick. The more you have the greater the chances at least one will help with you when you need it.

A character in one of H. Allen Smith's books (a Texan, come to think of it) said that a man needs three sons: one to get killed in a car wreck, one to turn out sorry, and one to take care of him when he gets old.

66 posted on 11/03/2023 4:43:46 PM PDT by HartleyMBaldwin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
We have repeatedly told young people that getting married and having children "young" is a mistake and they should not do that.

They should get at least a four year degree and get established in their career before even thinking about marriage. And then they should wait a few more years before having kids. This leads to them being in their early thirties before the first baby and that is if everything goes exactly right.

When you start having kids in your thirties and spacing them out you will have three children at most. Probably you will only have one or two.

We need to tell young people to marry and have families when they are young and full of energy. So you do not have a bunch of stuff, not important. You can get the stuff later.

67 posted on 11/03/2023 4:50:38 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (Keep America Beautiful by keeping Canadian Trash Out. Deport Jennifer Granholm!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Honorary Serb
Serbia is obviously Orthodox in name only. Its population growth rate in 2021 is -0.94% ( yes MINUS ).

See HERE

RANKING BY POPULATION GROWTH RATE BY COUNTRY
68 posted on 11/03/2023 6:51:32 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 64 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Childcare Costs Rising Even Faster than Sky-High Inflation, Report Reveals

https://theohiostar.com/news/childcare-costs-rising-even-faster-than-sky-high-inflation-report-reveals/ohstarstaff/2023/11/02/


69 posted on 11/03/2023 8:43:14 PM PDT by Farcesensitive (K is coming)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: WVNan

Then again, I know someone who has two children. Relations are strained with those children because they’re both so damn liberal. And his daughter-in-law is a real extreme liberal idiot.

He wonders what might happen with him, with his idiotic liberal daughter-in-law being part of the group, who decides whether to put him in a nursing home, or what to do with him if he needs help in old age.

Remember, it’s not just your children, it’s your children’s spouses who are going to be involved in deciding what to do with you.

You may think your daughter will always be loyal to you, but if she’s married and has a family of her own and has a domineering husband, things can change.


70 posted on 11/04/2023 10:32:57 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego (.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 65 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind; lightman; Navy Patriot

Every other country in the Balkans has declining population—many worse than Serbia—including Catholic Croatia!

The Orthodox wedding service does not command having many children—it prays for them! But if one marries in one’s thirties, it’s not likely to happen!

The big problem in the Balkans is poverty—resulting in lots of out-migration. The vile clintonite bombing of Serbia in 1999 exacerbated that problem.

We Americans—who are under the thumb of the vile clintons, obamas, and bidens—are stupid to blame Serbia for the results of its clinton-caused poverty! Long live Orthodox Serbia!


71 posted on 11/04/2023 11:14:44 AM PDT by Honorary Serb (Kosovo is Serbia! Free Srpska! Abolish ICTY!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 68 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Deep States, plural, are deliberately destroying the nuclear family.

People are allowing them to do it.


72 posted on 11/04/2023 11:18:43 AM PDT by mewzilla (Never give up; never surrender!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Honorary Serb
The big problem in the Balkans is poverty—resulting in lots of out-migration. The vile clintonite bombing of Serbia in 1999 exacerbated that problem.

Fully Agree!

73 posted on 11/04/2023 11:55:00 AM PDT by Navy Patriot (Celebrate Decivilization)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 71 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Marriage favors the woman. A woman can marry a man, then divorce him in few years and take 1/2 of what he has. Its worse when children are in the equation.

No fault divorces have done their wicked work.


74 posted on 11/05/2023 9:57:13 AM PST by JoeRender
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JoeRender
Marriage favors the woman. A woman can marry a man, then divorce him in few years and take 1/2 of what he has. Its worse when children are in the equation.

We should change the law. Maybe we shouldn't punish the man anymore. It might be time to bring back generous subsidies from the taxpayers. But the catch is this. Once a woman has her third child, she must tie her tubes if she wants to continue to receive benefits.

75 posted on 11/05/2023 10:02:35 AM PST by MinorityRepublican
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 74 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-75 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
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

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