Too Many Babies Aborted? Toys R Us Cites Sagging Birth Rates as Reason for Closing

LIFE NEWS ^ | april 6, 2018 | John Stonestreet

[Morgana]

Toys R Us, otherwise known as heaven for us kids who grew up in the 80’s and 90’s, is closing all 800 of its stores’ doors. One of the nation’s largest and oldest toy retailers, the toy chain made the announcement last week.

In its annual filing, the company pointed to online competition like Amazon, as well as traditional retailers like Walmart and Target, as the major reasons for its bankruptcy. But Toys R Us (which also runs Babies R Us) cited another and much more troubling reason for its collapse: sagging birth rates.

“Most of our end-customers are newborns and children,” writes the toy chain’s management. “Our revenue [is] dependent on the birthrates in countries where we operate. In recent years, many countries’ birthrates have dropped or stagnated as their population ages.”

It’s so obvious, most people don’t even consider it. But a toy chain’s business model is dependent on, well, children. One of the reasons toy retailers are dying is because their base of small customers has become…well…too small.

The U.S. fertility rate is now at an all-time low. Some experts estimate it could be nearing 1.77 children per woman, which is well below what’s known as the “replacement rate”—or that number of babies each couple must have on average in order to keep the population from shrinking.

Little wonder, since according to a recent Pew Research poll, young Americans today are less likely to be married than any prior generation. In 1965, nearly 80 percent of “silent generation” members between 21 and 36 years old were married. Today, just 37 percent of Millennials that same age are married.

As a result, the non-immigrant population isn’t just shrinking. It’s also graying—and fast. The U.S. Census Bureau predicts that by 2035, senior citizens will outnumber children for the first time in U.S. history.

With trends like this in progress, the closing of toy stores may be merely a bellwether of further effects of low fertility to come. Smaller generations mean smaller consumer bases, which in turn mean less economic growth, and further declines in fertility.

As I explained on this program back in December, low fertility is also an unfulfilling way to live as a society. In a 2014 Pew poll, two out of five mothers nearing the end of their childbearing years said they wish they’d had more kids.

Babies are catalysts… they lead adults to care more about the future: to save, invest, make sacrifices, and defer gratification. With fewer children, there’s less of that other-centered love that children inspire. And our already me-centered culture may yet become even more me-centered.

In fact, the consequences of long-term population decline and aging can be seen in other countries ahead of us on this downward demographic curve. For example, Japan has shrunk by over a million people since 2010. The remaining share of Japanese students and young adults face crushing financial burdens, sometimes working 16-hour days to provide for older family members and prop up the country’s entitlement system. Many young people succumb to despair; Japan has one of the highest suicide rates among school-aged children in the world.

Folks, the negative consequences of a culture that fails to see children as the blessings they really are and who view family as a second priority at best, far outweigh any short-term gains. If you couple child-free lifestyles with our society’s disregard for marriage and support for abortion, we will deprive ourselves of more than just toy stores. We’ll be depriving ourselves of a future.

[Rashputin]

Kids aren't "liberalized", they're mesmerized by electronics loaded with software designed from the outset to trigger the reward or penalty centers in their brains. They get drawn into games or "educational" software that's constantly training them to respond to triggers the same way Pavlov trained dogs to drool when he rang a bell.

Parents who toss their kids a phone or game machine are handing them over to professional trainers backed by an army of psychologists who turn them into obedient little consumers of fluff and hollow "experiences" that rob them of the ability to deal with real experiences and real people.

[Steven Scharf]

Notwithstanding the slant of this article, the Toys R Us meme that their troubles are because of declining birthrates is bogus. Yes, the birth rates are declining. Some of that decline is because our population is increasing. If the population rises by 3 million per year (4 mill births plus 1.5 mill migration minus 2.5 mill deaths) and about the same number are born, then the rate is going to decline. If the number of births were really significantly declining, the rate would be nose diving.

As noted in the data below, the high point of US births was in 2007 with our currently yearly pattern approximate to the number in the 1990s. Why did Toys R US not struggle then. A couple hundred thousand babies do not make or break a company.

Year. Births

1995.   3,899,589
1996.   3,891,494
1997.   3,880,894
1998.   3,941,553
1999.   3,959,417
2000.   4,058,814
2001.   4,025,933
2002.   4,021,726
2003.   4,089,950
2004.   4,112,052
2005.   4,138,349
2006.   4,265,555
2007.   4,316,233
2008.   4,247,694
2009.   4,130,665
2010.   3,999,386
2011.   3,953,590
2012.   3,952,841
2013.   3,932,181
2014.   3,988,076
2015.   3,978,497
2016.   3,945,875

CDC data

[Blue Jays]

"...mesmerized by electronics..."

---

Absolutely agree. Kids now stare endlessly into screens. That is simply how they entertain themselves.
For example, the men and women in my 100-rider cycling club haven’t seen new members in many years.

[dr_lew]

Absolutely agree. Kids now stare endlessly into screens. That is simply how they entertain themselves.

As per the GK's, totally agree, except I can't agree that it's a simple choice. They are captivated by the damn things, and the damn things know what they are doing! I've "listened in" on occasion, and it should be frightening to everybody.

[broken_arrow1]

Toys ‘R Us, embraced the Montgomery Ward model ‘till the bitter end.

[Dr. Sivana]

Uhhh yeah, you can tell our country is desperately underpopulated by the freeways empty of cars for as far as the eye can see

People drive more today as half the cities have been fled. Tokyo is still full, too. Both countries have aging populations, so the effects will not be felt immediately, or all at once. It also increases the pressure to bring in younger people from other countries.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I'd agree, and amend that to say:

"It's sagging birth rates AND abortion AND (in the case of Toys R Us) overpriced junk."

[Mrs. Don-o]

Actually, you really CAN see it in any transcontinental air flight. Compare the U.S. density (85 per square mile) to Bermuda (3,000+) or even Israel or the Netherlands (1,000+).

Don't just look at the freeways. Once you get past the 'burbs, look to your right and your left as far as your eyes can see. The USA is a thinly populated country with natural citizens having less than zero population growth. Americans need to have babies. We have a lot of growing to do to be truly GREAT.

[Mrs. Don-o]

The faltering demographic base is certainly not the ONLY explanation for the demise of Toys R Us, but these facts are not irrelevant, either.

The median age of females in the USA is almost 40, and would be much higher than that if you excluded immigrants and first-gen children of immigrants. Soon the (native-born American) median for females will be perimenopausal.

Compare, say, Jordan-Egypt-Syria, where the median age for females is around 21.

I leave it to you to figure out who's going to be a growing market for strollers and baby dolls. Toys R Us might consider moving.