Due to Social Security, we don't need to have children to take care of us as we age.
Possibly a chemical cause?
Nope. There'll be births enough, though not at "replacement rates" for a while.
But the future is clear. Massive debts by nations, states and companies will eventually be abrogated. Fewer people being told they will have to pay for generations to pay for yesterday is predictable. Taxpayers will rebel and governments will fall.
I never worried about Paul Ehrlich and his “population bomb”.
If we have 8 billion or 10 billion or 12 billion people, we would probably find ways to get along just fine.
But, likewise, if we found ourselves with 6 billion or 4 billion people, I don’t know why that would be a genuine crisis.
And, since we may be headed into a future with at least a temporary decline in population, I don’t know why we should panic about it.
I think governments and societies ought to just think about adjustments — if the population of the US were to drop below 300 million people, what would be a good way to manage that? Why can’t we just prepare? Why do we need to desperately seek ways to get more people — import more immigrants! Encourage people to have 3 or 4 children! Tax incentives!
I think the Powers That Be will push solutions on us for something which is not necessarily a problem.
I’ve read the ending. The good guys win.
Yes, some of it is the toxic ideology of feminazism. A big part is that the things that would support family formation have become more and more unaffordable. Admit fewer foreigners, put up high tariffs and make outsourcing less attractive, etc and there will be more jobs for Americans and employers will have to pay more.
Oh, and stack the deck ever more against men, and you will also get fewer marriages and fewer kids. Why? Because women are hypergamous. Men are not. Men will happily marry the waitress or the secretary or the hairdresser. Women will not marry men who make less than they do. Sure there are exceptions but we all know the numbers overwhelmingly show that to be true. If you want your society to continue, the implications are clear.....boost male earning. Boost male promotion. Anathema to the Feminazis but they hate families and kids anyway so it makes no sense to listen to them.
“Children of Men” lives.
Things have gotten too easy. There is no need to struggle in the industrialized world anymore.
Population falling wouldn’t necessary be a bad thing except
1) All the Socialist Ponzi schemes that require young healthy working people to continue to pay for them.
2) The 4Ms (Mexicans, Mormons, Muslims and Morons) are still breeding like rats. Though it’s getting down to the later 2Ms.
My standard G Z comment:
About half of Gen Z is still in high school or college. Stating anything about that cohort in a definitive manner is just inaccurate. If a kid is not even packing their own lunch for school, it is hard to gauge their opinions or actions on anything.
People toss around these manufactured cohorts without the slightest idea of where they originated and how they were measured.
It’s just wrong.
Plus, a 22 year segment of society is a little too broad for generalizations. For example, I am a boomer. I did not protest Vietnam. I missed the free love stuff. I did not like the Beatles (then). And I thought Howdy Doody was stupid.
Raise your family among traditional Americana. Although harder to find it’s necessary. Red states, red counties, high per capita church going people.
Pot, porn, and video games have wiped out a whole generation of young men.
A real eye roller.
Have we forgotten the Boomers already?
Immigrants are making up the difference... They typically have very large families to take advantage of those ‘autism’ spectrum, ADHD and OCD benefits.
Not Even close, look in the mirror. 1000 years from now Boomers will still be cursed for what they have wrought.
Their hubris will have consequences for its members, society and the future of humanity.
After everything your generation has done and continues to do, you actually wrote that. Coming from a Boomer one can only shake your head and laugh.
The world isn’t going to end if fewer babies are born. It’ll change, sure, but not end.
Have babies to continue funding government spending waste and fraud.