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.
There is only one way to increase the birthrate of a stable population: the baby boom process. It has several critical elements.
1) Father employment only. Mothers are far more important to the having and rearing of children (as long as the father is the breadwinner and is living with the mother).
2) Strong religious values that favor large families.
3) Limits on distracting entertainment and unhealthy substances like tobacco, alcohol and drugs legal or not, as well as their purveyors and users.
4) A clean nearby environment for recreation.
5) Residential socialization with children encouraged to play with each other and especially with children of the other sex in chaperoned circumstances.
6) Removal of criminal and mentally ill persons.
7) Boredom.
It’s all about having and raising children but in order for that to happen first of all you need to find a good woman and marry her
And I blame men almost entirely for this all they wanna do is get laid nobody wants a relationship and they’re scared to death of marriage
Our next-door neighbor they have a baby and they’re not married he’s like two-year-old
Any of us that are parents will of course say “ what the hell would you do with every single day if you don’t have kids?”
And the beautiful thing about kids as they eventually turn into adults
See what happens in about 8 or 9 months after the Quarantine is lifted.
I had my first kid at 32, and 2nd at 36. I was ready, but still could have waited a couple of more years and it would have been fine.
One contestant on “The Great British Baking Show” in the current season is a young French woman living in England. She’s mid-to-late 20s, very pretty, seems to be good-natured, has a corporate job of some sort, and of course, she can bake very well.
One of the other participants asked “Manon” if she planned to remain in England long-term, and she said, “If I can find an English man to marry ... but I don’t think anyone is interested!”
I had my first child at 24 and my 10th at 45.
The only surprise to most demographers was why it happened much later in America than in the rest of the Western World. This has been mostly attributed to our increased religiosity as religions give people more than economic reasons to have children.
The idea that our population MUST remain stable or increase over time is an interesting one. It suggests that our economic system is something like a pyramid scheme where we need to bring in more suckers to keep the scam afloat. This seems to be the case with both the capitalistic and socialistic aspects of our economy: Walmart needs more shoppers. Soc Sec and Medicare need more payroll tax.
Regardless of this, the reason why neither the Dems or the Pubbies try very hard to limit legal or illegal immigration is because they must have been told by the economists that we need more consumers and taxpayers or else the jig is up. If Americans aren't creating more suckers, then we need to import them.
and i thought, after checking the keywords, this would not mention abortion, but there ya go.
NOT everything goes back to abortions.
I’m not optimistic, but I would love to see a China Syndrome Baby Boom in the United States and among other civilized people nine months after this quarantine fiasco’s start date.
there are alot of uncivilized people here in the USA, and i can live with it if they don’t reproduce.
Good observations.
I agree that not everything goes back to abortions but I think the millennials today see abortion differently than years ago. The left has made it a no big deal issue, as something what movie stars do. Millennial’s view of life is different: more selfish, more risk adverse, more entitled and privileged, and less grateful. They don’t know the hardships of the past, don’t want to know and don’t know how fortunate they are compared to any other time in history. If the left has really twisted their mind, then they see an unjust country where you wouldn’t want to have kids and, therefore, it’s all about what you can get in the moment. What also contributes to this bleak view is lack of belief in God, which is also promoted by the left. If there is no God, then it’s all about you: your desires, your ego, your vanity and identity, and what you can get away with. There is no future to plan for because you will die and that will be the end of you and your tawdry little life on this meaningless planet. They may not consciously say that to themselves, but that belief is there, is felt though it goes unsaid.
I’ve been a ZPG supporter since the 70s. So I’m cool with this.
When you get old and grey who is going to care about you as you whittle the hours away all alone? You take care of your kids then they take care of you, it’s the natural way of things.
Indian and Communist Chinese H1B scabs drop anchor babies like crazy. Its past time to remove citizenship automatically being granted to foriegn worker trash that drop babies here.
I saw some outdoor adventure article about a climber of El Capitan and his worldview could have been summed up by that paragraph. Hedonistic proud atheist. I said a prayer for him that he would find Christ.
Amen!
Caucasiacide?
We have eight.
Merely post the Covid deaths AND the CHOICE deaths daily on the news
Perhaps the MAGNITUDE of difference between the two numbers might cause some to start to concern themselves over the GREATER of the two.
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