I'm 30 and all i do is work and I'm broke. Every woman I talk to is busy working and being broke. This late stage capitalistic society is taking everything from us so much that we can't hardly sleep let alone settle down enough to have children.
Women no longer have a choice, we have to work now because families can’t afford to live on a single income, not even for the basic necessities of life. This means that families are making the choice to have fewer children as the stress involved with 2 working parents bringing up a family is really hard both for the children and for the parents.
The population is slowly dropping due to more women not wanting kids, the younger generation avoids having kids , more men avoid marriage or kids thanks to bias family courts, housing is super expensive, minimum wage is too low, people are unhappy and the government is not helping out with higher taxes and no housing reforms to help the middle class and the poor. Homelessness is on the rise, depression, ...etc. People even prefer death these days as suicide rises.
If there was any discussion of the mainstream media’s role in producing fear and nihilism in our society, I missed it. The media has played a starring role, and people too often overlook its culpability.
People have fewer or no children because they cant afford them. Women want fewer or no children because they have to work full time and rhey are exhausted.
It's not mysterious how come western industrialized society has been having so few children. Previously most people lived on farms where people had as many kids as they possibly could as children were free labor that helped the farm be more successful and profitable. When such populations urbanized and industrialized, people moved to cities where children are not helpful to anyone's economic bottom line. In cities, children are messy expensive habits that don't pay for themselves in regards to the family budget, and adults are usually rational about expenses, so they have less children. This by itself explains the decline in birthrate, but then consider how oligarchy has set in and how the super rich and big bigness can just lobby the legislatures to change the rules to benefit the upper class to the detriment of the majority of people. Society as of lately is not made to reward or benefit family creation, it is made to concentrate wealth in the hands of a few hundred people.
My kid in 20s struggling to pay rent and for college Houses are unaffordable Cars are unaffordable Healthcare is unaffordable Seriously guys…. Maybe they just have common sense not to have kids I don’t have economics degree but I can see the problem Seems odd these experts cannot🤦🏻♀️
Well look at the conditions in which we are having children today, their school gets more quality time with your children than you do, so are you still a parent or merely a guardian.. collectively how many hours a day do you spend investing in your children with a house full of internet devices 2 hours tops if you add up the moments of contact.. are we really being effective parents these day's.. i doubt it. Parents live busy lives as do children and between all this the only question being asked in most cases is does the devices my children have access to have parental controls im place to ensure their not exposed to the adult nature of the internet.. its a sad truth most are to busy to even be aware of.
29 year old childless woman here, I am married to a man with two of his own sons. I have thought about having a child with him of my own, but the thought is absolutely crippling. We can not afford housing or anything due to child support already, how on earth do I afford to have a child of my own? Everything is so expensive, we can't even begin to think about being able to survive with another mouth to feed..and I'm running out of time.
I have never had children because I could not afford them. Working minimum wage and, then, working full time at a grueling job I did not have the stamina to do it on my own. No partner wanted kids. I had the dream of being a stay at home mom and sending them to the best schools. Children require time, dedication and money to support them. Today jobs take up too much time and energy.
The problem is rooted primarily in economic policy but also current history. I am a baby boomer. I graduated from the Cal State system with no debt and bought my first home when I was 30 having one child by then. I have two grown children. The first thing to occur is 9/11 which equivalent to Pearl Harbor for my son's generation except the war last 20 years. He did two tours in Iraq and one tour in Afghanistan. He married but decided not to have children but does own his home. My daughter graduated from UC right after the financial crash of 2008. She could not find a job for a year or so. She still has approximately $40,000 in student loan debt. She does not own a house. Her partner still needs to do a residency before his income is substantial. Quite simply, my daughter wants children but will not until she is out of debt and can afford a house. The story is similar for my sister's children. My brother-in-law graduated from UC with an engineering degree without debt and was immediately employed by a large corporation. They had their first child and bought their first home by the time he was 25. They had four children. My sister works as a teacher and her entire salary went towards funding college for their daughter and sons. Their daughter started her life before the financial crash of 2008. She owns her own house and has three children. But the sons, like my daughter, graduated after the crash. One is married with one child and a home. The sons are well employed but not married. TARP ultimately protected my cohorts but quantitative easing increased assets like housing to levels of unaffordability. The expectation placed on my children's generation was to use debt as an instrument to climb into the middle class. Even if your parents are relatively affluent as I would say my sister's family household was, the impact of economic policy has disadvantaged her sons in terms of household formation. I agree. Stimulus packages to entice households to have children is not going to work. But speaking as one baby boomer to two other baby boomers, I would say that we lived in relative prosperity and that it is the inequity of wealth in this country that is the ultimate cause.
I’m a 30 man married with 2 children I was raised in public school where every guiding voice told us that if you had kids before you finished college you we’re screwed and that children are a financial burden that will drain you and eliminate all chances of following dreams or aspirations. The specific community I grew up in viewed children as an unwanted responsibility everyone claimed they “loved their kids” but constantly complained about all the things they had to provide for them this was my entire childhood. I grew up believing I was a burden to my parents and all my friends were burdens to their parents. I believe this pessimistic view was instilled in us during our formative years in school. My wife homeschools my children and we will not repeat history. Thank you for this interview!
Three words: late stage capitalism. No one wants to work for poverty wages and get treated like garbage by customers and employers alike. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
The real estate argument is baffling. There are so many young people DESPERATE to buy their own home but can't afford it. If the housing prices fall to the level where all those young people can afford it, there won't be any excess housing.
Kids are expensive. People can barely afford to take care of themselves, having kids put a lot of people into poverty or keeps them there. Many I have spoken to have said they don’t want to bring a child into this crazy world.
From what I can tell, just about everything has failed in one way or another. It's like everything was designed, NOT TO WORK. Basic Health care is the top of the list. They have no answers for most problems, then they expect you to pay for "no answers". Many in my family have been sick for years (no one get well), not to mention my life has been consumed by taking care of my sick husband for 25 years. The STRESS has been unbelievable. NO HEALTH + NO REASONABLE JOB = NO LIFE We are just left with a useless education and colleges, no affordable land to buy, no way to have a home (my dream), no garden, no decent job or business of our own, the landlord doesn't even want us to have a cat. We just keep moving, with no where to go anymore. NO LIFE, NO HOPE.... JUST NOTHINGNESS. LIFE used to be SIMPLE. But not anymore. We have been set up for failure, and they are still trying to suck us down the rabbit hole.
My father worked like a dog, being an immigrant and having all his education not being credited. My mother tried to stay home, but was forced into the workforce. We had a home but not food in the cupboards and parents absent. Being the eldest, I took care of my brother and sister. No interest in repeating that, I struggle as a single female to keep a roof over my head, and if I take on anyone else, my roof gets more expensive. What's the point?
I wonder if either of these men would be willing to live the lives young, non-wealthy, people these days? Would either of them work a second job, so they could afford to have a family? Would they share in the laundry, the cooking and cleaning because their wives are also working full-time? Would they put their kids in daycare, which for those who are not fairly well-off, is often substandard? Would they have time to help their kids learn their multiplication tables and stay home with sick kids, perhaps risking their jobs? I think both of these men are somewhat out of touch with the reality of the lives of the lower half (or perhaps even the lower 2/3) of our country.
The real problem no matter what country you live in you never really can own your own land and our countries government owe so much money to their own citizens and have inflated the economy to the point that no one can afford rent to " own" land by government tax standards
People aren’t healthy. My grandparents lived to be very old. Didn’t go to the doctor. My mother lived to 88 while smoking since she was 12, ate very poorly. I’m 79 and very healthy, drivie a school bus in foot of Ozarks, walk better and healthier than many younger people.
People can’t even afford the basics for survival i.e food and shelter…how can we keep popping out kids in a world like this? Its logical not to have kids…what kind of future will the kid have in this world?
They want women to have children, raise children and go to work. No ones paying them for this hard job so I guess many just dont bother. Raising children is hard work. Unpaid work. Educated women have less kids and more job prospects. Some have male wives that do the chores and raise the kids.
What was this about? I mean I heard nostalgia for the 80’s. I heard that a decreased and older population will not necessarily cause economic harm. But then , I heard all this puzzling over why people of child bearing age don’t have more children. Here’s a thought: ASK THEM? Most say they don’t want to give up their own personal freedom, if finances aren’t a problem, the rest say they can’t afford children. Look around, housing prices are extremely high. All prices are high. Child care is practically non existent. And 90% of home and child care falls on women even when they are part of the workforce. Why aren’t people having children? Wise decision making skills, that’s why.
Great and enlightening interview. Millennials watched their parents-who worked their whole life and the entire family made sacrifices for-lose everything during the financial downturn. This is not just in the US but also in many other countries. In China, they have a 12/6 workweek and they have one of the largest populations of homeless people! Additionally, they watched their sandwich generation parents struggle under the weight of supporting aging parents, grandparents and also their children with “someday we will be happy if we just work hard enough” dangling carrot that never came. Millennials are not dumb, they know things have not changed and they don’t wish to suffer the same fate as their parents nor put their kids through what they, themselves, went through. The view of paying off costly education and obtaining solid financial footing prior to having children has been an on-going topic in many of my conversations with people of that generation and, the resounding answer is they have learned from the past that it’s better to pay off school, create solidity and time for their kids prior to having them. I find this responsible and if we can’t support these thoughts or affordable housing, they aren’t going to bring children into an unstable environment. Also, lets face it, they also know people who target kids (1 in 3 girls are targeted sometime in their life) are not prosecuted or obtain light sentencing and the school system is failing. This is really not a population problem, it’s a foundational problem and the first step to solving that is to understand you are not going to get them to lose their heart, nor their personal morals for a failed system with a lack of transparency or hope.
Growing up in the 60's and 70's, all I heard from leaders and "professional egg heads" was that world population growth was out of control and we should stop having kids. So much for conventional "wisdom."
All this resonates with me. I completed my third Masters degree over 10 years ago and have had nothing but grief from employers in Canada and the US since. I now earn a living as a construction worker.
One of the issues raised here that I don't think gets talked about enough, is how all of these factors affect the human heart, and how instead we are treated like robots. Good interview.
These guys are tip towing around a few other factors impacting birthrate: Americans must increasingly work more hours for less pay than they did in previous decades making it harder to achieve the same standard of living their baby boomer parents raised them in. Its a tough sell to young people to accept a worse standard of living and wealth than their parents gave them. This is worsened by the continued increased cost in everything from healthcare, housing, food, transportation year after year. The rich are having plenty of children because they have been doing great financially, never better in fact. You want to incentivize young people to have children? Guarantee at least 3 weeks of vacation/holiday time + 1 week sick time, raise wages, and make it possible for young people to own homes instead of letting Blackrock, etc. buy them up and rent them out!
Clearly I'm missing something, When was the last time you were anywhere and thought, "I wish there were more people here" The grocery store, the park, the museum, the highway, the county fair, the hospital, the line at the BMV....? I think the only people this is really a threat to is those who have to answer to shareholders that demand more profit every quarter.
When my wife and I were having children, we practiced what we had been led to believe. That belief was that the world was overpopulated and we should not be selfish and have to many children. As a result we chose to only have two children. Our society pushes this belief today as well. Now that I am older and wiser I realize this narrative is not accurate on its face.
Priced all aspects of childrearing outside of the market costs. Pricing shelter, food, transportation, education, etc outside what the average parents can bear. Wages are stagnant or dropping while all prices skyrocket.
"the guts to have kids" Easy to say when you know how high rate of divorce is and how brutal is to deal with family court? Trying to build a family is ridiculously risky to the point it is reckless to try.
"For some reason." My experience out of high-school. I could choose a car, a cheap apartment, or college. But only one. It's not rocket science. I have no fucking future.
As a man that got married, for the first time, at 36, and just had a son at 39, children are a luxury good. One that is way to expensive. We will never have another child. No support from family, it’s ridiculous hard for the willing.
I grow tired of boomers sitting around pontificating on what the problem is and never actually asking young people what the issues are in REAL TIME. I'm sure they would be enlightened rather than assuming that its the classic canned and typically "out of touch" responses that they usually throw up.
The cost of housing is the key issue - people just cannot afford the space for another child - 70% of house prices is speculative, financial air. And young people are terrified of climate change.
Me and my husband tried reaching for financial stability in our twenties in order to have children. We are now in our late thirties , we still don't have the financial stability...and my fertile years is coming to an end.
I think it is significantly due to this heightened requirement/expectation of parenthood. Some of which seems a bit nutty and some of which is entirely warranted. The days of 'go outside and play' and 'drop off your junior high school-aged kid at the skating rink for 3 hours' is long gone. There seems to be an extremely onerous requirement to be a good parent now. On the other hand, we have of course a terrible epidemic of child neglect and abuse. This is such a complicated conversation. Thank you for this conversation.
I tried to listen, but when he answered the question about adult education as "a problem that managed to hide itself in plain sight" i realized the man is not a good researcher. CUNY did not charge tuition until 1976 and there was a steep decline in people that completed college just because of financial barriers... SMH these "educators" are so out of touch with actual people.
Even in the 70's the prospect of higher education was crowded with candidates for the same job. So much so many of us Boomers sought alternative routes, filling opportunities our BAs and BSes minimally qualified us, but where there were fewer people skilled in those allied fields. People began to realize a Masters or PHD in Aeronautic Engineering meant being over qualified for any job. Employers wanted to groom their candidates to their ways with internal training, so they could pay them less as an undergrad. By the 80's a higher degree meant you filled an administrative role rather than the very thing one became educated for doing, and wanted to pursue. If one didn't enter such admin role, the employer, and I mean any employer, simply wouldn't hire you FOR ANYTHING. One couldn't even work in a mail room. At least that was my experience. So the market was very tight through those years for high education slots within a company. Many went to work for the government as the expansion of bureaus needed very skilled people. So the whole system of advancement by educational attainment was a fairy tale for all but the highest GPAs. People like Steve Jobs, dropped out and started their own businesses. That gave many people hope through the 90's with Silicon Valley scooping up the brightest of those who could learn their way through computers and networking at a visceral level. The same for the pharmaceutical industry. The rest of us ended up in the service industry, the largest employer out there at widely varying capacities and potentials for advancement. This last recession taught workers that no job was secure, as massive layoffs and downsizing harshly taught. People became disaffected about their employers, hopping from one job to the next to seek the highest pay or benefits without any loyalty at all to any employer. So really the problem of education and lack of excitement in the workforce was the result of unsolved problems in the workplace being kicked down the stairs from one decade to the next. The folks down at the bottom of the payscale just got the worst of all these poor decisions by employers who no longer cared if the employer succeed or not.
I'm 35 and finally my 77-year-old my father and my business Was finally starting to actually make some good money you're just making enough to get by and do okay for a long time finally doing well and making more than we ever had and had more work than we knew what to do with for about 2 or 3 years and seemingly overnight 💣💥crash😖 straight into the ground!! Then somehow fell through the floor and it just keeps going!! So now still more work than we can do but not making any money! Lost the place I was living can't find anywhere that I can afford unless I have a girlfriend or a couple of roommates or something which I don't! So I started to live in my van until I could find somewhere I thought it would be about a week or two then 3 months later got an accident and the van was totaled so no longer had a place to stay! Ended up staying in our 18-wheeler trailer container that we rent for storage that has no access to electricity or water! So unable to replace the work truck cutting my ability to work down drastically making it so it's nearly impossible now to find a place that's affordable! Oh AND I guess there's something severely wrong because my legs and feet are still blowing up all sorts of swollen and now my sides hurt every once in awhile I guess kidneys who knows! Certainly not me no way I can afford any type of healthcare! So trying to find a place to stay is seemingly impossible Especially since they want what $3,000 to 4,000 just to step in the door of a one-bedroom or Studio hole in the wall and it was in the center of Camden New Jersey almost directly under the Ben Franklin Bridge unfortunately even that 10x15-ft room with a shower and three or four foot long counter that they put two gas burners in as a stove with a mini fridge underneath of it! But oh yeah after telling the guy I wanted it came back literally hours later and it was already taken! Can't find a girl if my life depended on it because they're either already taken or completely and totally unacceptable because there's no way I am going to start any type of relationship with a girl who is woke for just dumb as a box of rocks most of which I already have two or three kids! From the type of person who likes relationships so I'm not going to start seeing someone unless I can be in a relationship with them because that never ends up well! You end up stuck in a relationship one way or another with someone who is just completely incompatible and then you screwed! Last girl friend I had was my high school girlfriend that I was with for like I don't know 7 years or so and she came home one day and just said don't think it's going to work then I found out a few years ago she died from an OD! Then you throw on top of my mother just died unexpectedly and just before that my brother died at age 45 like 3 days before his birthday with his sleep apnea I'm asking his hand still running! I remember it was still laying on the floor running when we went to collectors belongings days later! Man did I have a weird dream last night saw his face for the first time since holy crap it's been since 2015! Anyway then we got everywhere we look just crap! The country is going to crap the jobs are crap, the people are crap for the most part, the country was burned down for like a year straight and now continues to look like it's going to go straight into an authoritarian shithole and not one person I know of would even think about trying to do something to make a change! Couldn't get people to go out and voice their opinions when they were locked in their houses and had nothing else to do in the lockdowns let alone get them to take off a day's work yet the left shows up in Mass after to send out a tweet or two and no matter if they agree with it or care about whatever it is they stay there and do whatever it takes not leaving until they got what they think they wanted! Everyone else is called Nazi bigot terrorists and will be thrown in solitary lockup for years before they even get a trial if they sneeze the wrong way with literally a handful of politicians who actually try to do something in care the rest of which are constantly curled up in the fetal position in the corner rocking back and forth begging the left not to call them mean names or acting like they're doing something but in reality the left complete their agendas! I'd love to have kids and a family and a job that I would actually happy and want to get out of bed to go do! No way I'm going to have kids when I'm not sure which one of could happen tomorrow... Civil War, nuclear war / ww3, the completion of the great reset / authoritarian takeover, you have no work or lose the roof over your head! I remember when I was growing up and wasn't worried about any of that knew that I'd be able to take care of myself because things were good and as long as you went out to work you'd be all good! Holy crap things have changed!
I turned 18 in 2008, at the height of the great recession. I graduated college with a degree that was essentially useless, 100k of debt. Years behind already from lack of job prospects due to a shitty economy. I'm married, own property, but have fertility issues that make having children difficult. Not impossible, but it's definitely a choice. Up until a year ago the job I had was so stressful I was convinced I would miscarry if I even tried. Now I have a great job, but it's in tech and that's where all the layoffs are happening. I'm approaching an age where I will be too old to have biological children on my own. Let me know when I have 9 months to fit this in around all that.
With less long-term jobs available agility means having less baggage to avoid being trapped by circumstances; including being forced to be a combatant in a war you don't agree with. Kids notice these things.
Great conversation. Rent hikes, educational debt... healthcare.. huge issues. Children are a luxury. Maybe one day... maybe not. Life is precious but if the Govt. won't create legislation that encourages economic growth and caps housing greed then that trickles down to the wallets of 90% + of people. People are desperate. Desperation does not foster futures. Not a hopeful climate. Dire times.
Two men talking about family size. Maybe ensure that women having children are better supported financially and don't have to hold down two jobs. All governments are doing these days is take take take from hard pressed families. These two men are not living in the real world.
More children - who can afford them? Do these 2 men have any idea what it takes to pay for 1 child - they obviously have unlimited resources to have 5 children between them. It takes a team to raise a child and the male population has gone absent not only from jobs, but from families. In order for people to have more children, make housing, groceries, cars, schooling, higher education and health insurance more affordable.
“What happened?” (regarding college attendance plunging) *Americans discovered that modern college is nothing more than big business for the same old players in the shadows*
Also, men are finding out having children in the U.S is very risky financially due to the divorce rates and how men get screwed in family court. I wouldn't recommend to a man to get married and have kids in the US.
I listened to about half of this interview as these men went on and on about how the USA is in danger of being "depopulated" because there aren't enough children being born here. What planet do these guys live on? Every day thousands of "immigrants" cross our borders both legally and illegally. It adds up to millions of people every decade consuming water, electricity, land, etc. Our cities have people living on the street, our highways are clogged and the infrastructure isn't adequate for the current population. The last thing we have to worry about is too few people.
One of the best policies that could rectify this is by paying stay at home parents who home school the average amount the state pays per child for schooling already, this would cost exactly the same but allow for a greater family culture to flourish both from stay at home mothering being more feasible but also a more intimate family structure without the nefarious influence of state schools would make more family orientated future generations.
I have one child. I don't think I'd have chosen to have more even in a perfect situation. I don't think all women "want" children. Sometimes the lack of want is economic, health-related or resource related. Then there are women like me that simply think 1 is plenty and I don't think I could have been swayed otherwise. To have a child is to risk your life. Once was enough for me.
Speaking personally. My gf and I (in our 30s now) have decided not to have kids for the foreseeable future. Many of our friends and family have decided the same and it's always the same reasons. "Not bringing up a child in a world like this". Between overpopulation, changing climate, growing resource scarcity, economic crisis, on the verge of war at any moment, and mass mistrust in openly corrupt governmental sectors that are the underlying cause of all the above. The way we see it, regardless of economic implications, depopulation of the human species is absolutely necessary for the well being of planet Earth and all we cherish upon it. Yes we're afraid. Afraid that humanity's own leadership will deny our children the right to do the right thing for the sake of making a buck from our misery
We have become a society that has lost its identity. We have leadership across multiple arenas who believe the world would be better off with even less Americanism. Academics Politicians and Media are in a catastrophic downward spiral causing mass depression among the general populace. I work in Healthcare every weekend we see an onslaught of Overdoses and to drunk to function and the chronic health issues because of alcohol and drug use. We must begin to accentuate the a positive.
Children will soon only be realistic for the rich and wealthy. The economy and the climate change doesn't seem hopeful. So some of us do not want kids. It's harder to be able to take care of ourselves.
Yay , less people driving while texting. These guys really tried to act like they care about what is going on in America outside there own little micro circles of wealth.
Don't discount the glorification of independence and singledom. Young people are no longer commiting to marriage because of the risks and the abundance of choice.
Women don't have more children because they HAVE to work, living on one salary is often not possible, and childcare is expensive and not always reliable. "Convenience is priced" - . I know women who work full time and have two, three children...it's not a cakewalk... you two guys never talked about that, no mention about childcare crises, expensive education, wages not growing as fast as the living cost etc. Your solution is: women should be brave , sacrifice.Our perverse values😂 what about investing more in science and technology, with government involvement, to give people a vision for a future, like space exploration.. And Eisenhower should have pushed more against the New Deal? Oh, this is the Hoover Institution...
This is one of the most ridiculous conversations I have ever watched, especially the part where they surmise people aren't having babies "our civilization no longer likes life... why?" Obviously neither of the speakers have worked near the poverty line. And often those making a good living are working in high profile / high pressure jobs such as medicine, law or accounting that require a lot of their time. And then there are those who make a barely decent living working in fields like advertising or architecture. Life is difficult now. Most people I know would love to have a family but just cannot swing it financially. Many have a hard time finding a suitable mate. Just as there were practical reasons for a declining birth rate during WWII and the Great Depression, there are practical reasons now and you cannot surmise that people "no longer like life." Also, is it really such a catastrophe if the world's birth rate falls? So many jobs will soon be automated. So much work will soon be done by A.I. Those advances may make the complications of modern life even worse by making it difficult for people to find gainful employment. Plus, climate change is going to disrupt populations and create a rush of migrates to our shores. Sometimes, I think the whole fear of a population decline is more driven by people obsessed with a growth at all cost mindset who are unable to think pragmatically and creatively about the future.
Fascinating !!! I am in my 70's. This time period is the worst I have seen, yet I have hope. In my opinion every American who sees the "poison" needs to challenge the wokeness, the universities, schools and to have country wide protests/rally's etc. Prayer groups as well! I could go on but will leave it with a word to parents to start teaching their kids to love Jesus, love their country and love their neighbor as themselves.
I would be interested in Paul Ehrlich studying the population of evangelical Christians in the post-Christian world. The larger family size of Christians and Catholics is a result of their belief systems. How, if at all, has that changed and how? What effect does religious belief have on the size of families?
In an agricultural economy, childeren are free labor, in an urban economy children are an annoying expense. Growth for growth's sake is an economic goal, not a human goal. Humans can adjust to population decline, today's $500,000 home will be $50,000. It will also be very good for climate change.
I recognized it 15 years ago working as a nurse midwife. Now we are seeing enrollment in the Vaccines For Children program decline across the board. Even African birth rate stats have dropped. I'm sure there are various reasons for that depending on where you live in the world, but the outcome remains the same.
America is suffering from "Idiocracy", remember Miss Teen South Carolina 2007. One of most indicative moments in American history, but it has gotten much worse over the past 14 years.
50 year carpenter I say no 3 bedroom 2 bath home I’ve built is worth more than 120,000 the lenders are greedy
I'm 30 and all i do is work and I'm broke. Every woman I talk to is busy working and being broke. This late stage capitalistic society is taking everything from us so much that we can't hardly sleep let alone settle down enough to have children.
Women no longer have a choice, we have to work now because families can’t afford to live on a single income, not even for the basic necessities of life. This means that families are making the choice to have fewer children as the stress involved with 2 working parents bringing up a family is really hard both for the children and for the parents.
Having children is an act of hope. America's hyperpartisan fear-mongering has denied our younger generations hope.
The population is slowly dropping due to more women not wanting kids, the younger generation avoids having kids , more men avoid marriage or kids thanks to bias family courts, housing is super expensive, minimum wage is too low, people are unhappy and the government is not helping out with higher taxes and no housing reforms to help the middle class and the poor. Homelessness is on the rise, depression, ...etc. People even prefer death these days as suicide rises.
Add the 40% increase death rate to working age population- as reported by insurance companies in 2022
"The comfort of the rich depends on an abundant supply of the poor"
Voltaire
If there was any discussion of the mainstream media’s role in producing fear and nihilism in our society, I missed it. The media has played a starring role, and people too often overlook its culpability.
something to think about, but captive animals dont tend to breed either.
People don’t earn enough to even take care of themselves, is it any wonder were not having kids?
People have fewer or no children because they cant afford them. Women want fewer or no children because they have to work full time and rhey are exhausted.
It's not mysterious how come western industrialized society has been having so few children. Previously most people lived on farms where people had as many kids as they possibly could as children were free labor that helped the farm be more successful and profitable. When such populations urbanized and industrialized, people moved to cities where children are not helpful to anyone's economic bottom line. In cities, children are messy expensive habits that don't pay for themselves in regards to the family budget, and adults are usually rational about expenses, so they have less children. This by itself explains the decline in birthrate, but then consider how oligarchy has set in and how the super rich and big bigness can just lobby the legislatures to change the rules to benefit the upper class to the detriment of the majority of people. Society as of lately is not made to reward or benefit family creation, it is made to concentrate wealth in the hands of a few hundred people.
My kid in 20s struggling to pay rent and for college
Houses are unaffordable
Cars are unaffordable
Healthcare is unaffordable
Seriously guys…. Maybe they just have common sense not to have kids
I don’t have economics degree but I can see the problem
Seems odd these experts cannot🤦🏻♀️
Well look at the conditions in which we are having children today, their school gets more quality time with your children than you do, so are you still a parent or merely a guardian.. collectively how many hours a day do you spend investing in your children with a house full of internet devices 2 hours tops if you add up the moments of contact.. are we really being effective parents these day's.. i doubt it. Parents live busy lives as do children and between all this the only question being asked in most cases is does the devices my children have access to have parental controls im place to ensure their not exposed to the adult nature of the internet.. its a sad truth most are to busy to even be aware of.
Look at a chart of inflation since 1970 with a chart of wage growth overlaid and it becomes very clear.
So many young people can't afford to have children. Cost of living is prohibitive, and our society is frankly crazy. Why would they have kids?
I am 68 have never had a vacation and still working and broke
32 minutes. Employers begging for workers. Err, not at the pay levels required to make work pay. Especially the UK.
29 year old childless woman here, I am married to a man with two of his own sons. I have thought about having a child with him of my own, but the thought is absolutely crippling. We can not afford housing or anything due to child support already, how on earth do I afford to have a child of my own?
Everything is so expensive, we can't even begin to think about being able to survive with another mouth to feed..and I'm running out of time.
I have never had children because I could not afford them. Working minimum wage and, then, working full time at a grueling job I did not have the stamina to do it on my own. No partner wanted kids. I had the dream of being a stay at home mom and sending them to the best schools. Children require time, dedication and money to support them. Today jobs take up too much time and energy.
The problem is rooted primarily in economic policy but also current history. I am a baby boomer. I graduated from the Cal State system with no debt and bought my first home when I was 30 having one child by then. I have two grown children. The first thing to occur is 9/11 which equivalent to Pearl Harbor for my son's generation except the war last 20 years. He did two tours in Iraq and one tour in Afghanistan. He married but decided not to have children but does own his home. My daughter graduated from UC right after the financial crash of 2008. She could not find a job for a year or so. She still has approximately $40,000 in student loan debt. She does not own a house. Her partner still needs to do a residency before his income is substantial. Quite simply, my daughter wants children but will not until she is out of debt and can afford a house.
The story is similar for my sister's children. My brother-in-law graduated from UC with an engineering degree without debt and was immediately employed by a large corporation. They had their first child and bought their first home by the time he was 25. They had four children. My sister works as a teacher and her entire salary went towards funding college for their daughter and sons. Their daughter started her life before the financial crash of 2008. She owns her own house and has three children. But the sons, like my daughter, graduated after the crash. One is married with one child and a home. The sons are well employed but not married.
TARP ultimately protected my cohorts but quantitative easing increased assets like housing to levels of unaffordability. The expectation placed on my children's generation was to use debt as an instrument to climb into the middle class. Even if your parents are relatively affluent as I would say my sister's family household was, the impact of economic policy has disadvantaged her sons in terms of household formation.
I agree. Stimulus packages to entice households to have children is not going to work. But speaking as one baby boomer to two other baby boomers, I would say that we lived in relative prosperity and that it is the inequity of wealth in this country that is the ultimate cause.
I’m a 30 man married with 2 children I was raised in public school where every guiding voice told us that if you had kids before you finished college you we’re screwed and that children are a financial burden that will drain you and eliminate all chances of following dreams or aspirations. The specific community I grew up in viewed children as an unwanted responsibility everyone claimed they “loved their kids” but constantly complained about all the things they had to provide for them this was my entire childhood. I grew up believing I was a burden to my parents and all my friends were burdens to their parents. I believe this pessimistic view was instilled in us during our formative years in school. My wife homeschools my children and we will not repeat history. Thank you for this interview!
Three words: late stage capitalism.
No one wants to work for poverty wages and get treated like garbage by customers and employers alike. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
The real estate argument is baffling. There are so many young people DESPERATE to buy their own home but can't afford it. If the housing prices fall to the level where all those young people can afford it, there won't be any excess housing.
Kids are expensive. People can barely afford to take care of themselves, having kids put a lot of people into poverty or keeps them there. Many I have spoken to have said they don’t want to bring a child into this crazy world.
From what I can tell, just about everything has failed in one way or another. It's like everything was designed, NOT TO WORK. Basic Health care is the top of the list. They have no answers for most problems, then they expect you to pay for "no answers". Many in my
family have been sick for years (no one get well), not to mention my life has been consumed by taking care of my sick husband for 25 years. The STRESS has been unbelievable.
NO HEALTH + NO REASONABLE JOB = NO LIFE
We are just left with a useless education and colleges, no affordable land to buy, no way to have a home (my dream), no garden, no decent job or business of our own, the landlord doesn't even want us to have a cat. We just keep moving, with no where to go anymore.
NO LIFE, NO HOPE.... JUST NOTHINGNESS. LIFE used to be SIMPLE. But not anymore.
We have been set up for failure, and they are still trying to suck us down the rabbit hole.
In my experience, there's a dynamic change in worldview when one starts raising kids.
My father worked like a dog, being an immigrant and having all his education not being credited. My mother tried to stay home, but was forced into the workforce. We had a home but not food in the cupboards and parents absent. Being the eldest, I took care of my brother and sister. No interest in repeating that, I struggle as a single female to keep a roof over my head, and if I take on anyone else, my roof gets more expensive. What's the point?
I wonder if either of these men would be willing to live the lives young, non-wealthy, people these days? Would either of them work a second job, so they could afford to have a family? Would they share in the laundry, the cooking and cleaning because their wives are also working full-time? Would they put their kids in daycare, which for those who are not fairly well-off, is often substandard? Would they have time to help their kids learn their multiplication tables and stay home with sick kids, perhaps risking their jobs? I think both of these men are somewhat out of touch with the reality of the lives of the lower half (or perhaps even the lower 2/3) of our country.
The real problem no matter what country you live in you never really can own your own land and our countries government owe so much money to their own citizens and have inflated the economy to the point that no one can afford rent to " own" land by government tax standards
He's just admitting that our entire economy is a pyramid scheme...
People aren’t healthy. My grandparents lived to be very old. Didn’t go to the doctor. My mother lived to 88 while smoking since she was 12, ate very poorly. I’m 79 and very healthy, drivie a school bus in foot of Ozarks, walk better and healthier than many younger people.
People can’t even afford the basics for survival i.e food and shelter…how can we keep popping out kids in a world like this? Its logical not to have kids…what kind of future will the kid have in this world?
Life is tough. I do not want my kids to go through what I went through. My unborn kids aren't missing much
They want women to have children, raise children and go to work. No ones paying them for this hard job so I guess many just dont bother. Raising children is hard work. Unpaid work. Educated women have less kids and more job prospects. Some have male wives that do the chores and raise the kids.
What was this about? I mean I heard nostalgia for the 80’s. I heard that a decreased and older population will not necessarily cause economic harm. But then , I heard all this puzzling over why people of child bearing age don’t have more children. Here’s a thought: ASK THEM? Most say they don’t want to give up their own personal freedom, if finances aren’t a problem, the rest say they can’t afford children. Look around, housing prices are extremely high. All prices are high. Child care is practically non existent. And 90% of home and child care falls on women even when they are part of the workforce. Why aren’t people having children? Wise decision making skills, that’s why.
This is what happens when you make it to expensive to have kids.
The worse the opportunity, the less people want to procreate as they feel pessimistic for the future
Most telling point..."poisoning of the education institution".
Great and enlightening interview. Millennials watched their parents-who worked their whole life and the entire family made sacrifices for-lose everything during the financial downturn. This is not just in the US but also in many other countries. In China, they have a 12/6 workweek and they have one of the largest populations of homeless people! Additionally, they watched their sandwich generation parents struggle under the weight of supporting aging parents, grandparents and also their children with “someday we will be happy if we just work hard enough” dangling carrot that never came. Millennials are not dumb, they know things have not changed and they don’t wish to suffer the same fate as their parents nor put their kids through what they, themselves, went through. The view of paying off costly education and obtaining solid financial footing prior to having children has been an on-going topic in many of my conversations with people of that generation and, the resounding answer is they have learned from the past that it’s better to pay off school, create solidity and time for their kids prior to having them. I find this responsible and if we can’t support these thoughts or affordable housing, they aren’t going to bring children into an unstable environment. Also, lets face it, they also know people who target kids (1 in 3 girls are targeted sometime in their life) are not prosecuted or obtain light sentencing and the school system is failing. This is really not a population problem, it’s a foundational problem and the first step to solving that is to understand you are not going to get them to lose their heart, nor their personal morals for a failed system with a lack of transparency or hope.
Growing up in the 60's and 70's, all I heard from leaders and "professional egg heads" was that world population growth was out of control and we should stop having kids. So much for conventional "wisdom."
They're shipping jobs overseas!
That's why no new industry.
Greedy corporate
All this resonates with me. I completed my third Masters degree over 10 years ago and have had nothing but grief from employers in Canada and the US since. I now earn a living as a construction worker.
It doesn't t help most young ppl can barely afford to live
Made it so damn expensive to live, two household incomes is the only way to survive.
One of the issues raised here that I don't think gets talked about enough, is how all of these factors affect the human heart, and how instead we are treated like robots. Good interview.
If it scares the elites, I say we escalate it.
Boomers sitting around a table asking why young people aren’t having kids
Ask them - which one of their kids can afford today’s housing prices?
These guys are tip towing around a few other factors impacting birthrate: Americans must increasingly work more hours for less pay than they did in previous decades making it harder to achieve the same standard of living their baby boomer parents raised them in. Its a tough sell to young people to accept a worse standard of living and wealth than their parents gave them. This is worsened by the continued increased cost in everything from healthcare, housing, food, transportation year after year. The rich are having plenty of children because they have been doing great financially, never better in fact. You want to incentivize young people to have children? Guarantee at least 3 weeks of vacation/holiday time + 1 week sick time, raise wages, and make it possible for young people to own homes instead of letting Blackrock, etc. buy them up and rent them out!
I would never bring a child into this world since waking up to the sheer evil we are ruled by
Clearly I'm missing something, When was the last time you were anywhere and thought, "I wish there were more people here" The grocery store, the park, the museum, the highway, the county fair, the hospital, the line at the BMV....? I think the only people this is really a threat to is those who have to answer to shareholders that demand more profit every quarter.
When my wife and I were having children, we practiced what we had been led to believe. That belief was that the world was overpopulated and we should not be selfish and have to many children. As a result we chose to only have two children. Our society pushes this belief today as well. Now that I am older and wiser I realize this narrative is not accurate on its face.
Priced all aspects of childrearing outside of the market costs. Pricing shelter, food, transportation, education, etc outside what the average parents can bear. Wages are stagnant or dropping while all prices skyrocket.
"the guts to have kids"
Easy to say when you know how high rate of divorce is and how brutal is to deal with family court?
Trying to build a family is ridiculously risky to the point it is reckless to try.
"For some reason." My experience out of high-school. I could choose a car, a cheap apartment, or college. But only one. It's not rocket science. I have no fucking future.
As a man that got married, for the first time, at 36, and just had a son at 39, children are a luxury good. One that is way to expensive. We will never have another child. No support from family, it’s ridiculous hard for the willing.
I grow tired of boomers sitting around pontificating on what the problem is and never actually asking young people what the issues are in REAL TIME. I'm sure they would be enlightened rather than assuming that its the classic canned and typically "out of touch" responses that they usually throw up.
The cost of housing is the key issue - people just cannot afford the space for another child - 70% of house prices is speculative, financial air. And young people are terrified of climate change.
There's no such thing as infinite growth.
Our owners are just pissy their income is leveling off.
Kids have been made too expensive.
Do you think maybe, possibly, the transition from a rural to an urban society might have something to do with the birth rate?
so how come nobody in our government is doing anything about this? why are they almost intentionally making it worse?
The cost of raising children have exploded.
Me and my husband tried reaching for financial stability in our twenties in order to have children. We are now in our late thirties , we still don't have the financial stability...and my fertile years is coming to an end.
I think it is significantly due to this heightened requirement/expectation of parenthood. Some of which seems a bit nutty and some of which is entirely warranted. The days of 'go outside and play' and 'drop off your junior high school-aged kid at the skating rink for 3 hours' is long gone. There seems to be an extremely onerous requirement to be a good parent now. On the other hand, we have of course a terrible epidemic of child neglect and abuse. This is such a complicated conversation. Thank you for this conversation.
I tried to listen, but when he answered the question about adult education as "a problem that managed to hide itself in plain sight" i realized the man is not a good researcher. CUNY did not charge tuition until 1976 and there was a steep decline in people that completed college just because of financial barriers... SMH these "educators" are so out of touch with actual people.
Even in the 70's the prospect of higher education was crowded with candidates for the same job. So much so many of us Boomers sought alternative routes, filling opportunities our BAs and BSes minimally qualified us, but where there were fewer people skilled in those allied fields. People began to realize a Masters or PHD in Aeronautic Engineering meant being over qualified for any job. Employers wanted to groom their candidates to their ways with internal training, so they could pay them less as an undergrad. By the 80's a higher degree meant you filled an administrative role rather than the very thing one became educated for doing, and wanted to pursue. If one didn't enter such admin role, the employer, and I mean any employer, simply wouldn't hire you FOR ANYTHING. One couldn't even work in a mail room. At least that was my experience. So the market was very tight through those years for high education slots within a company. Many went to work for the government as the expansion of bureaus needed very skilled people. So the whole system of advancement by educational attainment was a fairy tale for all but the highest GPAs. People like Steve Jobs, dropped out and started their own businesses. That gave many people hope through the 90's with Silicon Valley scooping up the brightest of those who could learn their way through computers and networking at a visceral level. The same for the pharmaceutical industry. The rest of us ended up in the service industry, the largest employer out there at widely varying capacities and potentials for advancement. This last recession taught workers that no job was secure, as massive layoffs and downsizing harshly taught. People became disaffected about their employers, hopping from one job to the next to seek the highest pay or benefits without any loyalty at all to any employer. So really the problem of education and lack of excitement in the workforce was the result of unsolved problems in the workplace being kicked down the stairs from one decade to the next. The folks down at the bottom of the payscale just got the worst of all these poor decisions by employers who no longer cared if the employer succeed or not.
I'm 35 and finally my 77-year-old my father and my business Was finally starting to actually make some good money you're just making enough to get by and do okay for a long time finally doing well and making more than we ever had and had more work than we knew what to do with for about 2 or 3 years and seemingly overnight 💣💥crash😖 straight into the ground!! Then somehow fell through the floor and it just keeps going!! So now still more work than we can do but not making any money! Lost the place I was living can't find anywhere that I can afford unless I have a girlfriend or a couple of roommates or something which I don't! So I started to live in my van until I could find somewhere I thought it would be about a week or two then 3 months later got an accident and the van was totaled so no longer had a place to stay! Ended up staying in our 18-wheeler trailer container that we rent for storage that has no access to electricity or water! So unable to replace the work truck cutting my ability to work down drastically making it so it's nearly impossible now to find a place that's affordable! Oh AND I guess there's something severely wrong because my legs and feet are still blowing up all sorts of swollen and now my sides hurt every once in awhile I guess kidneys who knows! Certainly not me no way I can afford any type of healthcare! So trying to find a place to stay is seemingly impossible Especially since they want what $3,000 to 4,000 just to step in the door of a one-bedroom or Studio hole in the wall and it was in the center of Camden New Jersey almost directly under the Ben Franklin Bridge unfortunately even that 10x15-ft room with a shower and three or four foot long counter that they put two gas burners in as a stove with a mini fridge underneath of it! But oh yeah after telling the guy I wanted it came back literally hours later and it was already taken! Can't find a girl if my life depended on it because they're either already taken or completely and totally unacceptable because there's no way I am going to start any type of relationship with a girl who is woke for just dumb as a box of rocks most of which I already have two or three kids! From the type of person who likes relationships so I'm not going to start seeing someone unless I can be in a relationship with them because that never ends up well! You end up stuck in a relationship one way or another with someone who is just completely incompatible and then you screwed! Last girl friend I had was my high school girlfriend that I was with for like I don't know 7 years or so and she came home one day and just said don't think it's going to work then I found out a few years ago she died from an OD! Then you throw on top of my mother just died unexpectedly and just before that my brother died at age 45 like 3 days before his birthday with his sleep apnea I'm asking his hand still running! I remember it was still laying on the floor running when we went to collectors belongings days later! Man did I have a weird dream last night saw his face for the first time since holy crap it's been since 2015! Anyway then we got everywhere we look just crap! The country is going to crap the jobs are crap, the people are crap for the most part, the country was burned down for like a year straight and now continues to look like it's going to go straight into an authoritarian shithole and not one person I know of would even think about trying to do something to make a change! Couldn't get people to go out and voice their opinions when they were locked in their houses and had nothing else to do in the lockdowns let alone get them to take off a day's work yet the left shows up in Mass after to send out a tweet or two and no matter if they agree with it or care about whatever it is they stay there and do whatever it takes not leaving until they got what they think they wanted! Everyone else is called Nazi bigot terrorists and will be thrown in solitary lockup for years before they even get a trial if they sneeze the wrong way with literally a handful of politicians who actually try to do something in care the rest of which are constantly curled up in the fetal position in the corner rocking back and forth begging the left not to call them mean names or acting like they're doing something but in reality the left complete their agendas! I'd love to have kids and a family and a job that I would actually happy and want to get out of bed to go do! No way I'm going to have kids when I'm not sure which one of could happen tomorrow... Civil War, nuclear war / ww3, the completion of the great reset / authoritarian takeover, you have no work or lose the roof over your head! I remember when I was growing up and wasn't worried about any of that knew that I'd be able to take care of myself because things were good and as long as you went out to work you'd be all good! Holy crap things have changed!
I turned 18 in 2008, at the height of the great recession. I graduated college with a degree that was essentially useless, 100k of debt. Years behind already from lack of job prospects due to a shitty economy. I'm married, own property, but have fertility issues that make having children difficult. Not impossible, but it's definitely a choice. Up until a year ago the job I had was so stressful I was convinced I would miscarry if I even tried. Now I have a great job, but it's in tech and that's where all the layoffs are happening. I'm approaching an age where I will be too old to have biological children on my own. Let me know when I have 9 months to fit this in around all that.
With less long-term jobs available agility means having less baggage to avoid being trapped by circumstances; including being forced to be a combatant in a war you don't agree with. Kids notice these things.
One way to make children more desirable is to give parents more say on how their child should be educated.
It's so crazy how education attainment plummeted right after Reagan made college unaffordable in the early 80s
I don't think numbers growing like a cancer is a great basis for an economy. Maybe we should change our model.
Great conversation. Rent hikes, educational debt... healthcare.. huge issues. Children are a luxury. Maybe one day... maybe not. Life is precious but if the Govt. won't create legislation that encourages economic growth and caps housing greed then that trickles down to the wallets of 90% + of people. People are desperate. Desperation does not foster futures. Not a hopeful climate. Dire times.
Two men talking about family size. Maybe ensure that women having children are better supported financially and don't have to hold down two jobs. All governments are doing these days is take take take from hard pressed families. These two men are not living in the real world.
More children - who can afford them? Do these 2 men have any idea what it takes to pay for 1 child - they obviously have unlimited resources to have 5 children between them. It takes a team to raise a child and the male population has gone absent not only from jobs, but from families. In order for people to have more children, make housing, groceries, cars, schooling, higher education and health insurance more affordable.
And there are alot of people in our country who should NEVER have children.
“What happened?” (regarding college attendance plunging) *Americans discovered that modern college is nothing more than big business for the same old players in the shadows*
Also, men are finding out having children in the U.S is very risky financially due to the divorce rates and how men get screwed in family court. I wouldn't recommend to a man to get married and have kids in the US.
Have kids, we must keep the Ponzi going! Damn, I am glad I do not have kids, world is going to sh... faster and faster each year.
I listened to about half of this interview as these men went on and on about how the USA is in danger of being "depopulated" because there aren't enough children being born here. What planet do these guys live on? Every day thousands of "immigrants" cross our borders both legally and illegally. It adds up to millions of people every decade consuming water, electricity, land, etc. Our cities have people living on the street, our highways are clogged and the infrastructure isn't adequate for the current population.
The last thing we have to worry about is too few people.
One of the best policies that could rectify this is by paying stay at home parents who home school the average amount the state pays per child for schooling already, this would cost exactly the same but allow for a greater family culture to flourish both from stay at home mothering being more feasible but also a more intimate family structure without the nefarious influence of state schools would make more family orientated future generations.
I have one child. I don't think I'd have chosen to have more even in a perfect situation. I don't think all women "want" children. Sometimes the lack of want is economic, health-related or resource related. Then there are women like me that simply think 1 is plenty and I don't think I could have been swayed otherwise. To have a child is to risk your life. Once was enough for me.
Speaking personally. My gf and I (in our 30s now) have decided not to have kids for the foreseeable future. Many of our friends and family have decided the same and it's always the same reasons. "Not bringing up a child in a world like this". Between overpopulation, changing climate, growing resource scarcity, economic crisis, on the verge of war at any moment, and mass mistrust in openly corrupt governmental sectors that are the underlying cause of all the above. The way we see it, regardless of economic implications, depopulation of the human species is absolutely necessary for the well being of planet Earth and all we cherish upon it. Yes we're afraid. Afraid that humanity's own leadership will deny our children the right to do the right thing for the sake of making a buck from our misery
We have become a society that has lost its identity. We have leadership across multiple arenas who believe the world would be better off with even less Americanism. Academics Politicians and Media are in a catastrophic downward spiral causing mass depression among the general populace. I work in Healthcare every weekend we see an onslaught of Overdoses and to drunk to function and the chronic health issues because of alcohol and drug use. We must begin to accentuate the a positive.
Children will soon only be realistic for the rich and wealthy. The economy and the climate change doesn't seem hopeful. So some of us do not want kids. It's harder to be able to take care of ourselves.
Yay , less people driving while texting. These guys really tried to act like they care about what is going on in America outside there own little micro circles of wealth.
I've tried unsuccessfully to have children for 7 years. Sometimes it's not even a decision to have fewer/no kids, it's inevitable.
Don't discount the glorification of independence and singledom. Young people are no longer commiting to marriage because of the risks and the abundance of choice.
Women don't have more children because they HAVE to work, living on one salary is often not possible, and childcare is expensive and not always reliable. "Convenience is priced" - . I know women who work full time and have two, three children...it's not a cakewalk... you two guys never talked about that, no mention about childcare crises, expensive education, wages not growing as fast as the living cost etc. Your solution is: women should be brave , sacrifice.Our perverse values😂 what about investing more in science and technology, with government involvement, to give people a vision for a future, like space exploration.. And Eisenhower should have pushed more against the New Deal? Oh, this is the Hoover Institution...
When I see a panel of women wringing their hands about the low birthrate, then I'll take it seriously.
This is one of the most ridiculous conversations I have ever watched, especially the part where they surmise people aren't having babies "our civilization no longer likes life... why?" Obviously neither of the speakers have worked near the poverty line. And often those making a good living are working in high profile / high pressure jobs such as medicine, law or accounting that require a lot of their time. And then there are those who make a barely decent living working in fields like advertising or architecture.
Life is difficult now. Most people I know would love to have a family but just cannot swing it financially. Many have a hard time finding a suitable mate. Just as there were practical reasons for a declining birth rate during WWII and the Great Depression, there are practical reasons now and you cannot surmise that people "no longer like life."
Also, is it really such a catastrophe if the world's birth rate falls? So many jobs will soon be automated. So much work will soon be done by A.I. Those advances may make the complications of modern life even worse by making it difficult for people to find gainful employment. Plus, climate change is going to disrupt populations and create a rush of migrates to our shores. Sometimes, I think the whole fear of a population decline is more driven by people obsessed with a growth at all cost mindset who are unable to think pragmatically and creatively about the future.
Fascinating !!! I am in my 70's. This time period is the worst I have seen, yet I have hope. In my opinion every American who sees the "poison" needs to challenge the wokeness, the universities, schools and to have country wide protests/rally's etc. Prayer groups as well! I could go on but will leave it with a word to parents to start teaching their kids to love Jesus, love their country and love their neighbor as themselves.
" The purpose of a university is to make a son as unlike his father as possible" - Woodrow Wilson
Bill Gates approves of this message
I would be interested in Paul Ehrlich studying the population of evangelical Christians in the post-Christian world. The larger family size of Christians and Catholics is a result of their belief systems. How, if at all, has that changed and how? What effect does religious belief have on the size of families?
In an agricultural economy, childeren are free labor, in an urban economy children are an annoying expense. Growth for growth's sake is an economic goal, not a human goal. Humans can adjust to population decline, today's $500,000 home will be $50,000. It will also be very good for climate change.
Let me say this, Peter is a consistently wonderful interviewer. I get more out of these podcasts than any other. Cheers.
What about the exponential increase in population in the previous centuries? An exponential curve can't last forever, can it?
I recognized it 15 years ago working as a nurse midwife. Now we are seeing enrollment in the Vaccines For Children program decline across the board. Even African birth rate stats have dropped. I'm sure there are various reasons for that depending on where you live in the world, but the outcome remains the same.
America is suffering from "Idiocracy", remember Miss Teen South Carolina 2007. One of most indicative moments in American history, but it has gotten much worse over the past 14 years.