{"id":2230669,"date":"2024-04-26T04:19:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-26T08:19:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/is-the-economy-behind-the-low-birth-rate-unlikely\/"},"modified":"2024-04-26T04:23:04","modified_gmt":"2024-04-26T08:23:04","slug":"is-the-economy-behind-the-low-birth-rate-unlikely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/is-the-economy-behind-the-low-birth-rate-unlikely\/","title":{"rendered":"Unlikely: Economy&#8217;s Role in Low Birth Rates"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fis-the-economy-behind-the-low-birth-rate-unlikely%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2230669&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article discusses \u2064the \u2062challenges young people face\u200b in starting families in modern America. It\u2064 questions the \u200dbelief \u200dthat\u200c economic \u200cstruggles significantly impact birth \u200crates. It \u2062explores historical perspectives on\u2063 birth rates and government influences worldwide. \u2063The text also delves into societal and religious factors affecting \u200dfertility rates,\u2062 emphasizing\u200d diverse global trends. The article explores the hurdles faced by young individuals in initiating families in contemporary America. It\u200d challenges the notion that economic difficulties play\u200d a\u2064 major role\u2062 in influencing birth rates. Furthermore, it delves into the historical\u2063 context \u200bof birth\u2064 rates and international governmental impacts. The discussion extends to societal and religious aspects affecting fertility rates, highlighting various global patterns.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-content\">\n<p>Charlie Kirk recently shared an \u201cimportant\u201d video of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Algebra-Wealth-Formula-Financial-Security\/dp\/0593714024\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">author<\/a> Scott Galloway lamenting how difficult it is <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BradWilcoxIFS\/status\/1783451015846445489\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">for young people to have children<\/a> in modern America. I hear this sentiment all the time on the right.   <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"> <span class=\"2AF7es3xwsJ0HqtrX9edzlPFjUmtpLRVhnQGXxlZcvUWkESLWvC8PjYMo05Qgya1hqOAYKGIHifpSgidbCb68DN29uNw6Ran1yVD\"><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83d\udea8This is a VERY important clip. I speak at more college campuses and with more college kids than perhaps anyone else in the country and what this man is saying is 100% true. Watch and have your eyes opened. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/kEfhvlKYWB\">pic.twitter.com\/kEfhvlKYWB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/charliekirk11\/status\/1783136306400497981?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 24, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/span> <\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>I\u2019m not a social scientist, granted, but I\u2019m <em>highly<\/em> skeptical young people are especially hindered from having children because of economic struggles or an inability to buy homes or inflation or the nefarious workings of the \u201cunfettered\u201d free market or \u201cglobalism.\u201d I do think we\u2019ve trained a generation to see themselves as victims of (completely normal) circumstances.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-1305859480\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-91c35c3f9d00e796f2d4fb7ce273bb1b fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-91c35c3f9d00e796f2d4fb7ce273bb1b\"><\/div>\n<p>To begin with, the notion that young people are toiling in some uniquely grueling economic era is completely delusional. Partisans want you to think everything is falling apart. There are plenty of serious problems \u2014 there always are \u2014 but historically speaking, Americans are largely living in a uniquely wealthy, safe, educated, and meritocratic world. <\/p>\n<p>Young people can be \u201cenraged\u201d and jealous of the \u201cexceptional wealth\u201d of their parents, but Zoomers are probably <a href=\"https:\/\/www.economist.com\/finance-and-economics\/2024\/04\/16\/generation-z-is-unprecedentedly-rich\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wealthier<\/a> than any other generation at the same point in their life cycle. Having to pay back a ridiculous student loan on a useless sociology degree isn\u2019t one of the great tragedies to have befallen mankind, it\u2019s just the consequence of a bad choice. <\/p>\n<p>But, for the sake of argument, let\u2019s concede life is super tough these days.<\/p>\n<p>Does anyone believe Zoomers are worse off than young people during the Depression, when the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cato.org\/blog\/some-historical-context-fertility-decline\">birth rate<\/a> was far higher? That generation gazed back at the Roaring \u201920s. Why did they have kids? The birth rate was over four times higher in the early 1800s, when around 90 percent of Americans had to wake up before dawn to engage in the backbreaking work of farming \u2014 often subsistence farming \u2014 with no other prospects available.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-702d35d83e1a6f0be72556a7990cf555 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-702d35d83e1a6f0be72556a7990cf555\"><\/div>\n<p>The replacement rate began to drop after the post-war boom and has dropped, or remained stagnant, under virtually every president since Eisenhower. Replacement rates dropped during recessions and during booms. It dropped under Donald Trump. It dropped under Joe Biden.<\/p>\n<p>Birth rates drop under leftist governments and capitalist governments and hybrid governments. They dropped in both <a href=\"https:\/\/www.macrotrends.net\/global-metrics\/countries\/IND\/india\/birth-rate\">socialist India and nationalist Hindi India<\/a>, and in both communist <a href=\"https:\/\/www.macrotrends.net\/global-metrics\/countries\/HUN\/hungary\/birth-rate\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Hungary<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.macrotrends.net\/global-metrics\/countries\/RUS\/russia\/birth-rate#:~:text=The%20birth%20rate%20for%20Russia%20in%202022%20was%2011.617%20births,a%202.37%25%20decline%20from%202020.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Russia<\/a> and nationalist Hungary and Russia. Birth rates have been declining in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/world\/china\/china-population-births-economy-one-child-c5b95901\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">China<\/a> and in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/international\/archive\/2017\/11\/muslim-overpopulation-myth\/545318\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Islamic world<\/a>. Twice as many Japanese <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nippon.com\/en\/japan-data\/h01916\/#:~:text=In%202023%2C%20Japan%20had%20more,excluding%20migration)%20of%20over%20800%2C000.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">died<\/a> than were born in 2023. Is it because they\u2019re poor? The place with the highest birth rates is sub-Saharan Africa, the poorest place of all.<\/p>\n<p>Fifty years ago, Ireland was one of the poorest countries in Western Europe and had one of the highest replacements on the continent. Today it is one of the richest and is way below <a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/eurostat\/statistics-explained\/index.php?title=Fertility_statistics#:~:text=1.46%20live%20births%20per%20woman%20in%20the%20EU%20in%202022,-In%20recent%20decades&#038;text=A%20total%20fertility%20rate%20of,in%20the%20absence%20of%20migration.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">replacement levels<\/a>, which is 2.1 kids per woman. Other (formerly) Catholic countries like Spain (1.16), Italy (1.24), and Portugal (1.43) are even worse.<\/p>\n<p>South Korea is one of the largest and wealthiest economies in the world, and it also has the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/asia-pacific\/south-koreas-fertility-rate-dropped-fresh-record-low-2023-2024-02-28\/#:~:text=The%20average%20number%20of%20expected,Statistics%20Korea%20showed%20on%20Wednesday.\">lowest replacement rate<\/a>. A South Korean woman (<a href=\"https:\/\/data.worldbank.org\/indicator\/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?locations=KR\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">$32,422<\/a> per capita GDP) has 0.72 kids in her lifetime, as of last year. In Laos (<a href=\"https:\/\/data.worldbank.org\/indicator\/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?locations=LA\">$2,054<\/a>), women have an average of more than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statista.com\/statistics\/804970\/fertility-rate-in-laos\/\">two children<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-b1bb094402ccdeeabc6565681b830f6e fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-b1bb094402ccdeeabc6565681b830f6e\"><\/div>\n<p>Since 2006, South Korea has plowed hundreds of billions of dollars into programs incentivizing citizens to have more children. The rate keeps plunging. The government is now <a href=\"https:\/\/www.koreaherald.com\/view.php?ud=20240122000698\">offering<\/a> $22,100 for each new kid, on top of paying for childcare and infertility treatment. Some private companies are offering significant cash <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2024\/02\/06\/business\/south-korea-firm-child-cash-payout-intl-hnk\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">rewards<\/a> to employees to have more children.<\/p>\n<p>These kinds of technocratic inducements are quite popular on the populist right. But a normal person doesn\u2019t have kids for the tax break or a check. The American middle class already pays comparably low taxes, and the \u201cworking class\u201d pays very little. We are already the wealthiest people on Earth. Maybe if you started handing out million-dollar checks per kid, you might make a small dent in the problem. But what kind of society are we building then?<\/p>\n<p>One strongly suspects that many progressive New Right types attack the \u201cfree market\u201d and romanticize the 1970s \u2014 Marco Rubio <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2019\/11\/marco-rubios-bizarre-turn-against-capitalism\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">comes to mind<\/a>, but there are many others \u2014 because they believe <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fooling-ourselves-in-the-far-east\/\" title=\"Fooling Ourselves in the Far East\">uncontrolled economic growth<\/a> is bad for the soul and the family. Like every other group that believes they\u2019ve finally cracked the mystery of harnessing the economy and human nature, they will only cause needless problems.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of pushing for expanding the welfare state \u2014 one that has already undermined community and family \u2014 maybe do a better job by expanding your flock. Or keeping it, for that matter. Because in the U.S., the loss of religiosity is likely a bigger reason for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/review-eurotrash-why-america-must-reject-the-failed-ideas-of-a-dying-continent\/\" title=\"REVIEW: \u2018Eurotrash: Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent\u2019\">low birth rates<\/a> than the economy. Studies consistently show that the more one attends church, the more kids they have. As of the 2020 Census, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercatornet.com\/the_red_state_blue_state_divide#:~:text=According%20to%20the%202020%20Census,%2C%20Oklahoma%2C%20Kansas%20and%20Iowa.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">top 10 states<\/a> with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/u-s-median-age-reaches-record-high-as-americans-put-off-having-kids\/\" title=\"U.S. median age hits all-time high as Americans delay parenthood.\">highest fertility rates<\/a>\u00a0were all red states. The bottom 10 were all blue.<\/p>\n<p>Abortion is also a factor, obviously. The widespread availability of birth control, even more. To some extent, perhaps the Malthusian \u201ceco-anxiety\u201d created by climate-change alarmists and the \u201coverpopulation\u201d myth might play some part. Trendy pseudoreligions are nothing new.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m sure there are other factors. But the leading reason we\u2019ve seen declining birth rates is surely that women have joined the workforce and postponed marriage and thus families. This is obvious. People are living longer, but biology doesn\u2019t calibrate itself to your cultural expectations. <\/p>\n<p>Yet many people function under the false expectation that having kids is supposed to be easy and without any inconvenient life choices. It\u2019s never been easy to rear children, though it is immensely rewarding. So, for instance, one of the big complaints I hear is that daycare is too expensive. Well, move somewhere more affordable, or stay home with your kids. Or don\u2019t. Life is a series of tradeoffs.<\/p>\n<p>None of this is to dismiss the fact that younger generations have been infected with debilitating social ideas that undermine their future. There is something to Galloway\u2019s contention that the pool of \u201ceconomically and emotionally viable men\u201d is shrinking. Though, I don\u2019t know if this is breaking news, but men in their early 20s have rarely been economically and emotionally \u201cviable.\u201d Women help make men better, and vice versa. Kids help both become more mature people. That\u2019s one of the reasons you get married in the first place.<\/p>\n<p>What should be done to entice people to grow up? I don\u2019t know. As I noted up top, I\u2019m not a social researcher, and I don\u2019t have any elaborate charts or big policy ideas. I suspect nothing can be done to mitigate the problem with policy. <\/p>\n<p>In the end, though, even if you are marginally less prosperous than your parents, not having kids is (most often) a choice. We need to convince people it\u2019s the wrong choice. One way to do that might be to stop feeding their victimhood complex.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-c845938f489ea686cc92c7dc93e99ceb fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-c845938f489ea686cc92c7dc93e99ceb\"><\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">    \t\t\t\t\t   \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Charlie Kirk shared a compelling video by author Scott Galloway, highlighting the challenges faced by young individuals in starting families in modern America. This resonates with many on the right. The clip emphasizes the significance of the issue, reflecting on extensive interactions with college students<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":831,"featured_media":2230670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/scott-galloway-1200x675-1-1024x703.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2230669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/scott-galloway-1200x675-1-1024x703.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2230669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/831"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2230669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2230669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2230670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2230669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2230669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2230669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}