US Birth Rate Drops to Lowest Level in 35 Years

Good. I hope this spreads. The world would benefit from far fewer people.

This isn't a big surprise. Why, western democracies have seen a rapid decrease in birth rate. Let's face it the economy is pretty much awful and that's no environment to raise a kid in. And when I was younger I knew of at least 3 women in their very early 40's who were pregnant and had kids.

I don’t think it has anything to do with the economy.

Trump is even repelling fertility.

Why do you not think it has anything to do with the economy, R3?

In a way, I think that the economy has influenced this downward trend as women now have more economic freedom to not only decide to not have kids but to not marry, either. Good for them. Having a kid means piling on more work for yourself. Glad more people are seeing it for the trap it is.

R3 - correct, particularly when the stats are for 2019. However, it is a generational economic issue - when you have people in their 20's and 30's saddled with student debt, high costs of rent and living, and wages that haven't kept up with these rises - you get a generation of people who are on the edge.

This is not good news - it's symptomatic of an economy that is not working for most people.

Yet freepers insist women are pumping out tons of kids for welfare checks. They're not.

Well that means people are being sensible by postponing children or deciding to not have any at all because of the flimsy economy. And so many children are waiting to be adopted.

The Evangelicals,Hasidism & Muslims are the only ones having multiple crotchfruit here in America.

This doesn't bode well.

[quote]Birth rates decreased in [bold]almost[/bold] every group,

R73 Another poster deliberately missing the qualifier. The group where it didn't decrease are the women pumping out babies for welfare checks.

^^^ R7 ^^^^

My first example from my R9 post.

It's understandable. Life is expensive and kids cost more than ever. They need all kinds of shit for school - iPads! Laptops! - and God forbid one of them becomes sick and you don't have free childcare labor from grandparents to call on.

My second example from my R9 post.

R9 R12 proudly illustrates the ignorance and stupidity of the bigoted.

Did they mean 'white' birthrate?

No, all races are included, R16.

[quote] Yet freepers insist women are pumping out tons of kids for welfare checks. They're not.

Isn't the freepers that are pumping out tons of kids and collecting food stamps and welfare?

Hmmm...rise in Asperger's and autism? People waiting to have children into their 40s?

Not to mention older fathers also increase risks

[quote]Data from more than 40 million births showed that babies born to fathers of an “advanced paternal age,” which roughly equates to older than 35, were at a higher risk for adverse birth outcomes, such as low birth weight, seizures and need for ventilation immediately after birth. Generally speaking, the older a father’s age, the greater the risk. For example, men who were 45 or older were 14 percent more likely to have a child born prematurely, and men 50 or older were 28 percent more likely to have a child that required admission to the neonatal intensive care unit.

Apparently the evangelicals are as barren as secularists. So I guess my R9 post needs to be amended. It's the Orthodox Jews and Muslims who have higher fertility rates than most groups.

So the Hasids and *some* Muslim populations are lacking in genetic diversity (they’re inbred), but they’re considered more fertile?

R10, that's not true.

Good. Less people for the planet to support.

Upper middle-class whites don't have kids until late 30s/40ish these days. My 40 year-old cousin just became a father for the first time, I know scores of other people in their 40s who only became first-time parents in the last few years.

The cost of raising children is ridiculously expensive these days. There's so much fucking STUFF you have to buy.

With the rise of automation, it’s essential that the birthrate drop.

Absolutely r26. Lots of people still don't understand this. We also need to stop importing unskilled people. It's going to be a total shitshow in the not-too-distant future.

What constitutes an unskilled person, R27?

Oh here with go with white knighting, virtue signaling r28. Zzzzzzz.

I was genuinely curious what the term meant, R29.

People who have no skills, r30. Dead weight. People who have little skills that will be replaced by automation. We already have American citizens who fit this category, and it's going to be a nightmare as their numbers increase, we can't afford to take in others from the rest of the world. This is going to be a major, if not THE major issue as the 21st century goes on.

And these women who have to have their own children past their peak childbearing years...what resources are they using to achieve their goals? Why do some women use donor eggs and go through pregnancy? Does the egg pick up her DNA?

Not all women have trouble conceiving past their late 30s. A fair number get pregnant the old-fashioned way into their mid-40s.

I agree with R26 and R31.

Fewer!

R32. I have been wondering about that for years. Pure selfishness.

The fertility industry is loaded with diaper carrying vultures.

People can't afford to have children.

This thread is triggering.

Dear Lord in Heaven!

I honestly don't know how middle-class people can afford to have kids these days without going broke.

And yet Americans are anti-immigrant.

Who’s going to do all the work?

All the guys are going gay!

Automation is going to replace humans r42. It's already happening.

Trump makes every guy's dick limp, and people are so full of despair listening to his nonsense.

R44, Robots don’t pay taxes to pay for your Medicare and social security

The rich will pay for that, R46.

Babies are fucking disgusting. They leak noxious fluids from every orifice, they have ear piercing relentless screaming and they can’t even carry on a conversation. Like who would really want that in their house? If they made mute ones that could be litter box trained more people would probably be into it, but puppies & kittens still have the edge because 1) they’re furry & soft; 2) they either hunt or protect & perform tricks; & 3) they don’t live all that long so if it getting on was a mistake it’s not a total death sentence & it’s also legal to just give them away if you’re not a personality match. In contrast, babies can’t do a single thing except shit & sob and you can’t just take them to the pound if they turn out to be biters or republicans or drug addicts.

I wonder how many people saying 'this is a good thing because the earth can handle more people' are the same people in threads about surrogacy saying 'it's alright and better than adopting'.

It’s a right wing lie that the planet is over-populated. The problem is population disbursement, wealth inequality and industry pollution. We have more than enough space on earth for for the people we already have and billions more. What we do not have is equitable sharing of resources. This fiction that we need population reduction to survive is really only about oligarchs surviving with the lion’s share of the world’s assets and the subjugation of the masses. If babies weren’t so disgusting, I would be saying everyone who can should be making a dozen of them apiece to help over power the aims of the neo-feudalists.

R43 It's either that or the straight men are waking up to the misery that they'll end up with if they impregnate someone and go MGTOW.

I predict the birth rate will pick up again in December / January / February, approximately nine months after the lockdowns were imposed. Instead of Baby Boomers or Generations X and Y, they'll be the Corona Kids.

It's too late. This country will have permanent poverty and permanent surplus labor like India soon.

As I've mentioned many times, I work in retail management. I see way more of the public than I'd like to. Average pregnant woman is around 28 yrs old. IVF is 15k a pop, and it can take many attempts to get pregnant, if ever. Only the very wealthy wait that long to have kids. Don't be deceived.

No, it's not the very wealthy. Middle/upper-middle class people are having kids later in life.

[quote] they'll be the Corona Kids.

Children of the Quorn.

Having children in your 40's causes generational discontinuity. Millions of children will never have a close relationship with grandparents like we did. Granny will be in a nursing home once a child is old enough to walk. Extremely sad direction society is taking.

[quote] Robots don’t pay taxes to pay for your Medicare and social security

Robut.

I live in a fairly blue collar suburb in California. Lots of stay at home moms with 3 and 4 kids. I have no idea how they afford it. Even if blue collar hubby makes $200k, that really isn’t enough to support a family of 6 when a 2000 sq foot house is $850k.

[quote]It’s a right wing lie that the planet is over-populated.

Opposite, r50. It's a right-wing lie that the planet is NOT overpopulated. It's a right-wing lie that there IS “plenty of room” for more people. (Like, where, in the desert, or in the empty flyover places?)

Law of supply and demand. The fewer workers there are, the more power the working class has.

We already have WAY more than enough impoverished in order to “help overpower the neofeudalists”, in your words. And anyway, a superior body count is not how power transfer works, in the modern age.

What, are you imagining that a new army of the impoverished, oppressed, uneducated, and unskilled can gather with pitchforks or handguns and storm the well-defended fortresses of the uber class, the .01%? Dream on.

In fact, a decreased birth rate is great news for the planet, and for the power imbalance between haves and have nots.

I used to feel bad.about being gay because I thought that at the time I would be unable to be a parent...what was I thinking? And now that gay marriage and parenting is a thing, I have lost several friends to their married life and need to breed. Their choice, but they are so smug about it all. The environment, the rise of right wing populism, overpopulation and increasing crime. The best thing that I did for my children was to not have any...they would be grateful.

I know that I am.

R33 - no, they do not. That's bullshit. Few women get pregnant easily in their 40's.

"It's either that or the straight men are waking up to the misery that they'll end up with if they impregnate someone and go MGTOW."

Oh, look, the MRA types have arrived. Most straight men would do anything to get sex from a woman

R56, I thought my "CORONA KIDS" was catchy for the forthcoming generation, but I admit your terminology is even better. "CHILDREN OF THE QUORN" they will be.

People keep waiting longer and longer to marry and have kids. Naturally, some of those women who waited will have difficulty conceiving. It's much harder to have a large family if you wait until your late 30's and early 40's. I'm an only child and when I was a kid twenty years ago, I knew very few kids like me. Now, it's much more common.

I was born in 1971 and didn’t know any families with more than 2 kids growing up. I’m shocked at the number of families with 3 and 4 kids these days. How do they afford it? Women just threw in the towel on being anything other than sweatpants- clad fat Frauen?

Same, r66. I was born in '76 and when I was growing up in the 80s most people only had two kids, a few had three but it wasn't all that common. Everybody's parents had their kids in their 20s/early 30s. I can only remember a small handful of kids who had older parents. This was a white, middle class/upper middle class area. These days, the only white people in their 20s who have kids seem to be lower-class types.

r66, women are having fewer kids. Your anecdotal observations are incorrect.

Would you want to have a kid these days? How could you afford to give it a good life? What kind of planet will it inherit? Will there even be one? I am grateful I am gay and when I was young enough to have kids society wouldn't allow it. I'd be terribly sad to have children today.

I’m 56 and my father was one of 10 children and my mother was one of five children.

It was a conscious decision on their part to only have two children.

Although I would’ve been quite happy to have been an only child.

One of my great-grandfathers was one of SIXTEEN children, if you can even imagine!

Stop with the unskilled bullshit R27, even the unskilled immigrants find work and learn skills. Then their children do even better. There are plenty of American born white kids who never learn skills. I know of several families who have loser 20-somethings who play video games constantly and are underemployed and make little money.

A relative works for law enforcement. Most of the crimes are committed by whites where I live. Druggies, drunks, mentally ill, unemployed, homeless, and unable to recover from whatever ails them. The undocumented commit fewer crimes because they are staying under the radar and working hard at those unskilled jobs that white kids won't do.

And those jobs are going to be replaced by automation, r72. Think in terms of the big picture. Again, we have way too many American citizens who are going to be made irrelevant due to automation, we can't add to those ranks.

Why can't we, R72? Immigrants become Americans in one or two generations. I know a man whose grandparents were illegals, parents got high school education, he got a BA and led a gov't agency, his kids have Masters Degrees.

If people are made irrelevant due to automation they aren't trying hard enough.

R59 How old are those women? I hope they aren't young. Last thing we need is more young women becoming fraus.

"If people are made irrelevant due to automation they aren't trying hard enough."

Yes, because all that's stopping a janitor with an 82 IQ from being rich is inability to work hard! *rolls eyes*

oh, this is interesting. im skeptical, however................................