Gee, What a Shock: U.S. births declined for the sixth straight year in 2020,

The idea that there would be a babyboom as a result of copulation that took place DURING the pandemic was always stupid sloppy thinking.During past pandemics or epidemics or comparable events there has not been the beginnings of a baby boom until the sex that takes place after it is all over. Plus the fact many fertility clinics closed or had much reduced capacity during the pandemic and there was a lot of economic anxiety and uncertainty around and an atmosphere of death only added to the implausibility of a babyboom.

R1 I know a few people who got pregnant during the height of the pandemic and I had to stop myself from asking of they were a fucking idiot.

LOL r2 Why did you feel the need to stop yourself??!!

This is a good thing. Young Gen Xers, Millinials, and older Gen Zers don't want to bring children into a broken society and country -- fix those issues and the birth rate will go up a bit.

Most young people can’t afford kids.

This is a good thing. Less deplorables. Let's wait until people get off the mind-bending, weird hypnosis that is/was Trump.

R6 please, the deplorables aren't smart enough for birth control

I know a few “I have a baby every five years so I don’t EVER have to get a job, tee hee” types who had babies last year. Most of them are completely deranged. One already had 4 kids and a pilot husband facing a potential layoff. Madness.

Overpopulation is the principle cause of climate anomalies, conflict, migration, pollution, flora/fauna extinction, scarce water, and even scarcer arable land. Do yourself and the inhabitants of this planet a huge favor: STOP Breeding!

Don't worry. The anchor babies will solve the problem—

As we lurch from one avoidable economic collapse to another, I am glad I am not responsible for other human beings.

The US and Canada are the last Western countries to offer birthright citizenship. Canada is contemplating removing it.

I actually think it is likely in the medium to longer term that the threat or economic challenge the trend for a falling birth rate among mainly heterosexual women poses to capitalism will move right wing uber free market political parties and governments around the world ,particularly in the west , towards embracing gay marriage and gay reproductive rights .Seeing an opportunity for mainstreaming same sex couples starting families to reverse some of the downward trend in the birthrate . Behind the scenes I could see some thinking it is an economic necessity and changing political tack accordingly.

Just a thought.

It is ironic that the “family values” party is largely responsible for its decline.

Many Millennials (especially younger ones) are not interested in having children and/or simply cannot afford them. They can barely find jobs that pay a living wage.

The only downside is that there are going to be fewer gay baby boys to carry on being gay.

Don’t tell them - they’ll have less just for that reason.

R14 I'm not American so I don't know which party you mean when you say one party in particular is responsible for the decline.

Republicunts.

Muslims have lots of babies

According to my female coworkers being a mom is the hardest job in the world and they already do twice as much work as men all while under the yoke of oppression. Why would they want to have more kids? No one helps them and they're exhausted.

Someday they’ll learn where babies come from and they’ll be able to have more control over when and if they get pregnant.

Decline of the western countries

I blame alternative pastime activities like playing game console games and binge-watching TV shows on Netflix.

Maybe Joe Biden might give straight couples hope for a better future for their kids.

The reason the US had population growth and other wealthy countries did not was...immigration. Immigrants came here and had babies and thus we had population growth. Trump and the epidemic put a stop to all that. I hope you miserable right-wing cunts are happy about that.

R23 more like Millennials don't want to follow the idiotic narcissism of the previous two Generations that made them have babies and then vote against every single thing in those babies' interests

This is a good thing, OP. But we’ll experience another baby boom now that people are getting out and about.

People are bound to fuck. Even so, birth control and gays not marrying into closet marriages and instant families have changed the landscape of birth rates. Snd also, kids are expensive AF. No sane woman wants to get stuck with a bunch of kids by the age of 23 when they can travel and post bikini pics from exotic locations on social media.

I mean think about it. Why would you wreck you perfect body as a young adult, and toil over diaper changes and formula, when you can spend your summer traveling and getting laid without the consequences of an unwanted or unplanned pregnancy???

Duh!!!

R25, right wing cunts are never happy about anything, which is why they’re miserable cunts.

I like how they assume women are delaying pregnancy rather than simply choosing not to have kids.

[quote] What sane person wanted a baby last year?

People are stuck and home and fuck. We’ll probably have a baby boom this year.

Under His Eye

Most sane women will avoid being pregnant during a pandemic. In case some of you have forgotten being pregnant requires consistent medical care to ensure it’s progressing normally and no woman wants to be exposing themselves to the virus during medical visits.

"Millennials' (who are now in their late 30s and early 40s) aren't having kids in huge numbers in France, the Netherlands, Italy, Japan or the UK either. All these places have pretty generous social safety nets compared to the US. When people get rich, they have fewer kids. It happens all over the world. It's poor people who have lots of kids.

My mom’s friend (in her eighties now) had lots of kids as a retirement strategy. She thought more kids would increase her odds of someone taking care of her in her old age. That is definitely poor, religious person thinking.

R34 and how many of them give a shit about her?

That's insane, R34, but I don't doubt it was commonplace among that generation.

Infant mortality was also a historical factor:

[quote]In 1900, 30 percent of all deaths in the United States occurred in children less than 5 years of age compared to just 1.4 percent in 1999 (CDC, 1999a; NCHS, 2001a). Infant mortality dropped from approximately 100 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1915 (the first year for which data to calculate an infant mortality rate were available) to 29.2 deaths per 1,000 births in 1950 and 7.1 per 1,000 in 1999 (CDC, 1999b; NCHS, 2001a).2

So women in 1900 had a 10% chance of their infants not surviving, and a strong chance of their children dying before age 5.

My paternal grandmother had 8 surviving children. When she died in '07, they couldn't even FIND all my dad's siblings to inform them

Yeah, [working-class] couples had a ton of kids before because that's just what was expected. My grandparents on my dad's side had 9 (!!) kids. But people also didn't fret over things like college funds, newest electronics, private schools, and wearing hand-me-downs was common.

[quote]The reason the US had population growth and other wealthy countries did not was...immigration. Immigrants came here and had babies and thus we had population growth. Trump and the epidemic put a stop to all that. I hope you miserable right-wing cunts are happy about that.

Sounds like the miserable cunt is you.

Why in the world do we need ever more population growth?

We need workers (and consumers) keeping our economy churning along, R39, as the rest of us become elders discussing FOLLIES on DL all day. That's where your Social Security and Medicare is coming from.

Did someone say FOLLIES? 🤩

[quote] The birthrate — measured as the number of babies per thousand women

Did they include ALL women in that figure, or just biological women?

It was measured by real women with uteruses

We have more and more Chinese and Indians here—mostly millennials, mostly well-off having babies. I’m living in the thick of it. I feel the US born, not as well-off (but not poor) aren’t having babies. Just my observation.

R43 Literal violence!

[quote]We need workers (and consumers) keeping our economy churning along, [R39], as the rest of us become elders discussing FOLLIES on DL all day. That's where your Social Security and Medicare is coming from.

First of all: automation has replaced a vast number of workers and will continue to do so at an ever higher rate.

And tell us: where is the cut-off point for population growth? You suggest it should just continually keep growing?

Your economic ideal of ever increasing consumerism, consumption, population growth, does not create a better life for people nor the environment.

If you're having kids now, you're either rich, poor and stupid, or optimistic.

If I were straight, I would've gotten a vasectomy years ago

What r5 said.

Given student debt, rising real estate cost, and low wages among young people having kids is completely out of reach.

More young people than ever live at home, even being able to afford their own place is often too much. Much less kids. We see this with older millennials who waited much later than prior generations to start having kids.

This is nothing but good news.

R49 I have a good job, a nice place to live (rental) and I could afford to travel (pre-COVID), If I had a kid to take care of, my quality of life would plummet

I think this is good news, but one thing to consider is that in about 25 years or so, it's going to be a very top-heavy population, with more elderly people than younger ones. See Italy and Japan for unique challenges that that can present.

The media gets itself in a state, panicking about declining birth rates. What happened to "the planet is dying because there are too many people?" Or is it just a retirement-related panic (the ratio of working adults to retirees, etc.)?

The media and idologues emphasize it more when they want more immigration (e.g., CNN and the Times criticizing Japan, debates at the EU parliament, etc.).

Demographic transition happens in all advanced economies, and just in time given automation, I think.

Exactly r52. I hate kids, but this does cause problems. You need younger people who pay social security and medicare tax to support older people for instance.

Of course immigration can solve this issue. There are plenty of people in the world.

R1 is right. People don't have babies during severe crises - birth rates fell in huge numbers during the Depression, and that's before legal abortion and widespread contraception.

It's after the crisis that births start to increase.

You have to be very optimistic or relatively well off (or with parents who are) to have kids in the US. Immigrants have kids for several reasons - but there's also an advantage with having kids who are citizens and who will speak the language and, presumably, be better off than the parents.

On the other hand, we are seeing this in many countries. Asia is really fucked - and it's because of their own policies and unequal treatment for women.

I don't think Scandinavian countries have as much of a problem, but they bend over backwards to make having kids less difficult.

The U.S. also has a ridiculously high infant mortality rate in relation to what Americans pay per capita for medical care.

[quote ]it's going to be a very top-heavy population

That's bad?