Is there a pernicious plot to depopulate the planet?
I don’t know.
But among global “elites”, political opportunists, and weather wackos, there’s a general consensus that there are too many people. Yet while much of “the West” frets about an influx of foreigners, most countries are culling themselves.
Around the globe…behind the scenes in plain sight…people are pruning their progeny. In ways subtle and sly, overt and obvious, we’re consistently nudged to reduce reproduction.
The propaganda is thick. A drumbeat of popular culture and major media pounds home the high cost of kids and how tough they are to raise. But we rarely hear about the immense joy they bring, which usually lasts a lifetime… and lingers long after the challenges of their childhood slip from memory.
Why? Cui bono?
Phenomenon of Fruitlessness
Family (which is prioritized before government) and religion (which lies above it) are the two great obstacles to an all-encompassing State. For more than a century, ruling regimes have implemented policies that undermine both.
Contraception, abortion, no-fault divorce, same-sex “marriage”, and an alphabet soup of aggrieved deviants are among the relentless brigades suppressing births.
From central banks, diluted dollars diminish future-orientation. Flabby with the empty calories of fiat money, few in the West plan beyond next Wednesday. Insecurity rises as savings suffer and wealth erodes. Reduced purchasing power delays marriage and defers maternity, perhaps permanently.
Potential parents are urged to “wait till they’re ready”, as if that moment ever really arrives. There’s almost always some reason to postpone having kids. As often as not, the best time is “now”.
Additionally, under the warped influences of our narcissistic age, couples are discouraged from (or chastised for) wanting to bring children into this “rotten world”… as if we weren’t living in the easiest era to ever be alive.
Much of the phenomenon of fruitlessness derives from our high time-preference society. Family and faith, Church and children, are intrinsically long-term, low time-preference endeavors reaching beyond the realm of our earthly lives.
Multi-generational families were once required not only to help raise infants, but to care for elders. With the advent of state-run medical “insurance” and Ponzi “pension” schemes, children are perceived as less necessary to prospective parents who now expect to be supported by frayed nets until they die.
For decades, women have been subtly coaxed to have fewer kids. And many men are urged to avoid marriage as a pointless endeavor doomed to fail.
Artificial contraception…once broadly considered abhorrent…is now taken for granted, and actively encouraged. The pill, initially lauded as a capsule of “liberation”, has become the suicide tablet of a decadent West.
Abortion, universally reviled till late last century, is widely accepted as a licit way to “terminate a pregnancy.” Meanwhile, most countries that once comprised Christendom have legitimized relationships from which conception is impossible.
Unplanned Childlessness
Reduced fertility doesn’t derive primarily from more people wanting smaller families. It comes mostly from fewer women having kids. But it’s not that they don’t want children. They just don’t want them yet.
The percentage of “childless by choice” women is rising. Almost half of Millennial women will exit their fertile years without giving birth. But regret often sneaks up on them.
How?
Materialistically, many of them find it hard to justify having kids. Education is among the strongest correlates with reduced fertility. Statistically, going to college pushes women below replacement.
Women with degrees tend to participate in the two-income system, especially if they’ve racked up debt. Working women (and the childcare workers they require) also benefit the State by increasing the number of taxpayers.
Female careers consume time and displace other interests. Which may be fine. But many women won’t realize what they’ve lost till it’s gone. Yet the proportion of them who (say they) don’t want kids… or “want children, but not now”… continues to rise.
For various reasons they don’t anticipate, many will regret waiting. According to some demographers, most childless women didn’t plan (or want) to be without kids.
The most common cause of unplanned childlessness is lack of a “suitable” husband. Women tend to want guys who make more money and are better educated than they are. But such men are harder to find as female incomes rise.
Although it’s happening later in that decade, their twenties is still when most women get married and have kids. But that’s also the time they launch their careers. Even into their mid-30s, many ambitious women still want to wait five years to start a family.
This is possible. But often unrealistic. Socially and physiologically, it’s usually too late. Meeting the right man takes time (especially as women get older). Getting to know him takes longer. And female fertility declines with age. If a woman is childless at 30, it’s as likely as not she always will be.
