U.S. Winning War Against The Young: Birth Rate Plunges

[Valin]

Via Meadia:

11/30/12

 

Pew has some ugly U.S. demographics numbers in a new report out yesterday:

 

The overall U.S. birth rate, which is the annual number of births per 1,000 women in the prime childbearing ages of 15 to 44, declined 8% from 2007 to 2010. The birth rate for U.S.-born women decreased 6% during these years, but the birth rate for foreign-born women plunged 14%—more than it had declined over the entire 1990-2007 period. The birth rate for Mexican immigrant women fell even more, by 23%.

 

Final 2011 data are not available, but according to preliminary data from the National Center for Health Statistics, the overall birth rate in 2011 was 63.2 per 1,000 women of childbearing age. That rate is the lowest since at least 1920,

(Snip)

 

The falling birth rate is a sign that American society is failing one of its essential tasks: we are failing to provide an environment that allows a new generation to begin building families and bringing their children into the world. Between crippling debt burdens and relatively high unemployment, young people are opting out of starting families.

(Snip)

[Valin]

What Social Security Problem?

Michael Walsh

November 30, 2012

 

 

Living in the Land of No Consequences as they do, liberals never seem to be able to add two and two together and come up with something that bears a passing familiarity with reality. Which is why they’ll ignore what this news portends:

 

(Snip)

 

Because, as the story (to its credit) goes on to point out:

 

 

The decline could have far-reaching implications for U.S. economic and social policy. A continuing decline would challenge long-held assumptions that births to immigrants will help maintain the U.S. population and provide the taxpaying work force needed to support the aging baby boomer generation.

 

It seems to me the pro-life movement is missing a big beat when it fails to turn the Left’s own tables on it and point out that the FDR/LBJ/BHO welfare state is only sustainable with a high birthrate, and that most of those millions of aborted babies since Roe v. Wade would today be taxpayers helping to prop up the tottering system, instead of being thrown out with the other medical waste. Unlike the moral argument, which is completely lost on the Left, the pragmatic argument might actually get a hearing.

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

More Babies, Please

ROSS DOUTHAT

December 1, 2012

 

IN the eternally recurring debates about whether some rival great power will knock the United States off its global perch, there has always been one excellent reason to bet on a second American century: We have more babies than the competition.

 

(Snip)

 

The plunge might be temporary. American fertility plummeted during the Great Depression, and more recent downturns have produced modest dips as well. This time, the birthrate has fallen fastest among foreign-born Americans, and particularly among Hispanics, who saw huge amounts of wealth evaporate with the housing bust. Many people may simply be postponing childbearing until better times return, and a few years of swift growth could produce a miniature baby boom.

 

(Snip)

 

Finally, there’s been a broader cultural shift away from a child-centric understanding of romance and marriage. In 1990, 65 percent of Americans told Pew that children were “very important” to a successful marriage; in 2007, just before the current baby bust, only 41 percent agreed. (That trend goes a long way toward explaining why gay marriage, which formally severs wedlock from sex differences and procreation, has gone from a nonstarter to a no-brainer for so many people.)

 

(Snip)

[pollyannaish]

Proof positive that liberals only focus on the demand side and ignore the supply side.