The pace of babies born each year in the U.S. has slowed to a new record low, according to an analysis of 2023 birth certificate data published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Last year’s slowdown marks an official end to the uptick in new babies that began during the COVID-19 pandemic. At least 3,591,328 babies were born in the U.S. in 2023, down 2% from the 3,667,758 born in 2022.
As the article points out, US has been below replacement birthrate(2.1 children per woman) since 1971. Immigration is the only reason the US has continued to have a growing population since that time.
1.6 is bad but many industrial countries have the same issue–only they don’t have strong immigration draw(or don’t allow it) to fall back on. East Asia (Japan, South Korea and now China), as well as southern European countries (Portugal, Spain, Italy) have had crushingly low birth rates for years.
Social programs, entitlements and politics are incredibly affected.
At the end of the day, people are being worked so much and are so stressed they can’t enjoy or don’t want to entertain bringing a new life into what for many countries is a vicious cycle of exploitation.
There was also a sharp decline since 2008, due to the financial crisis.
The obvious solution is to force American women to keep unwanted children against their will, rather than implementing streamlined immigration reform.
And step 2 is to shame them for having children if they can’t afford them.
The rest of that solution is to ban any kind of birth control a woman might choose on her own.
Then we have to make child care so unaffordable they will never see their child…
For my wife and I, our decision to not have kids came early in our marriage. We’ve never been super well off, but we get by. There have been times where we have had trouble paying rent. Neither one of us can imagine trying to just afford a child, much less raise one.
The solution is obviously to take away womens’ bodily autonomy.
If you can’t abort, you’ll have to pull through. Complex problems require simplistic solutions.
The 1% can make their own wage slaves.
The next time you pay monthly tribute to your landed lord, really savor the moment. I bet your kids are just tickled pink to pay to exist, just like you right?
Thanks mom and dad, a fucking bill!
Reproduction is child abuse.
Luckily, my flat (in Germany) is owned by the city so I’m kind of paying myself?
Reproduction is child abuse.
Touch grass.
While dramatic, it echos a sentiment a lot of us have. I am on a good career path. I will never own a home. I likely won’t retire. Unless something drastic changes, I can’t see any of that slowing down, let alone getting better. That’s not even to speak of climate change, increasing world tension and aggressive postering, or any of the other shit plaguing the world right now.
I hope with all my heart we get to a place where I feel comfortable bringing a child into this world, with the promise of a better future for them. That’s not the world we currently live in.
Thanks, that makes a whole lot more sense than your previous comment.
You’re right, this is no world to bring a child into.
Edit: Your keyboard may have a small issue with your “e” key. You’re missing a coupl.
Good. Less strain on the environment, more homes available, upward pressure on wages.
You say that, until the workhorse generation, paying for themselves, their parents and their kids…everything…says fuck all that and then you get revolutions and society collapses. We’re almost at that point now.
Capitalism can’t adapt. Either capitalism gives way to socialism or cé la vie.
I only hope to be around so I can roast some marshmallows off the fires at the capital buildings.
In the world I see you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You’ll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You’ll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Towers. And when you look down, you’ll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying stripes of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighways.
It’ll be nice to have meat again. And presumably living debt free.
I already don’t have access to medicine - well not without sacrificing a decade of what pittance of my productivity is left to me after the kleptocracy is thru - so today I have the same as them, as many years as I was born with, luck providing.
Media and horror flicks tell us that humanity is what we need to fear if it all goes away, but I’ve been in natural disaster, people come together in crisis. You’re, we all are, more afraid of being alone than meeting a stranger, and at least in the context of a survival scenario I think we can all admit that to ourselves. We would all use the last of our hunting ammo to defend a friend. More minds, more eyes = more opportunities, less risk. I’m not afraid of social collapse, I’m currently more afraid of the society dancing on the precipice as if it has plot armor.
In case i wasnt clear enough i was quoting a book/movie character, Tyler Durden. I’m not that poetic.
Unless you already knew that
Palahniuk is one of the few authors I like. I rarely make time for fiction anymore, sadly.
The film of Fight Club Brad Pitt def earned my respect for what he brought to Durden, how MUCH he brought. The onscreen character was like 90% Brad Pitts creation, and he fuckin nailed it.
I like the movie ending better for the movie and the book ending better for print, oddly enough. Capping it off with the Pixies got me to stand and clap in the theatre, (the matrix did the same with RaTM, my🥇) but i had been a huge Pixies fan since the early 90s, so it was cool for them to get some exposure…even tho it was the 90s, I never susbscribed to the GenX sellout/underground cool spiel, I had listened to Sublime and the Offspring for years before they both took over the radio, I was happy for em. Get paid for your art. thats my little millennial dream …
I like the movie ending better for the movie and the book ending better for print, oddly enough
I agree. The part on the bus in the end of the book just wouldn’t have the same punch in film
Is this a bad thing?
Of course! How are the oligarchs going to get richer if there are no plebes to exploit?
No.
In our lifetimes at least, yes. An aging population means more people who need help and less people to supply it. We all need more help as we get older, and we’re already facing staff shortages for geriatric care. And of course if you’re in the US, there’s genuine fear of SS not being available once we’re eligible to use it.
We could probably change course and mitigate these issues by increasing pay for Healthcare workers to incentivise taking care of the elderly, reducing or eliminating student debt so more people can seek higher education in Healthcare, improved access to Healthcare to prevent problems while we’re young so they don’t catch up with us when we’re old, and easier paths to legal immigration so we can bolster our population while continuing to collect taxes for more robust social programs. But that probably won’t happen because the people in charge are too old and/or wealthy to ever be affected by this kind of thing.
If you want
ponzi schemespay as you go systems like social security and Medicare to work it’s a terrible thing.
