Pronatalist musings
aka my latest piece
Hi all,
In case you missed it, last week The Atlantic published an essay I’ve been working on for a while, on why young people these days aren’t having kids. I posit that the reason for our current fertility crisis is more metaphysical than material, citing new books by Catherine Pakaluk, Anastasia Berg and Rachel Wiseman to make my point. You can read the piece here! (gift link)
Some readers agreed, some… not so much. For instance:
shared a moving thread on Twitter while Jessica Grose pushed back in the New York Times, and Audrey Pollnow took things in a new direction on RadioPaper.I would personally love to know what you think. Leave a comment!
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In other news, I recorded a conversation with parenting author Emily Oster (Expecting Better, Crib Sheet), for
’s forthcoming podcast series — will share when it’s up.Otherwise, Happy August. You have four more weeks:
xx,
Christine
A couple of thoughts on this debate. First, the trend in declining birthrates is global and has been underway for decades; explanations have to be applicable in places as different as South Korea and Finland and over long time-spans. Recent and country-specific causes, like recent inflation or recession or high housing costs, simply don't apply. Global trends like expanding education and economic opportunities, and changes in societal expectations that used to push women into homemaker and child-bearing as their principal role, probably have more to do with declining birth rates worldwide and help explain why pro-natalist policies based on incentives like better pre-natal care, income assistance, tax breaks, etc., have been ineffective. Second, the problem is likely to be self-correcting over time. To the extent that the inclination to have/not have children is genetically determined, the inclination to not have children is going to slowly but surely breed itself out of the population in a few generations. So, people should calm down. If Earth's population actually declines by a few billion in the meantime, that is not a bad thing! Though it will not be without problems, a slowing, then reversal, of human population growth will allow us time and space to repair the damaged ecosystems that ultimately sustain us all.
As always, you’re right on Christine. And although Bill Maher would tease us both for caring, this phenomenon is a big deal with big consequences. I believe that your “meaning” argument can be augmented with the facts of decline in our men. As you point out in your book and as I’ve seen over the years as a high school football coach, boys are in trouble. Boys are not going out, making bad choices and dealing with the consequences. Boys are also unfortunately declining in their attention spans and general respect. Don’t I sound like an old man?!?! lol. But I’ve seen this decline first hand. We’re not climbing fences and entering restricted construction areas. We’re not breaking each others’ figurative balls anymore out of fear of the Woke Police. We don’t know how to talk to girls and we don’t know how to make eye contact. The skills of patience and hard work are being lost in this social media firestorm. Meaning coupled with a general decline in our social norms are responsible for the decline in fertility. Thank you so much for writing and speaking up !