Did you hear TACO the other day threatening Putin? LOL. Cute.
- The U.S. fertility rate has fallen to 1.6 births per woman, below the 2.1 needed to sustain the population.
- Despite bipartisan proposals like baby bonuses and expanded child tax credits, experts say the problem runs deeper than economics.
- Cultural shifts, high costs of living, lack of paid leave and delayed adulthood are all contributing to a national baby bust that may reshape the future of the U.S. economy.
“Our population will, in the not too distant future, start to decline,” said Melissa Kearney, a professor of economics at the University of Maryland. “That’s why this is an issue for governments and for the economy, and politicians are starting to pay attention.”
The economic implications of a shrinking population are broad. For example, fewer births mean fewer future workers to support programs like
Social Security and
Medicare, which rely on a healthy worker-to-retiree ratio.
“The concern here in the U.S. is that if we see kind of dramatic declines in fertility, we will eventually see also kind of a drag on our economy and our capacity to cover all sorts of government programs like Medicare and Social Security,”
The White House is considering lump-sum payments of $5,000 for each newborn
The issue may go beyond money. It’s common for fertility to decline during economic uncertainty, but it usually rebounds once the shock ends, experts say. Surprisingly, birth rates did not recover after the Great Recession.
“More and more young adults are kind of assuming that what matters for them is their education, their money, and especially their careers,”
