Dramatically declining birth rates are already starting to pose problems that are only going to get bigger and more intractable. From JD Breen at jdbreen.substack.com:
Why fewer people are being born, and what happens when they aren’t.
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.
