UPSTREAM
People aren't having kids and the real reason isn't money
People Aren’t Having Kids, And One Reason Keeps Coming Up
This article is part of Upstream, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.***The New York Times calls plunging birthrates “a good thing,” while New York Magazine highlights the stories of women who “regret having children.” If you looked at the mainstream media alone, you might think humans are looking forward to becoming an endangered species.At the same time, however, there is a growing band of pronatalists who decry the coming consequences of a smaller, older population: safety-net programs will suffer, labor markets will contract, and elder care will face a shortage.But these economic distortions aren’t the worst of it: Fewer people means fewer creators, lovers, and thinkers. In religious terms, there will be fewer image-bearers of God on this planet.These are problems we should take seriously. But falling birthrates aren’t just a problem in themselves. They are downstream evidence of other, in some ways bigger, problems rooted in relationships, identity, and meaning. Family formation, faith,...
