Written by Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson

Two years ago, I wrote about the pending global population implosion. Demographers predict that 90 countries will lose population between now and the year 2100. Shrinking populations have portentous implications, including major shifts in geopolitical power and the possible financial collapse of welfare states.

The United States’ population is part of this global trend. In a truly stunning article in The New York Post, journalist Suzy Weiss reported, “Last year, the number of deaths exceeded that of births in 25 states—up from five the year before. The marriage rate is also at an all-time low, at 6.5 marriages per 1,000 people. Millennials are the first generation where a majority are unmarried (about 56%).”

The story gets grimmer: An increasing number of 20-something American women are reportedly undergoing voluntary sterilization. There is a growing anti-natalist movement in America. Once again, the vital question is: Why?

I will offer three explanations that overlap somewhat with what I wrote two years ago: ideological indoctrination, stunted psychological growth, and alienation from God. (Please note: I am not stating that every person, female or male, who chooses to remain childless is doing so for these reasons. What I am saying is that there are sweeping sociological currents in play.)

Ideology

The opening paragraph of Ms. Weiss’ article told of a young woman from a conservative background who went to college and had a “political awakening … toward progressivism.” A key component of progressivism is environmentalism. According to one professor interviewed for the article, many 20-somethings have come to conclude that “humans are the problem” and “a mistake.” This anti-human animus is one of the major tenets of environmentalism I was subjected to myself as an undergraduate a half-century ago. Then, the “green bible” was Paul Ehrlich’s Population Bomb and its related activist group ZPG (Zero Population Growth). The message then was that there would be mass die-offs of humans as the world’s population swelled. As it turned out, a more populated world became a less poor and less polluted world.

Today’s youth are petrified (needlessly so, see here and here) about global warming. One poll cited by Weiss: “39% of Gen Zers are hesitant to procreate for fear of the climate apocalypse.” The blame for this epidemic of baseless fear lies with the media, an out-of-touch global political elite, and especially with our public school system. The indoctrination of children into environmentalist alarmism under the cynical, self-serving supervision of the EPA is professional malpractice and inhumane. Unfortunately for the women getting sterilized today, by the time they realize today’s scary predictions are as baseless as Ehrlich’s decades ago, it will be impossible for them to have children should they so desire.

Psychology 

Recently, the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) posted an article about John B. Calhoun “mouse utopia” experiments in the 1960s. Briefly, mice were provided with utopian (ideal) conditions—the ultimate in cradle-to-grave security. Eventually, the pampered mice became antisocial. They shunned sex and procreation, and consequently died out. Calhoun concluded from his experiments that “When all sense of necessity is stripped from the life of an individual, life ceases to have purpose. The individual dies in spirit.”

I have commented before about the paradox of prosperity—that the wealthier capitalism has made human societies, the more individuals despise capitalism. Today, the wealthier and easier that life becomes compared to what our ancestors experienced, the more reactions there are like Isabel’s. She states, “I think it’s morally wrong to bring a child into the world. No matter how good someone has it, they will suffer.” In other words, since the perfect life is unattainable, today’s better life becomes a tragedy to be avoided.

Spiritual alienation

Pagan greens disparage human life as a “cancer,” “plague,” “vermin,” “disease,” etc., and openly long for humans to decrease. They reject the Christian belief that life is a gift from God and that we humans should “be fruitful and multiply.” “I don’t want to work my life away,” says Isabel, an avowed anti-natalist. Like the mice in Calhoun’s experiments, when creature comforts abound and life is without challenges to survival, it seems that the zest for life atrophies, and along with it, the desire to procreate and share the joys of life with children. If this attitude becomes dominant—if more and more people view children as a burden instead of a gift, and life as a dreary nuisance rather than a splendid opportunity to enjoy God’s creation—our population will indeed implode. If taken to an extreme, societal suicide becomes a possibility.

We may not be at the point of an existential crisis yet. But it is ominous that an increasing number of young people no longer include child-bearing in their concept of what constitutes a fulfilled life. God help us.

Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson is a retired adjunct faculty member, economist, and fellow for economic and social policy with the Institute for Faith and Freedom at Grove City College.

Written by Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson

The “hook” of the story intrigued me: “This hasn’t happened in all of modern history…” An email from “The Crux” last month blared, “Global population growth to virtually stop by 2100.”

According to a Pew Research Center analysis, “the world’s [human] population is expected to virtually stop growing by the end of this century, due in large part to falling global fertility rates.” This isn’t a new story (e.g., Ben J. Wattenberg’s 2005 book, Fewer), but it’s worth identifying the reasons for this momentous, unprecedented development.

Procreation is a biological imperative. Every other species on Earth perpetuates itself through procreation unless external circumstances thwart that natural process. If you saw the amazing documentary, “March of the Penguins,” you could see how the penguins were hard-wired to breed at a certain time every year, like clockwork. If you have a dog in heat, let her outdoors for 15 minutes, and if there is another dog loose within a half a mile, you will have a pregnant dog. Instinct takes over and dictates that animals breed.

Humans are different. We can choose not to procreate. We have even developed technologies (most famously, “the pill”) to help us avoid having children. Liberal abortion laws further curb human births.

Humans are deliberately choosing to have fewer children than ever before. The key question is: Why?

The article cited above says that the human population has never before stopped growing in modern history. For most of history, there was a virtual lid on the human population. Even though millions of women gave birth to 10 or 15 babies or more, poor sanitation, poverty, war, pestilence, and famine killed off a majority of children before they could become old enough to have children of their own.

Modernity changed all that. The Age of Enlightenment – though it gave rise to ideologies both liberating and destructive – generated massive new wealth creation and immense progress in science and technology. In just the last two centuries, life expectancy more than doubled. The human race experienced a population explosion. More people lived longer lives and at higher standards of living than had ever been possible in pre-modern times.

Some alarmists predicted that human over-population would lead to catastrophe, but something happened on the way to the apocalypse. The decision of millions (billions?) of women around the world to have fewer children has created a different and unanticipated set of challenges and problems.

For example, “between 2020 and 2100, 90 countries are expected to lose population,” including 32 countries in Europe, Russia, China, and Japan. Even in the United States, the population will fall unless augmented by immigration. These trends have enormous implications, both positive and negative. On the positive side, aging populations are far more likely to have democratic rather than autocratic governments, and they are less likely to go to war. On the negative side, for today’s affluent societies now heading toward population implosions, the balance of economic and geopolitical power and influence in the world will shift, and probably not in ways favorable to us.

In looking at our own society, I see three categories of reasons for why American women are having fewer children: ideological, philosopical/spiritual, and economic.

Among the ideological causes underlying the birth dearth in the United States are those found in the environmental movement. Over the past 50-plus years, some Americans accepted as true the warnings of a destructive population explosion. Groups like ZPG (Zero Population Growth) preached that having children – especially more than two of them – was hazardous to the welfare of the human race. Extreme greens today disparage human life as a “cancer,” a “plague,” “vermin,” “a disease,” etc., and openly long for humans to decrease.

The main philosophical reason is the rampant materialism and concomitant lack of spirituality in our age. Materialism breeds a preoccupation with self-satisfaction and self-indulgence. Individuals shun traditional adult joys and responsibilities like marriage and child-rearing for a self-indulgent lifestyle that exalts sexual pleasure above familial commitments. Such people have turned inward. They no longer think in terms of sharing the gift of life, or rearing children to the glory of God, or giving our country another generation to add to the greatness of America. Instead, they look for sensual gratification and momentary pleasures.

The main economic reason for the decision to have fewer children is that people who are new to affluence understandably want to keep that affluence secure. They will naturally, then, avoid having more children than they can comfortably afford.

Also, seeing how Big Government increasingly promises to take care of their health and retirement needs, the traditional reason for having children – having someone to care for us in our dotage – seems passé. But here it is possible that we Americans have been too clever by half: We might not have procreated enough children to provide a large enough tax base to afford the enormous costs of senior-care. (Europe is already facing this problem.)

And if that isn’t shortsighted enough, we also have dumped almost $23 trillion of debt on the rising generation. How are they ever going to bear that massive burden as well as the additional economic burden of paying enough taxes to fund Social Security and Medicare?

It is said that history sometimes moves like a pendulum. Currently, the pendulum has swung toward too few births in America. We will find out in the coming decades what the fateful consequences of that trend will be.

Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson is a retired adjunct faculty member, economist, and fellow for economic and social policy with the Institute for Faith and Freedom at Grove City College.

This article was originally published at the Institute for Faith & Freedom.