Storks Don't Take Orders From the State
Reason magazine|June 2023
FALLING BIRTHRATES, PRO-NATALIST POLICIES, AND THE LIMITS OF POPULATION CONTROL
ELIZABETH NOLAN BROWN
Storks Don't Take Orders From the State

ON THE LEFT and the right, in Europe and the United States, a consensus is growing: People aren’t having enough kids—not enough to support the welfare state, not enough to preserve the culture, not enough to keep advanced economies young, thriving, and entrepreneurial.

The last time the U.S. was at replacement level fertility (the number of kids the average woman must have to stave off population decline, without immigration) was 2007. Replacement level fertility is roughly 2.1 kids per woman. Since then, America’s total fertility rate dropped to 1.66. This, in turn, led to a lot of unanswered questions about the fate of federal entitlement programs, innovation, education, politics, and culture in an aging country.

To many, the solution is obvious: Americans should have more children. Yet pro-natalist policies have a weak track record in every country where they've been tried. They're incredibly expensive, they produce few or no gains in fertility, and they can lead to a disturbingly authoritarian form of governance where individual choices about family formation are deprioritized and women are pressured to have babies for the national good. Efforts to control birthrates at the population level inevitably end with efforts to control women at the individual level. Meanwhile, birthrates have declined in tandem with several social upsides as well: better education, greater wealth, longer life spans, and more freedom for women.

Diese Geschichte stammt aus der June 2023-Ausgabe von Reason magazine.

Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.

Diese Geschichte stammt aus der June 2023-Ausgabe von Reason magazine.

Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.

WEITERE ARTIKEL AUS REASON MAGAZINEAlle anzeigen
Libertarianism From the Ground Up
Reason magazine

Libertarianism From the Ground Up

ARGUMENTS FOR LIBERTARIANISM typically take two forms. Some libertarians base their creed on natural rights-the idea that each individual has an inborn right to self-ownership, or freedom from aggression, or whatever-and proceed to argue that only a libertarian political regime is compatible with those rights.

time-read
5 Minuten  |
January 2025
Lawlessness and Liberalism
Reason magazine

Lawlessness and Liberalism

THE UNITED STATES is notorious both for mass incarceration and for militarized police forces.

time-read
5 Minuten  |
January 2025
Politics Without Journalism
Reason magazine

Politics Without Journalism

THE 2024 CAMPAIGN WAS A WATERSHED MOMENT FOR THE WAY WE PROCESS PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

time-read
10+ Minuten  |
January 2025
EVERY BODY HATES PRICES
Reason magazine

EVERY BODY HATES PRICES

BUT THEY HELP US DECIDE BETWEEN BOURBON AND BACONATORS.

time-read
10+ Minuten  |
January 2025
The Great American City Upon a Hill Is Always Under Construction
Reason magazine

The Great American City Upon a Hill Is Always Under Construction

AMERICA'S UTOPIAN DREAMS LEAD TO URBAN EXPERIMENTATION.

time-read
10 Minuten  |
January 2025
Amanda Knox Tells Her Own Story
Reason magazine

Amanda Knox Tells Her Own Story

\"OUR CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM RELIES UPON OUR OWN IGNORANCE AND THE FACT THAT WE DON'T KNOW WHAT OUR RIGHTS ARE.\"

time-read
10+ Minuten  |
January 2025
Trade Policy Amnesia
Reason magazine

Trade Policy Amnesia

WHILE HE WAS interviewing for the job, President Joe Biden demonstrated an acute awareness of how tariffs work. It's worrisome that he seems to have forgotten that or, worse, chosen to ignore it-since he's been president.

time-read
2 Minuten  |
January 2025
Civil Liberties Lost Under COVID
Reason magazine

Civil Liberties Lost Under COVID

WHEN JOE BIDEN was sworn in as president in January 2021, he had good reason to be optimistic about the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic.

time-read
2 Minuten  |
January 2025
Bye, Joe
Reason magazine

Bye, Joe

AMERICA'S 46th president is headed out the door. After a single term marked by ambitious plans but modest follow-through, Joe Biden is wrapping up his time in office and somewhat reluctantly shuffling off into the sunset.

time-read
1 min  |
January 2025
Q&A Mark Calabria
Reason magazine

Q&A Mark Calabria

IF YOU HAVE a mortgage on your home, the odds are that it's backed by one of two congressionally chartered, government-sponsored enterprises (GSES), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

time-read
3 Minuten  |
January 2025