Monday, April 21, 2025

Musing of the Moment: Oncoming Proposals to Improve Birthrates

I've read a number of newspaper articles about how the current administration has plans to boost the birthrates in the U.S. There's even talk about giving mothers a $5,000 "baby bonus" after they have a kid. 

How you gonna fund that, bro? 

I don't get the fascination with improving the birthrates in the U.S. But I do think that their proposals and plans are not probably going to address the reasons why birthrates have been declining in the U.S. for quite a while.

To expose some of the factors that probably affect the U.S. birthrate, I'm going to ask some simple questions, and as you read these, please do so in your head with a snarky tone:
  • Do you know how expensive child care costs if the parents both work?
  • Have you looked at how high rent is?
  • Have you considered how expensive buying a new home costs? 
  • Do you know how expensive it is to raise a child?
  • Do people have access to IVF?
  • Do you know how expensive IVF is?
  • Have you noticed that people are getting married later in life?
  • Do you realize how many people are in student loan debt? 
  • How does parental leave work in the U.S.?
  • Don't you even understand how tariffs work? 
  • Have you bought a dozen eggs lately? 
  • Do you realize how much the U.S. economy relies on Chinese imports? 
  • Don't you know how expensive health care is in America?

Actually, if the U.S. went to universal health care like every other modern, industrialized nation in the world, that move might actually improve the U.S. birthrate. 

Instead, we have one of the most expensive health care systems because of health insurance, medical, and big Pharma lobbyists pimping owning politicians in D.C. 

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