35-Demographics: Huge social benefits programs do not increase fertility rates

Nonsense – this issue is global and not just the U.S.:

The most important reason for America’s deepening baby bust is that it has become much more difficult for millennials to launch careers and establish independent households than it was for Boomers or Gen-Xers at the same age. Policies like subsidized day care and paid parental leave that mitigate the costs of child rearing and help young adults to balance job and family responsibilities could therefore help.

Source: Population decline is going to hit us hard – Newsday

We can solve this with large social benefits, he says.

Let’s take a look at the Nordic countries, famous for having large social benefits and safety nets:

• US Fertility rate: 1.78
• Denmark rate 2021: 1.767
• Sweden 2021: 1.85
• Norway 2021: 1.69
• Netherlands 2021: 1.67
• Finland 2021: 1.46

Except for Sweden which is almost the same as the U.S., the fertility rates of the much-cited Nordic countries and their large social safety nets have fertility rates less than the U.S.

I cannot make sense out of what he is arguing here – as it is inconsistent and contradicted by the real-world examples, above.

Further, surveys show that many young people believe the world is facing catastrophic collapse – with one big survey finding about half of young adults said they thought humanity may cease to exist within ten years. Wrap that with continuous “climate crisis” fear-based communications fostering hysteria – never suggesting this is solvable (if the hypothesis is even correct) – and everyone spends every day scared to death, believing the future will be worse (based on history, the long-term future has nearly always been far better) – is it any wonder that young people think we should have no more children? The world is a fucking awful place, we are all going to die horrible miserable deaths as we spontaneously combust and therefore, we should not birth children sentenced to painful slow death /satire – except people like Extinction Rebellion actually believe this.

I lot of young people I know say they won’t have children. They are stuck in the 1970s rhetoric that is now out of date as the population bomb ended up imploding. Our policy leaders have not advanced their thinking since 1975. THIS is the root cause of lower fertility rates – not the lack of social benefits programs.