The Case for Not Having Children

There have always been married couples who did not have children. Some were by choice and some not. I can't remember in my long life a time when not having children had such an enthusiastic following. There is even a world-wide organization, the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, dedicated to removing humans from the environment thus allowing it to return to good health. 

The author of the link, a woman, lives with a man and neither want nor plan to have children. People ask her why? Sometimes she answers, "Because overpopulation is harmful to the environment." Other times she says, "It's complicated." Both of these illicit understanding nods. But when she tells people, "I don't want any," the response is a hostile look. Having children has been viewed as a noble expression of religious beliefs and of optimism for so long there is a cultural bias against not wanting them. 

A survey in several European countries since the pandemic began shows the among couples below age 35 between 60% and 80% had decided to delay having a child or decided to have none at all. The birth rate world wide is at a 35 year low. Population projections in 23 countries, including Spain and Japan, predict populations of one half current numbers. 

Whenever there is a cultural change we see new words enter the vocabulary. Among those who are not planning to have children the new way they refer to themselves is "child free." This replaces "childless."

Everyone knows the economic and practical problems of a significant drop in births. The labor supply will be smaller changing goods and especially services we can buy. There will be lots of competition for whatever labor is available so wages will rise and things that we can now afford will be out of reach. If there is labor available in other countries there will be pressure to allow foreign workers in--goodbye to President Trump's wall.

The environmental case against having babies involves the carbon footprint of each one of us. According to people who study such things, one person's carbon footprint is many times larger than the popular villain, one automobile.

While many aspects of the culture will be blamed for fewer children, one of the contributors has to be conservative politics. Lower taxes, fewer government services and lower support for public education has made children more expensive for parents.