Covid 19 Drops the Birth Rate

Conservative politics is filled with the same something-for-nothing it uses to condemn liberal politics. A few years back there was a conservative phrase, "There's no free lunch." Of course all this was aimed at government spending and higher taxes. Conservatives thought liberals did not understand government expenditures eventually had to be paid for.

One of the things conservatives, especially religious ones, lament is the falling birth rate. This week numbers of births in the U.S. were released and showed that confinement of couples during the pandemic did not increase births and many predicted. Instead, there was a significant decrease in births. The birth rate was already lower than it has been for some time.

My field of economics is at its core a behavioral science. What happens in the economy is determined by what people decide and what they do. 

The economics of children changed with "modern" times. When my parents were children the reason couples decided to have babies was to provide labor on the rural farm. In economics children were a "producer good" like a horse, wagon or tractor. As farms became mechanized less labor was needed and children did not contribute to the farm family's income. They became a "consumer good" like TV's and cars. I'm not saying parents did not love their children, but parents thought about them in a different way. 

Today children remain a consumer good and their price has gone up. That is why there are fewer of them. If conservatives want more children there is a simple way to make that happen, lower the price parents pay for them. This can be done by shifting some of the cost of children off of the parents and on to other taxpayers. This is not discussed on the link nor is it ever discussed on any conservative religious site nor, I assume, in any conservative Christian sermon.

A few simple changes would lower the price of children. First, put socialized medicine in place. Pregnancies and the cost of raising children would drop. Second, pay more for schools. Lessons and sports paid for by taxpayers in general and not by parents will help. Third, taxpayer funded day care would make having more children cheaper for working mothers. Forth, subsidize housing to reduce the cost of extra space.

If you are a religious conservative and don't like government providing these items, don't complain about low birth rates.