THE ECONOMY
The World Is Concerned About Low Birth Rates
And Margaret Atwood thought “The Handmaid’s Tale” was a fictional novel
For several decades now, I’ve been concerned about the increasing population of our planet. I still believe Thomas Malthus had the right idea, that, if allowed to grow unchecked, the human population would outstrip available resources, resulting in naturally occurring checks on population growth such as famine, disease, and war. In other words, he was saying that if unchecked, continuous population growth — of any species — is unsustainable and will eventually crash.
Good News/Bad News
Earlier this month, the US Federal Government reported that the average American woman is now expected to have just 1.6 births over her lifetime, based on age-specific birthrates last year — well below the fertility rate needed for the native-born U.S. population to replace itself (2.1 lifetime births per woman). That’s been the case consistently since 2007, but it’s only getting worse. In 2017 Former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan suggested that “the most important way to shore up the economy was for Americans to have bigger families.”
According to World Population History, Human population, now nearing eight billion, cannot continue to grow…
