U.S. birth rate hits lowest point in a century

[defendandprotect]

U.S. birth rate hits lowest point in a century

Recession may have pushed US birth rate to new low
AP Fri, Aug 27, 2010

Forget the Dow and the GDP. Here's the latest economic indicator: The U.S. birth rate has fallen to its lowest level in at least a century as many people apparently decided they couldn't afford more mouths to feed.

The birth rate dropped for the second year in a row since the recession began in 2007. Births fell 2.6 percent last year even as the population grew, numbers released Friday by the National Center for Health Statistics show.

"It's a good-sized decline for one year. Every month is showing a decline from the year before," said Stephanie Ventura, the demographer who oversaw the report.

The birth rate, which takes into account changes in the population, fell to 13.5 births for every 1,000 people last year. That's down from 14.3 in 2007 and way down from 30 in 1909, when it was common for people to have big families.

http://health.yahoo.net/news/s/ap/us_med_birth_decline

[Anakin Skywalker]

1. Pro-Abortion Feminazis are to Blame!

Damn uppity women! How arrogant of them to want to have independence and careers!

"Reports" like this one are the rightwing's wet dreams.

[Bobbieo]

2. Maybe we can begin to take proper care of the children we already have!

[GoCubsGo]

4. +1

And, a good chunk of our problem is that we have more people than resources or jobs. Glad to see something good coming out of this mess.

[Anakin Skywalker]

5. +1

"a good chunk of our problem is that we have more people than resources or jobs".

So true. So true. Why can't the religious fundies see this? Are they blind like Glenn Beck?

[HughBeaumont]

3. I wouldn't be able to have a second kid. Times aren't like they were 3 decades ago.

Getting fired even ONCE changes you big time. That happened in May 2001, during the FIRST Bewsh recession. Luckily it happened during summer, so I had some good times off. And luckily, I found another job in 5 months, which I still have to this day. But in the back of my mind I was worrying - "How are these bills going to get paid?" On one income, it was a contest. You pretty much pay bills, make sure the kid eats, and that's that. No trips, no going out to eat, none of that.

When I was laid off, another major expense that was erased was day care. Man, I'm seriously in the wrong business, because this thing's a racket. We paid almost as much as half of a good apartment rental every month before he became a latchkey kid.

I sealed the baby machine off in 2007. What inspired me was one of the wife's teammates got pregnant at 38. There is no way I was mentally or financially ready to be a father of a newborn, and working at a bank and watching financial channels, I was really starting to see the warning signs of 2008 and pretty much knew that Bewsh's Reagan Redux economizin' would crash like a massive house of cards quickly. I knew that if I had a second kid, I'd be looking at no vacations, no home improvements, college payments for two children instead of one (that's the BIG and frankly undoable expense in my book), no "me-time", a canyon of debt that I wouldn't be able to meet versus one that's somewhat doable, and absolutely NO chance of retirement whatsoever.

The fact is, life simply isn't like it was in the 60's-70's. Unless you have an established and secure career, you pretty much have no job security and raises aren't something to be expected anymore.

People who tell the only-child parents "COME on. You KNOW you want another one" just aren't grounded in reality. They're harkening back to a time where wages actually met the cost of living and things "will just all work out". The truth is, they DON'T always work out, especially not now. You still have to pay for every kid you have, and recent cost studies have measured that a newborn born in the modern era will cost the parents (factoring time value of money) anywhere from 150 to 300 thousand dollars from the time of birth to 18 years old . . . NOT counting college costs. Anyone got that money tree in their back yard? Because I sure don't. SNIP.

So yeah, unless the parents are making some decent bank between them, I don't know how someone with 2 to four kids is doing it. We're not exactly paupers and there's no way I'd be able to have two kids. I'd be financially screwed beyond repair, and that's probably what every family nowadays unfortunately has to come to grips with.