Fifteen years ago, we Americans could brag about our national birth rate. Mark Steyn’s 2006 book America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It, was not exactly sanguine in its overall outlook, but it did relish the fact that America was the “only advanced nation with a sizable population reproducing at replacement rate.” At that point, the U.S. birth rate had been quite steady for a quarter of a century, aside from normal fluctuations with the economy. The rest of the developed world was struggling with demographic decline.
Shortly thereafter, the Great Recession came, followed by an economic recovery. A temporary dip in births was expected. The continuing decline was not. The financial picture brightened, but births continued going down.
As a result, America is no longer alone. It joins the rest of the developed world in asking if the government should do something to address the birth rate—or if the nation should come to terms with a declining native-born population, either by simply managing the consequences of an aging society or by trying to make up the difference through mass immigration.
Continue reading the entire piece here at Law & Liberty
______________________
Robert VerBruggen is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
This piece originally appeared in Law & Liberty