Texas A&M International University and International Bank of Commerce had the pleasure of introducing Jonathan V. Last, senior writer for The Weekly Standard, Wednesday, November 13th at the Student Center Auditorium. Surpassing all expectations, the auditorium filled up with students, staff, and IBC executives alike. Mr. Last filled the audience with knowledge about world demographics and the problems that may arise if we do not educate ourselves on the subject. His speech was accompanied by a powerpoint presentation including charts with the data he had gathered. At the conclusion of his discussion, the audience was encouraged to participate in a question and answer session with the author. Mr. Last was also available after the presentation for a book signing.
Overpopulation has always been a concern for American citizens. With cities becoming more urbanized and pregnancy in teenagers rising, it is no shock that so many people are worried the environment won’t be able to sustain so many humans. What is quite shocking is the fact that Americans are concerned about the wrong issues. Contrary to common belief, our world population is decreasing by great numbers. Our fertility rates have dropped significantly, and should they continue to drop, we will be faced with our biggest problem yet. Our collective unwillingness to have babies will soon lead us to a bleak future.
Mr. Last has spent most of his career studying demographics. Amidst his years of research, he has concluded that fertility rates are decreasing worldwide and that overpopulation is no longer a subject of concern. After the publication of his new book “What to Expect When No One’s Expecting: America’s Coming Demographic Disaster”, Mr.Last accepted the offer to visit TAMIU to bring awareness to a problem nobody believed was threatening.
There are many factors contributing to the decrease in fertility rates. One of the major reasons is the rise of contraception availability. Birth control, condoms, emergency contraception, and abortions are easily available to almost anyone. There are numerous of ways to prevent pregnancies now. People are taking advantage of these options and are stopping themselves from having children. This causes an even bigger problem. Younger generations are delaying their window of fertility. Current generations are taking a longer time to graduate from college because of the advancements in education. By the time they graduate, become independent, find a spouse, and settle down, their desires to start a family have lessened. Many couples view having a family as an impediment to the life they want to have.
Tuition and college expenses have risen alarmingly fast over the past few years. This is making the public think twice about having kids. The cost of sending your kids to college is higher than it was three years ago. It has been estimated that the total cost of having one child is over one million dollars. Mr. Last joked “..having one baby is the equivalent of buying six houses all at once! The only bad part is that you cannot re-sale these houses.” Newly wedded couples are not excited about starting families anymore. With so many college loans to pay off, no one wants to add the cost of six houses to their tab.
Divorces and gay marriage are also key factors to the decrease in fertility rates. The rate in divorces is higher than ever before. Some couples divorce even before they start a family, making their chances of having kids with someone else less likely to occur. Gay marriage is being legalized in many states now. However, this affects fertility rates greatly because gay couples prefer to adopt children rather than have any of their own. It has also been proven that having babies causes unhappiness in couples. The chances of falling into depression is more likely to happen after one has kids. As surprising as this news is, it plays a very important role in the decisions couples are making about their futures.
The most popular question Mr.Last received was “Why is this even important? How does this affect us?” Mr. Last explained, “What happens when society does not want to have babies? Economic, political, and cultural disasters will start erupting everywhere.” One of the major effects the decrease in fertility will cause is the rise in taxes.The average number of persons working towards the health insurance and retirement check for one senior citizen is four. If fertility rates keep decreasing, the average number of people working will soon drop to two, increasing taxes dramatically. We won’t have enough babies to work for all the elderly. Japan is experiencing this problem right now. The ratio of elderly versus babies is increasing day by day. They have recently printed an article saying, “Older people should hurry up and die.” How bad has this situation gotten that a country is encouraging their senior citizens to die?
It will become very hard to sustain our economy because consumption will shift downwards as the number of retired people increases and the number of younger workers decreases. The biggest economic contribution the elderly provide is in health insurance and medicaid. The rest of the economy will suffer as only the health industry booms. Our national defense will also suffer a great impact as the amount of younger citizens decreases. They will have less and less people joining their defense team.
Countries are frantically searching for ways to convince society to have kids. Japan has created a robot baby. They send every high school student on a weekend retreat so that they can interact with this robot baby in the hopes that the students will come back wanting to have kids. Australia is paying their citizens $6,000 for having one baby. For every other they baby they have, they’ll receive up to $36,000 from the Australian government. Switzerland is making “Love Bird benches” in the shape of two doves joining together for a kiss. They believe that these benches will help couples fall madly in love with each others and wish to have kids. Germany rewards every pregnant couple with a newly furnished house. Some countries have even made a national holiday, giving away CDs with romantic music so that couples can take the day off and make babies. After nine months, they make another national holiday and reward everyone who has kids with money and gifts. But none of these ideas seem to be working! Our fertility rates are still decreasing. No one wants to start families anymore. “The only possible option we have left is to go up to newly couples and convince them that having kids is the best thing they could do,” Mr. Last suggests.
Governments should start coming up with more efficient ways of convincing their citizens to have kids before we start facing a worldwide contraction. To read more about the subject, you can purchase Mr. Last’s new book “What to Expect When No One’s Expecting: America’s Coming Demographic Disaster”, available now on Amazon or any local bookstore. Mr. Last’s finals words to his audience were, “Let’s all go home, pour ourselves some wine and get busy in bed.” Do you want to contribute to the prosperity of America?