Commentary
The late James Q. Wilson, former professor of government at Harvard University, once said, “It is not money, but the family that is the foundation of public life. As it has become weaker, every structure built upon that foundation has become weaker.”
In another article a few years ago from The Atlantic, Derek Thompson wrote, “The implications of permanently slumped population growth are wide-ranging. Shrinking populations produce stagnant economies. … Whether by accident, design, or a total misunderstanding of basic economics, America has steered itself into the demographic danger zone.”
Both men are correct. As fertility rates continue to dive, our nation faces going over a demographic cliff that will make our foundation crumble beneath our feet.
For instance, it is now estimated that the Social Security trust fund, which relies on having enough younger individuals paying into it in order to pay for the benefits of those retiring, will run dry by 2034, resulting in retirees having their benefits cut by at least 20 percent.
The Social Security Administration saw this coming in 2010, when it noted in its financial report that there was trouble ahead because “birth rates dropped from three to two children per woman.” Previously, the ratio of workers paying into the system to retirees taking money out was four or five to one. That ratio has dropped to almost two to one.
Meanwhile, our current issues with labor shortages and inflation will continue to be exacerbated as retirees exit the workforce and there are not enough young workers to replace them.
Finally, as The Wall Street Journal recently reported, falling fertility rates are causing schools to close, teachers to lose jobs, and education funding to shrink across the board.
But there is a solution to this problem: providing social support that encourages families not only to have children but to consider having more children than previously planned.
The Institute for Family Studies released a report showing how we, as a society, can support families in having more children through gentle encouragement and other forms of support, helping turn that desire into reality, and avoid the demographic cliff our society faces.
For instance, the report states that when couples feel more supported by family and friends, they desire and intend to have more children. Those who believe their family and friends would celebrate a new arrival were more likely to want more children than those who did not feel that support.
The report states that those who feel supported by friends are 20 percent more favorable to the idea of having another child. And the percentage is even better when it comes to familial support—with 30 percent stating they would consider having another child if they felt support from their parents.
Of course, it is not surprising that churchgoers are more likely to feel this support from friends and family and, as a result, have more children. But as the report states, the difference comes not from encouragement from church leaders but from friends and family.
And lack of faith—and the social connections that come with it—also contributes to fewer people desiring to have children. A Wall Street Journal–NORC poll from 2023 found that the percentage of adults who say having children is very important to them dropped to 30 percent in 2023 from 43 percent in 2019. The same poll reported that 50 percent of Americans said faith is either not important or not very important in their lives.
It is not a coincidence that the drop in the birthrate has coincided with the falloff in religious faith. Why? Because religious faith, with its outward rather than inward focus, has always resulted in larger families, as faith communities see children as a blessing rather than an inconvenience to achieving one’s “self-fulfillment”—a fulfillment that used to come from God, not man.
A return to faith and the community found there, which provides strong family and friend bonds, along with a commitment to strong marriages and families, will help steer us clear of going over the demographic cliff America is facing.
Faith, family, and friends are the ultimate “social safety net” because they encourage not only larger families, but stronger, healthier ones. And the result will be a stronger and healthier society as well.
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
