America's Fertility Decline
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| Tue, 02-05-2013 - 2:36pm |
I thought the following article from the WSJ was pretty interesting. It talks about how a society with declining fertility puts it at risk of having skewed age demographics, which causes many problems due to an aging population. It claims that issues we are facing in the U.S., such as the economy, are caused by declining fertility rates:
Low-fertility societies don't innovate because their incentives for consumption tilt overwhelmingly toward health care. They don't invest aggressively because, with the average age skewing higher, capital shifts to preserving and extending life and then begins drawing down. They cannot sustain social-security programs because they don't have enough workers to pay for the retirees. They cannot project power because they lack the money to pay for defense and the military-age manpower to serve in their armed forces.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323375204578270053387770718.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
They suggest that the decline in the U.S. is caused from stagnent middle class wages, more women getting college degrees and entering more varied careers than in past years. I also think that high daycare costs, not to mention the basic costs of having a child, play into the decision to have fewer offspring.
The articles gives a few ways to improve the fertility rate by making changes to social security, decreasing the costs of college tuition and improving infrastructures to make commuting more cost effective.
What are your thoughts on the article? With the current economy, do you think it's feasible for families to have more children?
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The fertility decline is partly due to telling people they have to be 100% ready to have a child. This means they have to finish college, finish grad school, get a firm foothold in their career and buy a house. By the time someone has done all that, they may be 35 or close to 40; and no longer able to conceive without help from doctors.
Bord, you do have a point there. I seem to remember in some discussion here years ago, that some people were laboring under the misconception that the minimum payment was the payment. I can see that how that could land someone in trouble and taking a dim view of CCs.
Empty, exactly, not to mention if you are paying for education in another country. It is possible somehow for me to pay by transfer for dd's college, but it is complicated, a pain, can easily get messed up and costs a fair amount.
That is true about colleges prefering CC paments. Everything with DD3 reguarding fincances was done online and paying by credit card was the only option given. We gave DD3 our credit card number and she "paid" our portion. I assume those who do not have credit cards would have had to call the university and make other arrangements. Since with the exception of her freshman year we paid everything out our savings we racked us quite a bit of cash back points in those three years.
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