I don't think anyone knows why there's so few births. the 19.3 was France, which, If I remember correctly, actually pays women to have kids at this point and pushes families very hard.

I think it's cultural and has to do with modernity. 10th amendment make sense.

If so, we should expect to see more births in Asia.

And with automation making economic productivity possible without people, is population deflation even a concern?

we're not really pair bonding anymore.

That's my other big point

The automation bit

That's a good question. Is births important.

young people aren't forming couples and marrying.

I think it is. There's limits on automation.

and without that stability it's not responsible for anyone to have kids.

If we eventually settle back to a couple billion peeps in the world, is that a bad thing?

Atkins is also right, the marriage rate for millenials is something like 30% by 35 last I saw.

Shouldn't we be concerned about the number of people we're bringing in when multiple job sectors will see shrinkage?

And yeah marriages have been fucked for decades now haven't they?

Rising divorce rates, declining engagement rates

when you get into your 30s, the dating market is almost entirely single moms.

those who aren't single moms either aren't dating or have some other arrangement.

I married at 19 and have been married for 29 years. Had two kid. Despite what you may think of my life choices, we're not part of this problem.

:p

i think you qualify as a special case, no offense.

I think you miss a lot of "special cases" because we're not the noisy ones

If the noisy ones would STFU you'd see there are a lot of normal people in the GLBT community

sure. but the GLBT community is very small.

True

But many of us are doing our part to preserve marriage and pop out babies

Just sayin'

that's great, but we need the other 95%+ to do the same

and they aren't

at all

No doubt

and getting worse

Marriage is broken. I just like to point out that GLBT folks aren't the ones who broke it.

I'm happy to do my part to help fix it

again, you're kind of a special case. even within this small minority, only a minority of such unions are capable of producing children.

what i'm trying to say here is that this is not really about GLBT at all.

this is about boring straight people not forming couples.

Funny story, I'll be going to my 30th high school reunion next year. During the festivities there will be a projector showing pictures from our time in school. My wife and I are the only couple who went to my senior prom who are still together. :-)

And yes, you are right, it's not about GLBT at all. I'm just sensitive because I've been called "the destroyer of the family" by divorcees. It's a sore spot.

GLBT is a tiny fraction of the population. If the entire community married and had kids, they'd barely dent the statistics if at all. The main effects are elsewhere. I don't get why we're obsessing over this part at all.

Like i said, just sensitive. I'll stop on that topic. But anyway, who cares if the population shrinks if automation will keep the consumer economy chugging along just fine?

I think Japan is leading the way showing us how it can be done