OT: No U.S. 2021 baby boom expected from 2020 quarantines

[Lenona]

It looks as though the US birth rate will drop even more this year.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/05/us-may-see-underpopulation-not-overpopulation-due-falling-birth-rate.html

There were jokes last spring about how staying at home would result in a baby boom, but at least one wag said quickly that if there WERE such a boom, it would consist entirely of first-born children. It WILL be interesting to see how that works out...someone needs to do a study of couples whose babies are due this spring or later. (How many really choose to have babies during a pandemic, unless their doctors tell them it's now or never?)

One thing bugs me. It says the global population is supposed to reach 9.7 billion people by 2064 - and then drop. That would mean it would take 43 years for it to increase by almost 2 billion. Given that it took just 12 years to go from 6 billion to 7 billion (and we'll likely reach 8 billion exactly 2 years from now), how likely is that? More likely, we'll reach TEN billion sometime in 2045. It'll be fun to see which algorithm wins - and how soon.



Lenona.

[Lenona]

What I wrote elsewhere (slightly expanded):

Certain fundamentalists, such as Don Feder (Jewish, 74) and Albert Mohler (Baptist, 61) have written apoplectic columns in the last eight years about the low birth rate. (Mohler said that childfree people aren't "human" and that they were in "a moral rebellion against God.")

On the assumption that on average, openly religious couples have SLIGHTLY larger families anyway, shouldn't fundamentalists be GLAD that the birth rate has fallen among liberals?

(Actually, I sort of know why they're angry and scared. Baptist membership, for one, has plunged over the last decade or two, so, according to someone at the Patheos blog, since recruitment clearly isn't working, that just leaves reproduction, and that hasn't been very popular either. Plus, just as gays came out of the closet in the 1970s and emboldened more and more LGBTQ people to go their own way, so too, childfree couples in the late 20th century became bold enough to stop hiding and to admit freely that they're GLAD they didn't have children. Which, of course, became an ungodly temptation everywhere to young people from conservative families!)

Besides, as I've mentioned, what's stopping the conservatives who agree with Feder and Mohler from having extra babies to bring up the birth rate? Oh...they don't want to give up what little extra time, money and crime-free environment they have? Well, neither do other people. Plenty of couples without children live on the brink of poverty already. Just because even homeless couples get pregnant sometimes doesn't mean they should.

And, just to clarify...even when we leave aside those singles and couples who OFFICIALLY live on the brink of poverty, a lot of people without children only manage to live in relatively safe neighborhoods by working 50 or more hours a week, so I wouldn't blame those people for FEELING poor, at least. (I know at least two well-educated, single men like that - both in their 50s.)

[Terry del Fuego]

Post by Lenona
Actually, I sort of know why they're angry and scared.

Extreme envy of the freedom others enjoy. The certainty that they've
thrown their lives away and are stuck with a responsibility that they
felt obligated to assume but never really *wanted*. The horror of
realizing that others can, will and do experience pleasure that they
will never, ever know and experience it on their own terms and
schedule.

OK, I exaggerate. Sort of. A little. Almost. But during my prime
breeding years (during which I had zero interest in inflicting my
genes on a rapidly and still degrading reality), it was very obvious
that a subset of the idiots who felt they needed to poke their nose in
resented my freedom to live alone, not have my stuff destroyed, sleep
through the night (well, in theory) and just generally be happy on my
own terms.

The cherry on top was when they, swimming in a sea of financial,
workplace and other breaks due solely to their reproductive offenses,
kept a straight face while pronouncing the childfree "selfish."

My parents, who by definition did a lot wrong, at least wound up with
three (!) surviving (!) kids who *all* declined to support the
baby-industrial complex. And we're all too damned old to change our
minds at this point.

All that aside, any American who deliberately spewed one out during
the last four years is guilty of extreme abuse and should be dealt
with accordingly.

[Big Mongo]

Post by Lenona
It looks as though the US birth rate will drop even more this year.

[Lenona]

Post by Big Mongo

Post by Lenona
It looks as though the US birth rate will drop even more this year.

http://youtu.be/dGGwVsvseGw

That video demands your birthdate, which, for security reasons, I do not give out. I was going to type a fake date, but it switches you over to Google when you start, which made me uneasy.

At any rate, one can watch other people on YouTube singing the same song, without one's having to provide anything!