A new ‘devil’ of a problem for Planet Earth: vanishing humans

A recent Pew Research poll found 44% of non-parents ages 18 to 49 say it is not too or not at all likely that they will have children someday, an increase of 7 percentage points from the 37% who said the same in a 2018 survey.

Some nations are already trying to offer incentives to have more children. Vladimir Putin s Russia has been trying that with little effect for some years now. China has ended its one-child policy, but most Chinese no longer seem to want more kids.

Here in America, we haven t done much of anything, but I suggest we could at least remove some of the disincentives to having kids. One surprising (but not really) disincentive to having more kids is found in car-seat laws. According to a recent study, they only save a few kids lives but cause many parents to forego a third kid (which requires a bigger car): We estimate that these laws prevented only 57 car crash fatalities of children nationwide in 2017. Simultaneously, they led to a permanent reduction of approximately 8,000 births in the same year, and 145,000 fewer births since 1980, with 90% of this decline being since 2000.

via nypost.com

Paul Ehrlich still has a lot of supporters. They probably think the Planet would be better off with many fewer and poorer people. They might get their wish. I would tell my classes to get out there and make some babies, but I would probably be cancelled if I did. And why should they listen to an old corporate law professor about that?