In recent years, concern about birthrates and the need for more children has come to be seen as a conservative issue. The left still wants dramatic population reductions. They shouldn't.
As a progressive, I’d like to applaud Daniel Hess for this urgent, timely and incredibly insightful article! 👏👏👏 This is one of the best articles I have ever read on Substack and it needs to go viral and be seen by every head of state on this Earth! It needs to be reprinted in every newspaper and news website in every major city around the world as well! Daniel Hess is like the demographic version of Harriet Beecher Stowe or Upton Sinclair, sounding the alarm 🚨 about the tanking birth rates in the West and all over the globe. A truly phenomenal guest column that I recommend to every American! I’m am on the left politically and it is undeniable that Daniel Hess is 1000% right. The left says that falling birth rates are a good thing as it’s good for the planet and the global population is still growing, so it’s all good! Right? Wrong! Both these points are factually inaccurate and ridiculous! 1) The fears of overpopulation everyone had for decades will never come true, as birth rates rather than balancing at 2.1 and staying there, simply kept dropping. 2) Yes, the global population is increasing-for now-but it will in time tapir off. Then what will be left with? Shrinking, aging societies knee-deep in poverty, bankrupt nations, a large population of old people to take care of, shuttered factories, poor and homeless people dying of despair, and I’m just getting warmed up. That’s our future if we as a political movement and a species, don’t like Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, have an epiphany, realize our mistakes and radically change course. Less people will NOT lead to a better, more prosperous, healthier, and sustainable future as those on the left think it will. It is countries with large populations who invest in new ideas and technologies that make progress and become better, more advanced societies NOT smaller ones! Having less people will not effect the environment one way or another and it is NOT a great accomplishment for women’s rights. Take it from a fellow left-winger we can care for the Earth, take measures to combat Climate Change and fight for gender equality while also raising fertility rates, bringing down divorce rates, emphasizing the nuclear family, rejecting the mainstreaming of things like cohabitation, childlessness, premarital sex, polyarmy, and hook-up culture. The former three items might be right for people in certain circumstances and we shouldn’t judge them, but that doesn’t mean they should be the norm and the latter two are disgusting and bad for society. Also, no wanting to raise birth rates does not make one racist or alt-right. I believe people regardless of race, color, creed, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnicity, or national origin should have big families. Progressive pro-natalism if you will! We also need to make sure children have two parents, be it a traditional, blended or LGBT couple/family to raise them. Higher birth rates will benefit us all regardless of who we are! It will also protect our social safety net, allow our workers to thrive as they’ll have good paying jobs, higher wages, better living standards, can retire earlier, and labor unions will have more members, will be stronger and more influential, LGBTQ+ people will be able to more easily integrate into society, longer life expectancies, prosperity, jobs, outside investment, and falling crime will come to black and brown communities, women will be free to live their lives and pursue their passions in the workplace while also being able to be a mother and homemaker at the same time, disabled people would not be neglected and abused and would have people to assist or care for them if need be, and it would be good for the environment and animals even I’d argue as their will be more people and resources around to protect and preserve them! Call this comment the progressive case for caring about demography! Mr. Hess is someone all across the political spectrum should be listening to! Thank you for showing the population pyramid, that is a very helpful tool! So you see fellow liberals and progressives, higher birth rates benefit us all, including the marginalized groups we care about!
I wonder, Rob, if urban dereliction caused by the demographic winter will produce a kind of pioneering, westward frontier movement in reverse, Kingdom-mind families moving to a new land of opportunity, seeking escape from over-priced, authoritarian regimes such as California.--Ron
As a progressive, I’d like to applaud Daniel Hess for this urgent, timely and incredibly insightful article! 👏👏👏 This is one of the best articles I have ever read on Substack and it needs to go viral and be seen by every head of state on this Earth! It needs to be reprinted in every newspaper and news website in every major city around the world as well! Daniel Hess is like the demographic version of Harriet Beecher Stowe or Upton Sinclair, sounding the alarm 🚨 about the tanking birth rates in the West and all over the globe. A truly phenomenal guest column that I recommend to every American! I’m am on the left politically and it is undeniable that Daniel Hess is 1000% right. The left says that falling birth rates are a good thing as it’s good for the planet and the global population is still growing, so it’s all good! Right? Wrong! Both these points are factually inaccurate and ridiculous! 1) The fears of overpopulation everyone had for decades will never come true, as birth rates rather than balancing at 2.1 and staying there, simply kept dropping. 2) Yes, the global population is increasing-for now-but it will in time tapir off. Then what will be left with? Shrinking, aging societies knee-deep in poverty, bankrupt nations, a large population of old people to take care of, shuttered factories, poor and homeless people dying of despair, and I’m just getting warmed up. That’s our future if we as a political movement and a species, don’t like Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, have an epiphany, realize our mistakes and radically change course. Less people will NOT lead to a better, more prosperous, healthier, and sustainable future as those on the left think it will. It is countries with large populations who invest in new ideas and technologies that make progress and become better, more advanced societies NOT smaller ones! Having less people will not effect the environment one way or another and it is NOT a great accomplishment for women’s rights. Take it from a fellow left-winger we can care for the Earth, take measures to combat Climate Change and fight for gender equality while also raising fertility rates, bringing down divorce rates, emphasizing the nuclear family, rejecting the mainstreaming of things like cohabitation, childlessness, premarital sex, polyarmy, and hook-up culture. The former three items might be right for people in certain circumstances and we shouldn’t judge them, but that doesn’t mean they should be the norm and the latter two are disgusting and bad for society. Also, no wanting to raise birth rates does not make one racist or alt-right. I believe people regardless of race, color, creed, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnicity, or national origin should have big families. Progressive pro-natalism if you will! We also need to make sure children have two parents, be it a traditional, blended or LGBT couple/family to raise them. Higher birth rates will benefit us all regardless of who we are! It will also protect our social safety net, allow our workers to thrive as they’ll have good paying jobs, higher wages, better living standards, can retire earlier, and labor unions will have more members, will be stronger and more influential, LGBTQ+ people will be able to more easily integrate into society, longer life expectancies, prosperity, jobs, outside investment, and falling crime will come to black and brown communities, women will be free to live their lives and pursue their passions in the workplace while also being able to be a mother and homemaker at the same time, disabled people would not be neglected and abused and would have people to assist or care for them if need be, and it would be good for the environment and animals even I’d argue as their will be more people and resources around to protect and preserve them! Call this comment the progressive case for caring about demography! Mr. Hess is someone all across the political spectrum should be listening to! Thank you for showing the population pyramid, that is a very helpful tool! So you see fellow liberals and progressives, higher birth rates benefit us all, including the marginalized groups we care about!
I wonder, Rob, if urban dereliction caused by the demographic winter will produce a kind of pioneering, westward frontier movement in reverse, Kingdom-mind families moving to a new land of opportunity, seeking escape from over-priced, authoritarian regimes such as California.--Ron
I suspect that’s a very real possibility.