MCViewPoint

Opinion from a Libertarian ViewPoint

Posts Tagged ‘birth rate’

Family Flourishing and State Denigration | Mises Wire

Posted by M. C. on August 16, 2023

Given the effects of the state on the family, it is highly unlikely that state intervention can fix a dying family. Churches and religion, civic organizations, mutual aid, and charity all must be turned to, not the state, if family flourishing is the goal. An active, managing state does not mean a thriving family. To help families grow and live happier lives, the role of the state must be drastically cut back, allowing families to take back the vital role that they serve.

https://mises.org/wire/family-flourishing-and-state-denigration

Samuel Peterson

There is little doubt that the institution of the family in the West is in crisis. Birth rates have been declining in the USA, and most Western countries have fertility rates below replacement level. Abortions number over five hundred thousand per year, most of which are concentrated among low-income individuals. Famously, around half of all marriages in the USA end in divorce. Rather than ignoring these problems, it is important for all on the Right (conservatives, traditionalists, libertarians, etc.) to address these issues. But what means should be employed to combat a declining family institution?

Some individuals, especially national conservatives, have called for state intervention to solve these issues. Their proposals range from redistribution and welfare to banning bachelor’s degree requirements as hiring criteria. Rather than seeing the state as an obstacle to family flourishing, national conservatives tend to look to the state as a means of addressing family issues. However, the state is often the very creator of family denigration.

Social Security and Medicare

One policy that harms the family is state social insurance. Medicare and Social Security make up approximately one-third of the federal budget, costing around $2 trillion per year. This money is directly taken out of working people’s hands, making it harder to feed, clothe, and house families. State-sponsored social insurance policies create disincentives for individuals to form families. Because of the increased costs, individuals are pushed out of having an additional child, lowering birth rates.

Social insurance also replaces the family with the state in regard to the care of the elderly. Due to Medicare and Social Security, children do not have to aid their elderly parents. This yet again affects fertility. To put it bluntly, why would I have a child who is going to make me sacrifice decades of my own time and cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars only for them to not take care of me in my old age?

A similar case of the state subverting the role of families came with the advent of the welfare state. Historian David Beito writes, “A conservative estimate is that one-third of adult American males belonged to [mutual aid] lodges in 1910.” However, by the 1930s these societies started to fall out of favor due to the rise of the welfare state and American tax code. When it comes to the family, it is unlikely that state welfare programs will fix the problem of a falling birth rate and looser familial bonds. Rather, it is likely that social insurance proposals will subvert the family in the same way that mutual aid societies were subverted.

Trade and Protectionism

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The turn against motherhood – spiked

Posted by M. C. on September 25, 2019

Not a good sign for Western culture. That will make Bernie and Tim Ryan happy.

Long read.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/08/02/the-turn-against-motherhood/

Why it has become fashionable not to have children.

Frank Furedi

There is a difference between an individual deciding not to have children and someone embracing the view that there is something inherently wrong with motherhood and giving birth to children.

Individuals have always made choices about whether or not to have kids and about the size of their families. These were personal decisions rather than statements about the moral significance of bringing new children into the world. Yet today, a significant section of society presents the decision not to have children as a political comment. There is now a misanthropic ideology that promotes hostility towards those who choose to have children, alongside a growing tendency to paint motherhood in a negative light.

This anti-natal ideology is promoted in two separate but often interconnected ways. First, it is claimed that childbirth and childrearing are fundamentally negative experiences that ought to come with a health warning. Secondly, it is argued that having children is irresponsible because newborn babies constitute a threat to the environment. And it seems as if this ideology is having an impact: alarming new figures from the UK’s Office for National Statistics show that the birth rate in England and Wales has fallen to its lowest level since 1938. In 2018, there were just 11.1 live births per 1,000 people – a record low.

Is motherhood natural?

One way in which the moral status of motherhood is delegitimised today is through the idea that society’s expectation that women should have children is an artificial and coercive imposition. This narrative calls into question what is sometimes described as ‘maternal inevitability’ and asserts that motherhood is not a natural role for women.

Writing about her film, My So-Called Selfish Life, Therese Shechter says she was interested in chronicling ‘the rise of a growing community of women who don’t want children and who reject the message that a woman’s most important – and most natural – role is to be a mother. Shechter’s ‘taboo-busting film’ is directed against ‘maternal inevitability’:

‘The film gives voice to a community challenging our most fundamental ideas about female identity, including a 19-year-old student determined to get her tubes tied, a woman “coming out” about her regret at becoming a mother, the founders of a childfree LGBT seniors’ community, and a repro-rights activist whose unsuccessful fertility treatments lead to a life transformation.’

Shechter says her aim is to challenge a world ‘where femininity is tied to childbearing’. Her film summarises the key points made by anti-natal activists. It suggests that motherhood has little to do with a woman’s identity, and it supports the claim that regret about becoming a mother is widespread. Finally, it hints at the superiority of childfree communities.

The anti-natality narrative seeks to portray motherhood as an undesirable and unpleasant trap. In recent years, numerous commentators have adopted the term ‘maternal regret’ to highlight the idea that many mothers pretend to be happy with their lives, but secretly they regret having had children. One Canadian article, titled ‘I regret having children’, argues that this sentiment is becoming increasingly common. It draws attention to a 9,000-member Facebook group, also called ‘I regret having children’. The author is delighted that ‘parental regret’ is a taboo that is finally being busted. This taboo has recently been brought to public attention by everyone from the BBC (‘100 Women 2016: Parents who regret having children’) to Marie Claire (‘Inside the growing movement of women who wished they never had kids’) to Today’s Parent (‘Regretting motherhood: What have I done to my life?’).

Some observers insist that maternal regret might be even more widespread than we think. They say that large numbers of women suffer from this condition in silence and feel unable to tell anyone about what a big mistake they made. A recent confessional article in the Daily Telegraph, by an anonymous author, was headlined ‘I secretly wish I’d never had children’. It is typical of the trend. The author writes of her disappointment with her predicament and tells of a time when ‘a little voice in my head whispered if I hadn’t had children I’d be living the life I dreamed of’. She added: ‘I feel so alone living with this secret.’…

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The US fertility rate just hit a historic low - Vox

 

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