No kids makes headlines:
I have in hand an article from USA Today (USA Today June 3, 2011 page 1). They have done their own study and found that America’s catastrophically low birth rate has resulted in a decrease in the number of children in some neighborhoods – a lot of neighborhoods actually. One cannot claim to be surprised.
The article is interesting. There is talk of the notion of the white family in the suburbs going “extinct,” and young people moving to gentrified parts of inner cities where, “They don’t have any children.”
There are a number of groups analyzed independently and a number of individual and community experiences documented, but the key numbers don’t seem to be there. For instance the number of non-Hispanic white women of child bearing age fell 6% in ten years – significant enough – but
they are not “Having enough children to keep the population from dropping eventually.” Well we knew that, didn’t we? Pray tell me just how many are they having and I shall decide myself to what degree I shall panic.
Even though I suppose I tend to be a doom monger – nay, I may be the world’s’ record holder bar those who invoke supernatural powers – I find the article more reassuring than otherwise, and since I am not reassured in fact, I find it troubling that there seems to be a false reassurance.
Still, here is a major newspaper putting the dearth of babies top dead center front page headline. And even though the numbers spell a moderate problem, the rhetoric is rather intense. Maybe, just maybe, this means that interest is on the rise so that eventually people will be ready to look at the cause.
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