Fixing America's Baby Bust

A little while back, I suggested that the U.S. should help the millennial generation make the transition out of youthful poverty by forgiving some of their mountainous student debt. One positive effect of that bailout, I argued, would be to boost American fertility rates, which have fallen since 2007. I think that the difficulty of raising a family in the U.S. is a problem that needs a more comprehensive solution.

In general, having a fertility rate of around 2.1 is optimal. That’s because 2.1 children per woman is the level where a population sustains itself. The closer you get to replacement fertility, the less you have to worry about either a population explosion or a collapse. Right now, most developed countries are dealing with the latter problem, a development that threatens their pension systems and raises the number of dependents that each worker has to support.