Lowered Reproductive Rate in America

I keep hearing it and I don’t know if it is a medical fact or if this is something that right wing outlets repeat to create unwarranted concern.

See when I was young I used to hear about how the Chinese would control population and it disgusted me. But I keep hearing about lower testosterone rates among men and frankly see many more “soft” men in my daily routine these days. That’s fine and I’m not here to draw judgment at all. Not my lease in life….. But is it true that Americans aren’t reproducing? If so, why is there so much hullabaloo about housing shortages? And if these lowered testosterone rate reports I have heard are true, what is the underlying reason for that? Surely we aren’t experiencing some sort of state sponsored covert population control are we?

 

As concerns the increase in demand for housing, I blame that on 10+ million more crossing our borders these past 10 years or so.

I'm sure there are lots of reasons for the drop in testosterone . . . the chemicals in the foods so many choose, the increase in electronic gaming at the expense of physical activity, the de-masculinization of America by the radical feminist agenda, the participation trophies at the expense of competition, etc.

 

Yeah, pretty true, but it's largely people are having kids later. Who can afford kids? To your point about houses, it's not that there's a shortage, it's that they are too expensive. I'm not gonna have kids if I can't even afford a house. It's also a much bigger problem than just the U.S.

Birth rates are abysmal here in Korea, and pretty bad in Japan as well.

Personally I'm not planning on children until I'm at least in my mid/upper mid 30s.

 

Oh, but it is that there's a shortage. Scarcity drives cost, not the other way around. If there were not enough people willing to pay the price, dwellings would go unoccupied, and prices would fall.

Lifestyle choices must be made. Today there are many more temptations to deplete one's financial resources than I remember avoiding. Trendy clothing, cell phones, internet, video gaming, on-line gambling, high end vehicles, specialty foods & drinks, social activities, etc . . . they all come with much higher costs than are necessary. Engage in a lot of those, and something must give.

My observation is that our current youth partaking in much of what I listed above refer to them as needs . . .

 

Dwellings do go unoccupied. There's like 15 million unoccupied homes in the U.S.

I agree, but children aren't "needs" either

 

Understood, but the last thing I want to hear from Millenials and GenZees is that having kids is too expensive these days. Having kids has always been expensive. It's giving them everything they want that has become too expensive.

Answer me this, GW . . . When did parents stop saying no to their kids? Parents had no problem telling their kids no when I was young. Nowadays that's a rarity.

 

Well, let me be frank. My daughter arrived when I was seventeen. Not a source of pride, but helps me make my point here…. Me and most all the young men I knew back when I was young had but one mission on our minds and that was copulating. Be damned the consequences, that was the goal of virtually all we did. Right or wrong, it was absolutely primally driven. And that primal drive came from teenage testosterone….. Granted, we didn’t have the birth control choices available today either, but the point remains. I drove loud cars for female attention. I played guitar for female attention. I wore my Army uniform on leave for female attention…… I cannot imagine playing video games and the like would dull the teenage drive for female attention. So it has to be lower testosterone in young men and I can’t see that being a natural selection sort of process. The very root of nature is continuation of the species. So why have testosterone levels been dropping in young men if in fact they are?

 

Video games are addictive . . . addiction tends to relegate all other concerns secondary in importance. Ergo, attracting a mate drops in importance, even though most older folks (and most of the younger females) find that so hard to comprehend.

As for the lack of meaningful coupling and reproduction, this trend of friends with benefits (casual sex with no emotional commitment) and the prolific use of contraception and even $300 abortion pills certainly has reduced the number of unplanned children.

I think too that young men nowadays tend to not try hard enough, attributing their lack of attention from females to causes other than a lack of effort on their own part . . . too much time spent on activities which do not interest females as much as face-to-face interaction (as mentioned above), liberal-implanted doubts about their sexual identity and, again, radical feminism.

 

Whoa, guess what I saw . . .

Charley's on the loose!​

 

To push back a bit on the video games thing, women love video games too. I play games with my wife all the time.

 

It has always been expensive, it's just tough to justify now because of how acutely aware of the world circumstances we are. I know plenty of people not wanting children on ethical grounds (not a good world to have children in).

I suspect there's some sort of biological mechanism to curb overpopulation at play. Plenty of species stop reproducing when they hit critical population densities.

I don't know much about saying no. My parents set pretty good limits, tough to say for others though.

 

Hot dang!!!

 

Some women do . . .

 

Quick hit and run . . . he was there, and then he wasn't!

Maybe she came home from grocery shoppin' & he didn't wanna get caught cheatin' on her with us!

 

“She” must have turned her head for a moment….

 

These are the same people who favor the right to abortions of convenience? Ethical grounds, BS.

 

Depends how you define "convenience"

I'd argue it's the ethical and right thing to do to have an abortion if you don't have the means (financially, mentally, etc.) to take care of a child

 

Cop out . . . Most people I know who opted for abortions could make it work just fine, but chose not to.

 

Not wanting a child is a valid reason not to have one. Actually, a really good one for the sake of the potential child.

 

Sort of like, not wanting to work is a valid reason not to?

This natural world does not afford us all of the options we want to choose from. You can choose not to work, and have a lesser life for it.

Back to your statement . . . Not wanting a child is a valid reason not to have one . . . Seems to me it’s more like, not wanting a child is a valid reason not to have sex.