Surprising Reason to Worry About Low Birth Rates They're linked to an increase in populist sentiment
A good article and I can support this reseach/reason
A Surprising Reason to Worry About Low Birth Rates
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/05/a-surprising-reason-to-worry-about-low-birth-rates/561308/
They’re linked to an increase in populist sentiments.
A toddler hugs the legs of a man next to a palm tree outside
Marcelo Del Pozo / Reuters
Olga Khazan May 26, 2018 Health
Discussion about the great American baby bust often seems meant to induce fear. The concern is that with fewer babies, economic growth will plummet, and too-few workers will have to shoulder the burden of an aging population. But if I’m being honest, the latest news about the drop in American births did not raise my blood pressure much.
Maybe it’s because I, myself, am kind of “eh” on kids in general. Maybe I’ve just been...........................
Or at least, so I thought. I recently came across something that’s made me sit up and pay attention to fertility rates: There is research linking falling fertility to rising populism.
Definitions of populism vary, but it’s often thought to be a political philosophy in which “the people” are pitted against elites and outsiders in a struggle for domination. The rhetoric of President Trump is often considered to be populist.
Here’s how Philip Auerswald, a George Mason University professor, and Joon Yun, a hedge-fund manager, explain this connection in a recent New York Times op-ed:
In the world’s largest cities, where populations are densely concentrated and growing, economies are generally thriving and cosmopolitanism is embraced. Where populations are sparse or shrinking, usually in rural places and small cities, economies are often stagnant, and populism sells.
Why does it hold such appeal in these places? Nativist, nationalist rhetoric—“Make America (or Whatever Other Country) Great Again”—appeals because it promises to restore the rightful economic and cultural stature of “common people” ... Where populations decline, populists arise—more often than not, promising to reverse history and restore past glory if not demographic dominance.
The problems typically associated with falling fertility are a struggle to pay for Social Security and Medicare in the long run. Fewer babies today means fewer workers in the future, which means less money in the Social-Security pot.
These might seem like relatively manageable threats: We could simply raise immigration quotas to boost the number of “missing” workers, for example. But it’s the very arrival of these immigrants that might fuel populist sentiment. The way this would work, as my colleague Derek Thompson has explained, is in a sort of doom loop: Population plummets, immigration increases, people get scared by the influx of newcomers, they become more xenophobic, and thus more inclined to support nationalist parties..................................
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