First World Nations, Including America, Are Dying. Here's Why.

 

First world nations are dying,” Pat Buchanan warned in his 2002 book "The Death of the West."

“They face a mortal crisis, not because of something happening in the Third World, but because of what is not happening at home and in the homes of the First World.”

And what was not — and still is not — happening at home is childbearing. Buchanan was referring to fertility rates, which have been declining for decades.

Be informed, not misled.

The Federalist noted Friday that "Data released on Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows U.S. birth rates are dropping to levels of civilizational suicide, with women having on average 1.6 children. According to the CDC data, birth rates dropped for women aged 15-34 between 2023 and 2024 while rising for women aged 40-44. The general fertility rate (GFR), which is the number of births per 1,000 females ages 15-44, “is down 22% from 2007 to 2024.” While fertility rates are down, the number of births increased by roughly 1 percent between 2023 and 2024, according to the data.

Women are delaying having children or completely casting it aside — thanks in part to the rise of the obnoxious hyper-independent girl boss mentality that has asserted that marriage and motherhood are shackles, along with the “loss of religiosity” and “availability of birth control” and abortion, as pointed out by David Harsanyi. 

The result? The country is dying. 

In my research for this daily blog on faithandfreedom.us and our daily radio program "Straight Talk", I see a number of articles about this concern, with most of them concluding that it is more difficult for young adults to have children today than it used to be.

A closer look at the truth.

Harsanyi says, "I’m not a social scientist, granted, but I’m highly skeptical young people are especially hindered from having children because of economic struggles or an inability to buy homes or inflation or the nefarious workings of the 'unfettered' free market or 'globalism.” I do think we’ve trained a generation to see themselves as victims of (completely normal) circumstances.

To begin with, the notion that young people are toiling in some uniquely grueling economic era is completely delusional. Partisans want you to think everything is falling apart. There are plenty of serious problems — there always are — but historically speaking, Americans are largely living in a uniquely wealthy, safe, educated, and meritocratic world.

Young people can be “enraged” and jealous of the “exceptional wealth” of their parents, but Zoomers are probably wealthier than any other generation at the same point in their life cycle. Having to pay back a ridiculous student loan on a useless sociology degree isn’t one of the great tragedies to have befallen mankind, it’s just the consequence of a bad choice.

As Buchanan warned, a nation that will not reproduce will not survive. A shrinking native population leads to one inevitable outcome: mass immigration.

But, for the sake of argument, let’s concede life is super tough these days.

Does anyone believe Zoomers are worse off than young people during the Depression, when the birth rate was far higher? That generation gazed back at the Roaring ’20s. Why did they have kids? The birth rate was over four times higher in the early 1800s, when around 90 percent of Americans had to wake up before dawn to engage in the backbreaking work of farming — often subsistence farming — with no other prospects available.

There are dozens of other similar examples.

Abortion on demand is a significant speed bump to national sustainability.  

One of the most obvious consequences of a shrinking population is a corresponding decline in the workforce. But a workforce is rather interchangeable. A country can always import labor — the United States can import labor for the foreseeable future if there is a shortage of workers. 

But what a country cannot import is a culture, a heritage, a set of particular values that will help the republic endure.

America simply cannot outsource its future to people from other places. And it’s not about “xenophobia” or whatever other “phobia” the left will throw at Americans. A country — any country—that replaces its population with people from somewhere else because its own people will not reproduce becomes something else entirely. If we don’t make more Americans, we won’t have any more left. And without Americans, there will be no America.

Harsanyi notes, "Not only is the U.S. failing to create enough new Americans through birth — it is also failing to turn immigrants into Americans in any meaningful sense — making the prospect of boosting the dying population with foreigners even more problematic. Of course, this hasn’t always been the case. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the U.S. successfully assimilated millions of immigrants — Germans, Italians, Poles, Irish, and so on. Because they shared a foundation of similar cultural and social norms, values, and religion, they often became Americans within a single generation."

Takeaway

He says, "Instead of pushing for expanding the welfare state — one that has already undermined community and family — maybe do a better job by expanding your flock. Or keeping it, for that matter. Because in the U.S., the loss of religiosity is likely a bigger reason for low birth rates than the economy. Studies consistently show that the more one attends church, the more kids they have. As of the 2020 Census, the top 10 states with the highest fertility rates were all red states. The bottom 10 were all blue."

Today the terms "red state" and "blue state" are staples in the national lexicon. Swing states that vote either way are purple states. However, red and blue states differ in more than voting patterns. Red states have higher birth rates than blue states. According to the 2020 Census, the top ten states with the highest birth rates are all red states. They are, from highest to lowest: South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska, Nebraska, Utah, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Iowa. All of them voted for President Trump in 2020. The bottom ten birthrate states, starting with the lowest, are Vermont, Rhode Island, Oregon, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Connecticut, Colorado, California, and New Mexico. Every one of them went for President Biden in 2020.

According to Fox News, three factors statistically relate to higher birth rates, which are more prevalent in states with higher birth rates. The factors are a state’s cost of living (a lower cost of living associated with a higher birth rate); the share of residents who seldom or never attend religious services (with a lower connection to organized religion associated with lower birth rates); and the 2020 vote for Joe Biden (with states that gave Biden the largest share having the lowest birth rates).

The French historian Alexis Tocqueville, after touring America, explained, "I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers...Not until I went to the churches of America...did I understand the secret of her genius and power." He said the pulpits were aflame in preaching God's Word.

Founding Father John Adams said, as they concluded writing our Constitution, "Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people." 

God's Word says in Genesis 1:28: "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." 

God's way is always the right way.

Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful.