The 3-fold increase in human numbers (since 1950) has already
stretched food, water and energy supplies to their limits. That
increase also has globally diminished the rule of law along with regression of basic
human rights. That was determined in the lead story of Project
Censored 2019: 'Global Decline in the Rule of Law as Basic Human
Rights Diminish'.
Specifically, the report noted an enhanced regression in
fundamental human rights, including: absence of discrimination, right to life
and security, due process, freedom of expression and religion, right to
privacy, freedom of association and labor rights. Most notable in the
findings:
"Constraints on government powers - which measures the extent
to which those who govern are bound by law - saw the second greatest declines
(64 nations receded out of 113 named). And most distressing, "The
U.S. saw the greatest deterioration."
Specifically here in the U.S., we've graphically beheld Trump's warped ascension to power over the last 10 years and the fracturing of stability, misuse of resources and chaos now spread all over the world. The latest shock being the ravaging of fuel and agricultural resources sending prices spiking as a result of Trump's war of choice against Iran.
So, of course, those who are inescapably caught in this dystopian political realm express fear and that fear may include the rational choice not to procreate. After all, why send offspring into a world so full of hate, chaos and calamity? Trump's demolition of climate change initiatives alone will likely bring us to the horrors of the runaway greenhouse effect much sooner. In terms of staple crops for agriculture, soy, wheat and corn don't do well when ambient temperatures tend to stay over 30 C (86F). Given the temperatures throughout the world will be much hotter in a runaway greenhouse environment, that means we can predict collapse of key food sources and mass famines. Indeed, the 1.4 C the planet has already heated since the preindustrial era has gouged global agriculture by 21%. That's like wasting 7 years of productivity gains.
Thus we see, from a Times' piece 8 days ago, another basis for why the young choose not to reproduce and we are talking not just in the U.S. but the world at large - many nations, many cultures, many governments affected
As the NYT piece observes:
"What unites these disparate cultures, policy environments and demographics, researchers are now realizing, is young people’s inescapable and crushing sense that the future is too uncertain for the lifelong commitment of parenthood. Call it the vibes theory of demographic decline."
And the vibes clearly must encompass the fear of overpopulation of the planet itself which feeds into the climate instability given more people means more CO2 produced. As I wrote in my March 25, 2024 blog post:
"An astonishing fact of modern history is taking hold: No matter what governments do to convince them to procreate, people around the world are having fewer and fewer kids. Many are opting to have no kids at all. What gives? Is the human race on the verge of self- annihilation owing to population collapse? Nope. In fact the opposite is true, we are on track to hit 10 billion by the year 2050, it's just that the majority will be in 3rd world (i.e. African, Asian) nations.
According to an article in 'Population Connection' (March) the U.S. birth rate has been falling since the Great Recession, dropping almost 23 percent between 2007 and 2022. Today, the average American woman has about 1.6 children, down from three in 1950, and significantly below the “replacement rate” of 2.1 children needed to sustain a stable population.
In Italy, 12 people now die for every seven babies born. In South Korea, the birth rate is down to 0.81 children per woman. In China, after decades of a strictly enforced one-child policy, the population is shrinking for the first time since the 1960s. In Taiwan, the birth rate stands at 0.87."
Isaac Asmiov incisively spelled it out the threats from global overpopulation with these points from a lecture he delivered in Barbados in February, 1976:
The Times piece goes on to echo the dystopian themes of Asimov's 1976 Barbados talk and the Project Censored Report:
"The future has never been assured, but it feels as though we are living in a time of spectacular uncertainty. In the United States, job tenures have contracted and income volatility has risen. Life expectancy, once on an inexorable march upward, has fallen for less-educated women and men. Many of the forces our economy is built on — A.I., immigration, global trade — feel distressingly volatile; disruption, once a byword for a disturbance or problem, is the governing ethos of a terrifyingly powerful sector of our economy. The rise of prediction markets has turned the world into one large casino. The climate crisis is spiraling, as are the costs of everything that could enable parenthood, whether that’s a roof over one’s head or child care. The past half-century has brought us breathtaking inequality, accompanied by a sharp decline in social mobility."
Which is perhaps the best summation one could ask for of all the reasons not to have children. After all, the smarter segment of the global populace has already figured out humanity has outrun its sustainability for living on this planet, e.g.
The interpretation of the graph is straightforward. By June, 2030, two full Earths will be needed to support the then human population. Already we are at 1.5 Earths, or 0.5 Earths beyond where we ought to be in terms of our sustainable numbers.
Isaac Asimov himself, in his 1976 Barbados lecture, believed the carrying capacity of Earth had to be 3 billion, no more. We are already past that by more than 4.5 billion. Again, the severe limiting of numbers ought to have been from 30+ years ago - not acted on just now!
Beyond this, there is the sheer economics of the situation, and given the degree to which Gen Z (the most plausible baby makers) are saddled with student loan debt and job-income instability, i.e.
They clearly discern adding more mouths to feed -and house -is an impossible, unrealistic option. Besides, even if it could be achieved how can it be sustained in a world (and nation) beset by polycrises (like the Great Recession and Covid Pandemic)as well as nefarious maniacal sociopaths - like Trump and his family of grifters. This lot seek to enrich themselves. as they destroy others via their deformed policy agenda - such as destroying medical care, SNAP benefits and precious research facilities. At the same time AI-engineering a total surveillance state, i.e."The two generations currently of child rearing age bear the psychological and financial scars of coming of age amid world-scale catastrophes: Older millennials entered the labor market during the Great Recession; many watched their parents lose their jobs or homes. Gen Z, whose lives were upturned by the Covid-19 pandemic, now find themselves competing against A.I. for entry-level jobs and even prospective partners. The man running America seems single-mindedly devoted to chaos at home and abroad."
And this is a man is not only devoted to chaos but the annihilation of the fabric of the nation including the rule of law, as well as obliterating critical research and countering the climate crisis. Not to mention his destruction of the economy and medical care. So no surprise costs on everything from food to fuel are now so high - and we also see millions are opting out of Obamacare. As one Colorado family put it, it made more sense to exit the ACA then add $4,500 more in monthly expenses. They would have to just take their chances.
With so many aspects of life being deformed then, the rational choice is not to add offspring to the mix of costs and planetary degradation. Will things - events turn around to make such a negative choice look foolish? This is not likely given the extent to which climate change is now ramping up to catastrophic levels. And it will only get worse, not better - so again why bring a kid int a hellhole world and almost certain destitution - not to mention law of the jungle reactions?
Asimov's answer was you don't do it, don't make life on this planet even worse. Hence his praise for the childless woman as embodied in his quote at the top.
Bottom line: raising kids now is simply too costly ($250k/ yr. each through high school), on top of paying off college loans and scraping enough moola to rent a decent apartment, far less buy a home. Hell, the student situation alone is now so bad that many could see their wages garnished in the coming months, i.e.
Student Loan Borrowers in Default Could See Wages Garnished in Early 2026
Interestingly, some sources cited in the NYT piece have offered "faith" as the panacea for the uncertainty dominating our times. But this solution is too pat, too simplistic. It does not, for example, take into account how white Christian Nationalists (and evangelicals) have flocked to Trump - seemingly unconcerned by his numerous crimes including sexual assaults - and even attacking the Pope. In his latest derangement he even claimed to "Have a better understanding of the Bible than Leo" e,g,
Trump
promotes claim he has a 'better understanding' of the Bible than Pope Leo
Indeed, complicating matters further one senior pro-Trump pastor (Jeffress) also went after the Pope:
Dallas pastor Robert Jeffress says Pope is wrong about Iran
None of this sits well with the world's genuine Catholics, who appreciated Leo's Gospel basis for asserting a nation cannot "pray for conquest and blood" in a war. They are also aware that a guy who slaughters innocent fishermen in boat - fancying the video game scene of drone explosions - and blows up Iranian schools with Tomahawk cruise missiles, has zero grasp of the Good Book.
It also compounds the chaos and confusion even among faiths, explaining why a majority of adult Americans still don't frequent churches and remain 'Nones'. Indeed, fewer than half of Americans even belong to a church or other house of worship.
The pro-Trump Christian Nationalist - white supremacists are
also at the core of overturning our democracy and turning it into a Theocracy.
So why would any serious person believe "faith" is a balm to navigate
these troubled times and even decide to have kids in the midst of it?
Especially when a proven autocrat and criminal is trying to use it for his own
promotion, nefarious agenda and demented 'excursions'
If anything, it's even more reason NOT to bring children into
a world turned upside down and lacking any moral compass among the most
powerful leaders.
See Also:
- "To Breed Or Not To Breed?" The Answer Ought
or other house of worship.
The pro-Trump Christian Nationalist - white supremacists are also at the core of overturning our democracy and turning it into a Theocracy. So why would any serious person believe "faith" is a balm to navigate these troubled times and even decide to have kids in the midst of it? Especially when a proven autocrat and criminal is trying to use it for his own promotion, nefarious agenda and demented 'excursions'
If anything, it's even more reason NOT to bring children into a world turned upside down and lacking any moral compass among the most powerful leaders.
To Be Obvious By Now...
And:
Prof. Albert Bartlett Skewers The Trope That "The Total Global Population Is A Meaningless Number"
And:
by Henry Giroux | May 10, 2026 - 4:35am | permalink
Under the Trump regime, the United States has entered a dark age in which conscience is not merely ignored but systematically dismantled. Compassion is mocked as weakness, truth treated as disposable, and cruelty elevated into a governing principle. This is more than corruption. It signals the suffocation of civic culture under gangster capitalism — a predatory system in which power serves wealth, law serves vengeance, and democracy is hollowed out from within.
Donald Trump did not create this moral vacuum. He seized it, refined it, and weaponized it. For decades, neoliberal rule has hollowed out the social state, normalized staggering inequality, elevated billionaires to the status of civic arbiters, and schooled generations to believe that self-interest is the highest virtue. Public goods were dismantled or sold off, civic responsibility withered, and citizens were reduced to consumers, detached from any shared sense of fate. In such a landscape, empathy is no longer a public good but a private burden, something to be shed in the relentless pursuit of profit, power, and spectacle. As Zygmunt Bauman notes in Modernity and the Holocaust, gangster capitalism as a form of fascist politics thrives on “moral sleeping pills” and “the dead silence of unconcern.”
And:
by Amanda Marcotte | May 5, 2026 - 5:09am | permalink
Are young men rushing back to church in record numbers? To hear many in the media, especially conservative media, tell it, the answer is a big fat yes. According to these reports, there’s not only a stampede back to the churches by the young, but it’s being led by a surprising cohort: Gen Z men. This, we’re told, is highly unusual because women are typically viewed as more religious than men.
“[Y]oung men in the U.S. say religion is ‘very important’ in their lives compared to young women,” a recent Associated Press story read, noting this is “the first time young men have surpassed young women” on this measure. CNN got in on the action in September with a segment that argued a religious revival among young men was a major trend, with Richard Reeves of the American Institute for Boys and Men declaring that it’s “not politically driven,” even as he admitted that the group seems drawn to Christian leaders that teach women’s subordination. Fox News has heavily hyped this idea as well, producing segments insisting — without good evidence — that young men are converting in huge numbers or that they “are turning to faith more so than young women.” Other outlets like The Blaze and Breitbart have also embraced these claims.
And:
Brane Space: Sorry, Neither 'Trump Accounts' Or Pro-Natalist MAGAs Will "Make Babies Great Again"
And:
The Catastrophe Implicit In A World With 5 Billion More People Than It Can Support
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