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On Point | Podcast

Part I: Why is America's birthrate declining?

On Point | Podcast

WBUR

Talk Show, Daily News, News, Npr, On Point, Daily

4.23.5K Ratings

🗓️ 16 September 2024

⏱️ 55 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Hear On Point's mini-series on the declining birth rate in the United States.

We're not looking at economics, or education, but another aspect of parenthood highlighted and debated in two new books.

Do children bring a unique sense of meaning to life?

Transcript

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0:00.0

Support for this podcast comes from the Atlantic Festival.

0:03.4

On September 19th and 20th in Washington, D.C.

0:07.0

Connect with other curious people to think deeply about issues that matter.

0:11.8

Here from Katanji Brown Jackson, Pete Budajajed, Anna Devir Smith, and more.

0:17.5

Tickets are available at the Atlantic Festival.com.

0:21.0

Support for this podcast comes from Math Works, a company accelerating the pace of engineering and science.

0:28.0

Stick around until the end of this episode for a special segment about how companies like Nuevara fuel cells use Mathwork software

0:35.6

to design engineered systems powering the clean energy transition.

0:40.3

This is on point.

0:41.3

I'm Magna Chakrabardi. In March, Arizona Representative

0:45.2

Republican David Schweikert gave voice to a growing concern.

0:49.6

If I came to you right now and said, let's come up with a way to stabilize Social Security, let's

0:54.4

stabilize Medicare, it's moral, it's our moral obligation, we made a social contract in this society.

1:00.8

Okay, we got a problem and it's all something almost no one here ever talks

1:06.2

about. We're not having children. United States fertility rates have collapsed.

1:11.2

That was Schweichert on the House floor.

1:14.6

Now, he's not alone.

1:16.0

Declining birth rates have been an issue for lawmakers, policy advisors,

1:20.2

and economists for some time. That's because birth rates in the United States

1:25.2

have been falling for decades. In 1960, women in the US had an average of 3.6

1:31.9

children each. In 2023 that number was 1.62 children less than half

1:39.5

and that's lower than the 2.1 children per woman replacement birth rate as stated by the National

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