What Does This Dramatic Drop In Babies Portend For Us Humans Already Born?

A dramatic drop in babies? We humans have not bee reproducing ourselves much for quite a while. For some reason, it seems to have caught the attention of the media.

A recent Wall Street Journal article headline:

"Suddenly There Aren't Enough Babies. The Whole World Is Alarmed."

What's so "sudden" about this? The trend has been an ongoing concern for decades. The thing is, certain reasons for this make some folks uncomfortable. 

For one, contraception. Sure, it's always existed in one form or another. But with the invention of "the pill" it took on a whole new life. Beginning sometime in the second half of the 20th century, contraception via ingesting "the pill" - as well as other exotic measures - was no longer uncommon, as it once was.

You may have heard of the large families that once were more the norm back in the day - really through the mid-20th century. In this country, Catholics particularly had the reputation of spawning big broods. With some exceptions, that's ended.

So, guess what? If folks use contraception to reduce the number of children they have, there's a drop in babies. Not complicated.

But there's also this: abortion. In recent media spills into this baby dearth thing, you don't hear this brought up. After all, it's a "right" for people to kill their unborn children - at least in the major media. So they can't touch this simple reality: Once Roe v. Wade legalized abortion nationwide millions - as in MILLIONS - of children have been killed in utero.

Some estimate that tens of millions of children who would have taken their place in our society never saw the light of day.

Do you think that contributes to a birth dearth? And, if so, why doesn't anyone talk about it?

You have to wonder how much all this has impacted our world today.

For example, we hear about companies finding it difficult to find employees. Could it be that some of those tens of millions (not counting those never given the chance at life due to contraception) might have filled some of those slots.

Or what about the "crisis" in funding Social Security and Medicare? The system was designed to run based on current workers contributing to it via FICA taxes. With fewer contributors, the benefits due the geezers are steadily outstripping the money pouring (drizzling?) into the system.

Just two examples.

Aside from the cultural, societal, and - let's face it - existential implications of this, won't there be some spillover into the investment world? You'd think so, right?

After all, if the dearth of babies scenario is roughly accurate, there simply aren't enough folks to work for companies to produce goods and services. There also aren't enough folks to buy the goods and service produced. And with a drop-off in both these areas, how do the stock prices of public companies hold up?

Maybe with fewer people, and fewer goods, things level off. I simply haven't thought this through, so can't really opine on any theory that things will somehow balance and all will be well - for investment portfolios.

As for the other three - cultural, societal, existential - it's hard to see whose interests are served by a dramatic drop in population. And you have to wonder whether this "open borders" thing isn't partly (mostly?) driven by the desperate need for bodies to work. (Yes, there's a lot of politics here: bringing in folks who are beholden to the party that gives them free stuff when they arrive. But is that all there is to it? And either way, is open borders a reasonable approach?)

At the end of the day, it's a big topic - as in BIG - that's not gotten much attention over the years. Will the current uptick in media be a permanent thing, leading to some sort of intelligent exchange? Or will this be yet another "click bait" spurt that rises up and dies quickly when the next tidbit presents itself to a media that's lost any connection with reporting facts or serving the common good?