The U.S. economy is a consumer-based economy. For the country to prosper and the economy to remain dynamic and grow, we have to do what we’ve been doing since 1787 — steadily and constantly increase our population, increase the number of consumers. In addition, we’re an aging country with our second largest generation, the Baby Boomers, now leaving the workforce and beginning to live on their pensions and Social Security. We need loads of young workers to contribute to Social Security and those pension funds in order for them to remain solvent and provide the income that Baby Boomers are counting on.
Prior to the covid-19 pandemic, we were beginning to see the onset of a demographic trend that spells trouble for our future well-being as a country. Birthrates had steadily declined to below replacement level. For several decades, the U.S. had seemed to be avoiding the problem of declining birthrates that is beginning to cripple E.U. economies and those of Japan and South Korea. But in the last ten years, our birthrate has begun to decline also.
There are a number of sociological reasons why more and more couples are having fewer children or deciding not to have children at all, but there are two under-reported but very serious medical issues that are contributing to this problem — which seems to be on the road to becoming a crisis.
From 1973 to 2011, the total sperm count of men in the United States dropped 59 percent and continues to fall. Sperm quality has also deteriorated with more odd-shaped sperm, and fewer strong swimmers capable of fertilizing an egg. And the DNA these sperm carry has become more damaged. Testosterone levels have been dropping at a rate of 1 percent a year since 1982. And miscarriage rates have risen by 1 percent per year over the last two decades.
The cause of these problems is our growing exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals that are found in plastics, flame retardants, electronics, food packaging, pesticides, and personal care products and cosmetics. These chemicals are limiting the ability of current and future generations to have children. Despite the dire consequences of this exposure, there have been no changes in environmental policies, regulations, or public demand for safe substitutes. We’re beginning a calamitous decline toward extinction.
The other cause for concern is more immediate. During the first year of the covid-19 pandemic, there were at least 300,000 fewer births in the U.S. than would have occurred had there been no pandemic. We should expect another 300,000 births that won’t happen in the next year. And there have been an incalculable number of couples who did not meet — at the office, in bars, in schools, at parties and weddings — during the last year because of the social isolation forced on us by the pandemic. Add to those births that won’t happen the deaths caused to younger people by the novel coronavirus, and the U.S. will soon be missing about a million people.
We need to find replacements to continue to grow and thrive as a country. Birthrates will never rise again, so the only source of those replacements is immigration. There are only a few thousand people on our southern border hoping to gain entry to the United States. Let’s quickly get them in, give them Social Security numbers, and unite them with relatives, foster homes, and adoptive parents. Then let’s go searching the world for more immigrants. Our existence as a country depends on it.
