America is in trouble because we have too few children.  An aging population negatively impacts the economy, older people buy less stuff and tend to be retired, and government spending, since Social Security is basically a Ponzi scheme more and more older Americans need to be paid for by fewer young Americans.

To maintain a stable population the fertility rate, the number of children an average woman has, needs to be about 2.1. In 1960 the American fertility rate was about 3.6 and in 2015 it was about 1.8. 

This is a big deal; a similar problem is what is driving the Islamification of Europe.  Contrary to some conservatives, Frau Merkel didn’t invite millions of poorly educated sharia law-loving Muslims into Germany just because she likes Islam.  She did so because you can’t sustain a welfare state when your population is shrinking.  The fertility rate in Germany has always been lower than the U.S., about 1.5 in 2015, so Germany is facing a serious problem due to a lack of Germans.

The problem of course is that Germany lacks the ability, and the will, to convert these uneducated masses who don’t believe in the Christian ideals that support modern Western civilization into good Germans.

Given that shrinking populations are bad -- except for the people-hating ecofreaks who are more concerned about animals than humans -- how do we fix the problem without importing millions of people who don’t share American ideals like individual liberty, personal responsibility, and tolerance?

The best solution is for Americans to start having more babies.  Unfortunately, the leftist war on civilized culture has corrupted American culture to the point that people view babies as a burden, or slightly better as a fashion accessory, not as a blessing.

A few of the reasons that the average American has fewer children:

1. Children are portrayed in culture as burdens
2. People are told by the culture to be selfish
3. The culture says that sex isn’t about procreation at all it’s all about personal pleasure
4. The purpose of marriage is to make the spouses happier not to replenish the human race
5. Government programs have reduced the need for children to take care of us in our old age
6. The vast wealth of the U.S. means that children are rarely needed to work in the family business
7. Children exist for the good of the parents.
8. A successful woman is like a man

Most modern entertainment stresses what a pain children are. They keep you up at night, they cost a fortune, they make trouble, etc.  Basically, a totally untrue portrayal of what life with children is like. It’s rare that anything in the culture, other than content generated by explicitly religious sources, shows what a blessing children are.  The reality is that when a child is born into a family that family is suddenly filled with love.  There is nothing as rewarding as raising a child but for young people coming from small families all they see in the culture are the problems; no wonder they’re not keen on settling down and having their own children.

The culture tells us we need that new car or that fancy vacation. But since children do cost money they are viewed by the culture as impediments to parents meeting their “needs.”  The reality is that couples who intentionally avoid having children -- not people who either never find the “right one” or who can’t have children -- are selfish takers who spend their money on themselves instead of investing in America’s future.  Couples who raise their children invest a huge amount of money producing the future Americans who will pay the Social Security for and take care of those couples who just said no to children. But if marriage is all about the couple being happy, which is the message modern culture sends, then it’s fine to not waste money on kids.

Historically, sex has had two components; a way to show love and a way to produce children. By declaring that producing children isn’t important, much of the incentive for men to settle down and support the next generation of children goes away.  If men can get all the sex they want without any commitment many men will go for it. 

While the idea behind programs like Medicare and Social Security are good, they effectively transfer the responsibility for the elderly from the family to society as a whole. Hence a family with no children who spent all their money on themselves will be supported in their old age by the taxes of the children who were paid for by others.  In our world, the huge advantage of having kids to look after us in our old age is significantly mitigated by government policy.

Similarly, since unskilled kids are rarely useful in the family business another historical incentive that would offset the cost of children has been removed.

To the extent that the culture does view having children as something less than an unmitigated burden it does so by saying what the children do for the parents.  How often does the culture swoon over having two kids, a boy for dad and a girl for mom?  But in doing so the culture tells us we have no responsibility for the future and that if our children don’t make our lives better we’ve been cheated.  Is it any wonder that violence against children is on the rise? Clearly, if children are fashion accessories designed to enhance the lives of their parents, many will eschew such a risky and significant expense and just buy a fancy car instead.

While many worry about losing America due to the massive influx of immigrants, legal and illegal, who don’t share our American values the reality is that unless Americans make more Americans the dissolution of our constitutional republic is inevitable. 

We need to attack the prevalent culture and call it out for its lies.  We need to let people know that there is no greater blessing than a child nor any profession which is superior to being a mother.  We don’t need to discriminate against women in the workplace we simply need to tell women that their natural desire to have and raise kids, ticking biological clock anyone, is a sign of greatness not a badge of shame.

We also need to modify how we deal with the elderly. ObamaCare, for example, taxed all the children of the families who invested in children to reduce the medical costs of couples who didn’t invest in children.  Social Security, as currently structured, is a huge tax on the children of others for those couples who didn’t have children.  Now this doesn’t mean that we have to end a government safety net but perhaps we need to make the child deduction on taxes much higher. Similarly we can convert Social Security into a defined contribution program so that the childless aren’t stealing from those who have invested in children.

The bottom line is no matter what sort of legal immigration policy we adopt, what wall we build, or how many people we deport unless the U.S. starts making more Americans our country is headed for a world of hurt.

You can read more of Tom's rants at his blog, Conversations about the obvious, and feel free to follow him on Twitter.