US Childlessness is Up, but Racial Gaps Narrowing

fish59 - perfectly said. This country is DOOMED. What a damn shame.

@Fish59 - George Carlin would say to you "You have a child fetish, & it's not healthy". Judging by your name, you must feel that there's never enough being fruitful & multiplying. I'm unchilded by choice - I couldn't be happier that I'm not alone in my decision. Parenting isn't for everyone. Neither is driving everywhere - I'm also happy to see ANYONE ride a bike in these obese times.

The whole system is a catastrophe. I grew up in the 50's .... in the ideal "Leave it to Beaver" home. I saw my educated Mom in a frilly apron, fussing over minutiae and frustrated at heart with her life.

She told me repeatedly that her children were "the best things in her life" ... and I believed her. But she was bitter about her "position" ..... no financial power, no social power ..... " I only wanted to be acknowledged and appreciated in fact ... and in LAW .... for what I've been doing." she told me.

She wasn't. She feared my father's disapproval and obeyed the social customs of an upper class suburban life. And was angry deep inside her soul.

Women's traditional work .... raising children and keeping house was NEVER honored. We were fed crap about it being "wonderful" and then treated like servants. Our opinions devalued and the law against us. We went through unwantnd pregnancies, endured abuse and disrespect ...

And we were hindered in every way if we wanted more education or opportunities. Tthere were "quotas" on female undergrads going on to study medicine. In CANADA .... in the 1960's ....

We were thwarted and discouraged at every turn., I won my major scholarship ... the Canada Council Grant ..... when my info and submitted tapes were issued a code number and thus no one knew if I were male or female. I gave up competitions in which my sex was evident. It was a waste of time.

Furious., You bet. Successful today. You bet. Today there are more females in college than males. Today we have power. And we damn well know that if we have children, that power is going to be neutralized. By two things. Our natural love for our own children ... and the loss of earning and saving power. And we have only a 50% chance our marriages will last. So the threat of being a single mother is pretty strong too.

And obviously I'm not the only woman who sees that we've lost out in the feminine liberation movement. Sure we have power and respect but now we have TWO jobs. The lives of young women juggling children and jobs is to my mind pure hell. Nothing would induce me to choose that life. I would prefer to live in a cave by myself than spend every waking moment, caring for children and working. That isn't life .... that's slavery.

The solution is ... alas ..... lost. It WOULD have been to respect ad honor mothers. It would have been to give them legal protection ... in Canada women rarely got a fair share of property if they divorced, no matter what they'd put into it. It would be to ensure each child is wanted .... and not still be fussing over Roe vs Wade. It would be to give them a decent place in the world.

And if educating those children costs thousands and thousands of dollars, you can bet fewer people are going to take on that burden. I have a friend in her late fifties who has three jobs so she can help her son go to college and cover for her husband who is disabled. She works something like 80 hours a week.

Today ...if I were a twenty five year old considering my future, I would make the same choice. NO children. But now it would be for other reasons. Now I could expect my partner to share in the child rearing ... that is good. I could expect to have my own financial security .... that is good. I could expect a certain measure of respect ... and that is good. But two things I could not expect ..... that my marriage would last and the rearing of those children would be shared. And that we could afford a decent education for our children. So it would still be "No Children".

The future is NOT impacted by fewer births. This is ridiculous. The world is already groaning under the weight of so many people and their demands on our resources. And "mechanization" will definitely satisfy the need for workers. We need less population. not more. And we need to get our values right.

Fewer children raised well. Fewer demands for unnecessary luxury. More respect for our environment ..... and above all, providing access to education and medical care. We don't need more .... we need better .....

There are TOO Many people on the planet. We white folks have managed to rape and scrape the resources of other (poorer) nations. When is enough, enough? I wouldn't bring an innocent Baby into this shit-hole of a world. What idiocy to encourage women, especially smart white women, to reproduce. It's all over but the shouting. Less is more. Wake-up people.

Yes, fish59, America has another country, a third world country, etc. There are too many immigrants being allowed to enter America, this includes not only hispanics, jamaicans, haitians, trinidadians. (If you weren't born here, to me you're an immigrant). I lived in a complex and all that lived there just about were jamaicans, haitians, trinidadians and Africans. I hurried up and got the hell out of there, these are some rude people, and if you complain about them to management, you're wrong. There's a hospital in my town (East Orange General). I know some of you who live in my state knows, that all of the damn doctors and nursers and hospital staff consist of these people just about what the hell? The hospital may as well be in one of their countries. I tell people if you can make it to another hospital, then do that.

White people see the phenomenal population explosion due to the irresponsibility of black and hispanic girls and women who crank 'em out just to get more money from taxpayers, so they're smart: they don't add to the problem.

It's called CHILDFREE, not childless, and for some people, children are not the "happily ever after." Alot of people have children for the wrong reasons: To make their parents happy and proud, To keep up with their friends, To leave a "legacy," To be loved, To keep a marriage together, To take care of them in their old age. In my mind, that's being selfish.

Wow. There are so many things wrong with this, I'm not sure where to begin. Racism. Big, ugly racism. How many wealthy white folk with no kids do you really know? And if they are so selfish, do you really WANT them raising kids??? I live in an urban, very socio-economically diverse neighborhood, and my non-white neighbors are (a) a mix of financially comfortable and lower-middle class. As are my white neighbors. None of the lower income families I know have more than 1 or 2 kids. Many of the more well off families have 3 or more.

Granted, this is simply anecdotal, but since our country was built, from the very beginning, on the backs of immigrants, perhaps it is fitting that this statistics are playing out. As the diversity gap closes numerically, and whites lose our "majority" status, we will once again become the melting pot we used to be.

You're simply afraid of brown. And that is a huge loss for you.

There is no welfare. There are food stamps, rent assistance, and medical cards for kids. There is no cash assistance. Clinton got rid of all of that with Welfare to Work.

Having said that...I do agree with your comments on selfish yuppies. Then again, if you are that self-centered, maybe it is better than you not have a child that you will ignore.

As any economist will tell you, when population rates go down salaries rise accordingly so a change in population ratio will not have a significant effect on social security. Additionally to call what most historians believe to be the most successful social program in human history a giant ponzi scheme is quite laughable. I suppose you would prefer it if old people just lived in abject poverty, died of starvation or begged in the streets the way it used to be in the "good old days"

Capitalism is a ponzi scheme. The entire mess is descending upon us. Doubt me? Name any western industrial energy consuming country that is in the black. Name one that isn't up to its ass in debt and going in deeper every year. Is it the Us, the UK, Japan, Greece, India?

THere are plenty of white hispanics but they integrate with the population and you don't know it you just assume they are white. It is ignorant people that consider hispanic a race. it is not considered a race on the census and it is an ethnicity. A person coming from a Spanish speaking country can be white as white as Cameron Diaz, black as Sammy Sosa or indigenous or Native American of the Americas like most Mexicans you see here.

Nailcharmr--It's called "Restitution", deal with it!!

You guys don't realize just how smart Obama is, you white people wouldn't give it to us, so Obama is "taking" it in the form of "stimulus packages".

And as a bonus, we're bring America to its knees, it's over for you guys!!!

It's also nice to see y'all crying on TV everyday, it's entertaining.

It's called "Restitution", deal with it !!! Your time has come white people.

You guys didn't realize just how smart Obama was, y'all didn't give it to us, so Obama is "taking" it in the form of "Stimulus Packages".

Also, we enjoy watching you guys crying and protesting on TV everyday, it's entertaining. Reminds me of the 60's, the "good ole days".

Dlee/David, that doesn't really help. Your anger is justified, but what Obama has done in stimulus money has nothing to do with "Restitution." There truly is no restitution anywhere that can make up for what was done to the African race in this country. I know that. Moving forward, I try to live with that knowledge at the forefront of how I live my life. I feel an enormous guilt over slavery, even though no one in my family as far back as I can find ever participated in it. It doesn't matter.

Obama is not *just* our first black president, he is everyone's president. He is phenomenal and getting more done than any president in many decades. He walks a careful line, not pandering to any one group, and we should all be proud of him for that. He compromises more than the left wants and he remains more liberal than the right wants, but he is getting things done. For ALL of us.

We white folk will soon be a minority in this country, and personally, I'm just fine with that. It's time.