March 15, 2024
Podcast: Timothy Carney on How It Became So Hard to Raise a Family in America
By Tikvah Podcast at MosaicThe author of a new book explains how American culture turned against raising kids, and looks to Jewish communities as models of healthy, family-oriented society.
Podcast: Timothy Carney
In 21st-century America, the formation of families has become less common, and when people do get married and have children, they have fewer of them. According to demographers, for a population to reproduce itself, each family in it must on average produce at least 2.1 children. Americans are now reproducing at well below that number, a trend that comes with economic, social, political, spiritual, and moral consequences.
It’s possible that government initiatives and financial incentives can encourage this number to rise. But in general there are mixed results when governments try to incentivize childbirth. This may be a sign that the forces undermining family formation are not primarily legal or economic, and that they are instead cultural attitudes and norms of behavior.