Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street. Paul Ehrlich's 1968 book, The Population Bomb, warned of mass starvation and environmental collapse. And the cause of this coming apocalypse, he said, was too many babies. The only way to stave off disaster was to reduce the human population.
Countries around the world took those warnings to heart, especially communist countries. Most famously, China adopted laws that attempted to control fertility, but so did a few other nations, like Vietnam.
Well, today, facing aging populations and record low birth rates, countries are rethinking the edicts and incentives they designed to reduce the number of children born. And some, including China, are even adopting incentives and policies designed to encourage more children. Earlier this month, Vietnam scrapped its long-standing two-child policy that has tanked the nation's birth rate and threatened its economic stability. At just 1.9 children per woman, Vietnam's fertility rate sits below replacement, but is above much of the Western world. Far from a population bomb, the greatest existential threat the world faces right now is a demographic winter.
It's clear that national attempts to control fertility have not worked, and it's just as doubtful that financial incentives and appeals to national identity now can work to reverse the trend.
Now, there are many theories why fertility is not a problem. Fertility rates have been falling for so long, especially across Western nations. Affluent and educated women in the West have long been told to not want children because they would interfere with their freedom, their careers, their lifestyle choices, and their personal happiness.
Some studies also point to a pretty significant gender gap in which women want babies but men do not. Thankfully, that trend seems to be changing and might even be reversing. In short, ideas can be just as powerful as policy when it comes to reducing fertility. Whether those ideas promise happiness and fulfillment or whether it promises a way of saving the planet from ecological disaster makes no difference in the end. The result is still a crisis that will manifest both in economics and in national security.
In his magisterial work, The Way of the Modern World, Regent College professor Craig Gay noted that as the world became more godless and secular during the modern period, its values fundamentally changed.
So prioritized above all else, Dr. Gay argued, were the values of convenience, efficiency, and choice, each of which imply a level of control that humans, whether individuals or governments, can exert over nature. In other words, in the modern world this is our world, not God's, and therefore we should live like it. In no area of human interaction has this been more evident in the modern era than in the realm of human procreation. Decisions about family and having children are almost exclusively understood now as matters of personal or, in the cases of China and Vietnam, state choice.
This is the precise opposite, of course, of thinking about children as if they're blessings and our decisions on whether to have them in light of our responsibilities as human beings within particular times and places. And that narrative that children are a matter of choice is often couched in promises of freedom and autonomy. But just like the false narrative of overpopulation, that one has also proved to be just flatly wrong. And the University of Chicago's General Social Survey for 2022, almost 40% of married women with children described themselves as very happy, a number far higher than any other group of women. Less than 22% of unmarried women without children felt the same.
And unmarried women with children were the least likely to say that they were very happy at just over 16%. As my colleague Shane Morris put it in a recent breakpoint commentary, the cultural impression that diapers and demands of little ones rob people of joy is simply wrong. Children are actually a gift of God. And that's a reality, not mere religious opinion.
So, those individuals and societies that embrace children, despite all the obstacles and challenges that come along with them, will flourish. But those that reject children can't flourish. cannot. And will not. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint.
If you're a fan of Breakpoint, leave us a review wherever you download your podcast. And for a version of this commentary that you can either print out or share with others through email, go to breakpoint.org. Hi, Breakpoint listeners. You've probably heard us talk about the Colson Fellows Program on Breakpoint. I'm excited to let you know that the Colson Fellows team hosts one-hour live informational webinars that allow you to hear an overview of the program and get your questions answered.
The webinars are hosted by our Vice President and Dean of the Colson Fellowship, Michael Craven. Here at Breakpoint, we work hard to help you consider current events through a Christian worldview. If you want to go deeper to discover how to develop the wisdom and skills needed to walk wisely in this cultural moment, then the Colson Fellows Program might be for you. This nine-month program takes you on a deep dive into Christian worldview through readings, devotionals, monthly cohort meetings, and more. If you're interested, an informational webinar is a great next step to learn more.
You can find a full list of webinar dates and register today at colsonfellows.org slash webinar. That's colsonfellows.org slash webinar. Mm-hmm.
