Author:  R. Alan Harrop,Ph.D. 

This is the fourth article I have written on things that need to be done if we are to ensure that America survives for our children and grandchildren as it has for us. It is a debt we must be willing to pay. This topic deals with the absolute requirement that our native population (those born legally to citizens) must reproduce itself to maintain our cultural and political traditions and values. Historically many if not most republics and democracies have failed because they did not pass on to the next generation their essential values and traditions. We must assume that children born to our patriotic citizens are essential to our country and that children born to illegals or visitors are much less likely to practice or value our essential beliefs and traditions. There are exceptions of course.

Let’s look at some facts. The birthrate for American women citizens has been dropping over the past several decades. The birthrate defined as the average number of children born per woman is now at 1.6. In 1960 the birthrate was 3.5. Just to maintain the same population of our country, the birthrate needs to be at least 2.3. A shrinking population will negatively impact the economy by not having enough workers and being unable to support an aging population. Another thing that affects the Americanization of children is whether they are born and raised in two parent families. It is a well-known fact that children raised without two parents are more likely to wind up in prison and less likely to lead a successful life. Again, we are moving in the wrong direction. In 1960 only 5% of all children born in the United States were born to unmarried mothers. Now it is 40%! The data shows that the number of children born to unmarried mothers is a function of race. In 2023, the percentage of children born to unmarried mothers was 12% for Asians, 27% for whites, 54% for Hispanics, and 70% for blacks. In addition, 70% of unmarried mothers were on Medicaid and 60% were on food stamps (SNAP program). It is clear that government programs are supporting and perhaps encouraging the birthing of children out of wedlock. Not good.

OK, now let’s look at the controversial so called “birthright citizenship.” No other country currently grants citizenship to every person born in their country regardless of parents’ citizenship status. None, zero, nada! President Trump has attempted to stop this absurdity by executive order, but like most sensible things he has done, his action has been immediately challenged by the left wing Democrats and has wound up in the Supreme Court. Sadly, with judges like John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett, we cannot be sure how they will decide. The 14^th Amendment to the Constitution states “All persons born or naturalized in the U.S. and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the U.S. and the state wherein they reside.” This amendment was passed in 1868 when the issue of illegal immigrants did not even exist since we were allowing unrestricted immigration. The amendment was meant to address the efforts of several Southern states to prevent recently freed blacks from obtaining all the privileges of citizenship–including voting. Did the drafters of the 14^th amendment intend to allow birthright citizenship to all illegal immigrants and visitors? Not only no, but “Hell no!”

So, what should we do? First, encourage women citizens to have more children. Use tax incentives and programs to assist with childcare costs, or preferably, stay home and raise their own children at least until they are school age. Encourage businesses to offer more part time jobs. Average childcare costs in the U.S. are now at $13,000. per year. If Congress would do their job and terminate all welfare programs to illegals, we would save an estimated $150 billion per year and divert this to supporting our own children. Second, encourage people to marry younger and have more years of birthing children. In the 1960s the average man got married at age 23, now it is over 30. Living together and not being married has become the norm where it used to be strongly discouraged and morally unacceptable. Perhaps increased tax incentives to married couples could be considered. Third, since we apparently need workers for relatively menial jobs that are currently being filled by illegals, we could establish a well-controlled system of allowing temporary work visas for specific numbers of foreign workers that would not allow permanent residence in our country or birthright citizenship for their children or access to welfare programs.

If we do not solve this birthrate problem we will wind up like most European countries which are losing their cultural identity due to insufficient replacement of their populations with their own native-born children.

Author:  R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D.  

History clearly shows us that the culture of a society determines whether that society will advance the quality of life of its citizens or lead to a deterioration and eventual downfall.  In most cases, cultural deterioration is not obvious to the members of a society until it may be too late to turn things around.  A declining birthrate to a level that is less than needed to maintain its population (usually about 2.3 children per woman) can be a significant warning sign. The U.S. birthrate has been declining for several years and now is at 1.6 births per woman for year 2022, which is considerably below replacement levels. The birthrate in 1960 was 3.5. What is true for the U.S. is also true for most, if not all, Western countries.

As a result of the declining birthrate, the percentage of the U.S. population over 65 has been steadily increasing and is now at 17.3%. That percentage is expected to increase to over 22% by the year 2040. This will put increasing demands on the Social Security system since there will be fewer workers paying into the system. It will also make it more difficult for the younger population to achieve their goals since they will have to pay higher taxes.

Now some people may argue that this is a reason to increase immigration to offset the declining birthrate. The difficulty with that solution is the impact of large numbers of immigrants who do not share our cultural values. Instead of a unified population, the result is a splintering of the population into subcultures that may be at odds with our values and beliefs. The idea of the United States as a “melting pot” has definite limitations. In fact, in the mid-1920s, Congress passed immigration restrictions that severely limited immigration into our country because of concern that the high number of immigrants would not be able to be assimilated smoothly into our culture. Those restrictions were in place until the late 1960s when Democrat Ted Kennedy led an effort to greatly expand the allowable number of immigrants and opened immigration to America up to countries from around the world. The recent flood of illegal immigrants encouraged by the Biden administration has created substantial problems with crime, economic dependency, and the public-school systems.

The question before us is how do we encourage our native-born women to have more children? This will be a challenge for not only the new Trump administration, but for subsequent administrations. Part of the problem comes from young people marrying later than they used to. In the 1960’s, the average age of first marriages was the early twenties. Now it is in the thirties, which of course leaves fewer years for child rearing. There was a time when being married was expected before two people lived together. Now it is commonplace for young people to live together without being married. This seems to be totally acceptable where previously it would have been highly frowned upon and disapproved of. Another issue is economic. In the 1960’s it was still expected that the man would be the sole support of the family; and generally, a man could find a job that would allow him to be the “bread winner.” The economic realities of increasing inflation have made it difficult for a young family to live comfortably with only one income.  Another factor, of course, is the increasing expectation that women should have a career, and motherhood is not valued as it once was in our society.

The solution to this problem may not be easy, but the problem is one that needs to be recognized and efforts made to solve it if we are not to lose our cultural heritage.