The Decline of Civilization, Part 4: Are Humans the Answer?

Remember the salesman with the jokes about large families while we were washer-shopping? We ignored him, but let's go back and revisit that subject: 

I have been told that the replacement rate for the population of the US of A is 2.1 children per woman.

We are on a decline at 1.7 children so we currently will not be able to meet our replacement rate. 

All future workers have been born already at this rate. Sure, computers can take over some of those future human jobs, but do we want them to? (Even Elon Musk, the AI genius who wants to go live on Mars, thinks we need more humans on planet earth to be able to function.)

If I had been quick-witted, I would have informed the man that yes, we have a big family (actually I consider 6 kids a medium-sized family), but we have nearly tripled the required replacement rate to help pay for government social programs. That family with 10 children he was joking about? They had more than done their duty for our country. 

Furthermore, the large families I know are trying to train responsible, God-fearing citizens.  They are raising people who are honest and can do some mental math (so that businesses don't lose money from computer or computer operator mistakes, hmm?). Most of my friends are raising their many children to also stay out of debt, be a steady, faithful worker, and to perpetuate morality and common sense. They are raising men who will be in a good shape financially to support families, meaning that their wives can stay home to raise the kids and provide a stable society, while their husbands are contributing to the stability of the economy by showing up to work with thinking skills. Yes, these are usually religious families and/or yes, a large percentage of them are homeschooling. Yes, they are usually the ones trying to grow their own food to meet costs and no, they are not burdens on society but rather trying to avoid getting messed up with the rest of it.

If any of the young folks I know from large families had taken one of those jobs for a month, they would have had it down pat and been promoted quickly, and learned to work for customer service around the computer glitches.  Like most teenagers interested in computers, they also could have written the code to fix them. But folks, even large families only have so many to go around. The lady with 10 kids can do more, but still only distribute them so far into the workforce. Maybe we need more people to join us making humans so we can save civilization. 

We could start with promoting the old-fashioned marriage with family approval. That way if a large family is to come into being, it isn't a welfare situation, and that way the whole family is more inclined to help each other. No more career shame to the mother who is willing to stay home and raise children with common sense.

Let's celebrate and thank anyone who has children, even if they just have one. Maybe we can help and encourage them so they won't feel overwhelmed at the thought of more.

Let's take the stigma out of large families and re-label the labels, so that they are not "fat-shamed" with words like "big" or "large."

A Family: 0-1 child (or "minimalist family" if you like; that sounds more on-trend than "small")

Adorable Family: 2-3 children

A+ Family: 4-6 children

Amazing Family: 7-10 children

Awesome Family: 10+ children

Then the 1.7 society could do some appreciative gestures, maybe even celebrate the fact that future customer service workers are being born. Perhaps manufacturers could start making vehicles in "cool" designs to carry around more children without people making jokes about "school buses," and revamp (and re-name) "mini-vans." In some cases rental laws need to be a little more lenient for families who may have to put 3 children per bedroom not 2. Architects, developers and builders need to re-think housing for the trending A+ Family, who may also be living with multi-generations. Let's get used to neighborhoods with bigger back yards again. Perhaps new home designs should expand the kitchen and laundry rooms so that double appliances could be housed for Amazing and Up Families (how's that, washer salesman?). 

And please, don't throw any government programs at us. That is the surest way to aid in the decline of anything! 

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/total-fertility-rate

https://ifstudies.org/blog/half-the-worlds-population-is-reaching-below-replacement-fertility