Marie Osmond guest hosted today and talked about her very large family. This rubbed Joy the wrong way. She stated her clear belief that she is against large families unless all but one of the kids is adopted.

Osmond really pushed Joy’s buttons with her description of large families. Elisabeth added to her upset with her discussion of the Duggar family.

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Joy: Don’t you think that that’s a little bit, how shall I put this- inconsiderate of the fact that you’re using more energy, you’re using up more gasoline

She goes on:

Joy: I think you’re using up more of the resources of the world. You could adopt 17 and that would be morally acceptable but to give birth to 17 children

On why Joy has only one child: I am socially responsible

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We have a demographic problem in society that becomes more problematic by the year. In a nutshell, people who have more resources to spend on raising a child typically have fewer children. The converse of this: those with fewer resources have more children.

Additionally, people with greater resources are more likely to have gone to college and possibly graduate school. These people are more likely to put off child-rearing into their 30s or even their 40s. Children of college educated parents are more likely to go to college and therefore also likely to put off having children.

This means that over time, the percentage of people with financial stability will shrink in relation to the percentage of people with fewer resources and less education.

The total fertility rate for Hispanic women is nearly 3, for non-Hispanic blacks 2 and whites 1.7. It is interesting to note that the TFR of college educated women who are Black is lower than that of college educated whites. The total fertility rate needs to be at approximately 2.1 per women to replace the population, assuming no immigration.

In reality, 15% of babies born n the U.S. are born to non-citizens. American women shouldn’t decrease their total fertility rate to allow for the population to stabilize based on the births of children of illegal aliens. In fact, to ensure a demographic balance, American women need to increase their total fertility rate to counter the impact of these children on our educational, political and economic systems. (Using Joy’s words, those people should cease sucking up the oxygen.)

To understand the long term implications for the population, consider the following:

College educated women have fewer children than do women with less than 12 years of schooling.

If the average college educated woman has her first and only child at age 35. Her child goes to college and has child at 35. In 70 years, there will be three people spanning 3 generations. If this same woman has 2 children by the age of 40 and her children each have two children, in 80 years there will be 7 people across 3 generations.

If the average woman with some college has 2 children by the age of 35 and her kids each have two kids, in 70 years there will be 7 people across three generation

If the average woman with no college education has 3 children by the age of 30 and her children, each have 3 children by the time they are 30 in 60 years there will be 13 people spanning 3 generations.

If women who don’t finish high school have 3 children by the age of 25, in 75 years there will be 22 people spanning 4 generations.

You can work up as many scenarios as you like but the fact is clear, if educated people continue to have fewer children later in life and poor people continue to have more children earlier in life, our country will end up with a much larger population of people who have fewer resources upon which to live and raise a family. This will have a dramatic impact on available resources, the educational system, social services, etc.

Add to this the reality of the ever lengthening life span and the future of social security not being able to support the elderly and we are setting ourselves up for an economic catastrophe.

There are many, many people who should make the choice to delay child-bearing. They should finish high school or get a GED. They should go to a technical college or a university. They should learn a trade. They should avoid relationships with addicts or abusers. If they choose to stay involved with an addict or an abuser, they should NEVER have children. They should get married to a person who has made the same choices. They should wait to have children until they can afford healthcare, an apartment or house, a car, diapers, life insurance…

Until there is some evidence that the above is happening, middle and upper class families need to have more kids. Marie Osmond and the Duggar family are examples of parents who are helping to ensure the future success and stability of America.

Go! Go! Go!