Elon Musk Raises Concerns About The Fertility Slump In The US That's Resulting In Fewer Women Having Children Than Ever Before
Elon Musk has always been an active Twitter user, but he's stepped up his game in the last few months. Today he decided to use his platform to call attention to the fact that our country is experiencing a fertility slump.
The Twitter buyout is temporarily on hold after Musk demanded that the true number of bots on the platform be determined. Twitter claimed that only 5% of users were spam accounts, but Musk is skeptical of this number and has called for further investigation. In the meantime, Musk remains active on the social media site and he interacts with just about anyone that comes across his feed if the subject matter interests him. This morning he tweeted about the fertility slump we're seeing in the US and it sparked an interesting conversation.
Elon Musk Raises Concerns About The Fertility Slump In The US
Musk wants everyone to know that the "USA birth rate has been below min sustainable levels for ~50 years." He posted a graph from the Wall Street Journal that showed a fertility slump happening in our country; the total fertility rate in 2021 remained below the "replacement" level, which is 2.1. In other words, if we continue on the rate we're going, we're not going to be able to replace ourselves and the American population would cease to exist.
The WSJ reported earlier this month that the number of babies born in the US in 2021 was the lowest we've seen in more than 40 years. In 2020, women gave birth to 3.61 million babies; that was 4% down from 2019 and that made the total fertility rate 1.64, which is also below the replacement level of 2.1. This was the second lowest rate we've seen since the 1930s.
"Contrary to what many think, the richer someone is, the fewer kids they have," Musk added in the next tweet. "I am a rare exception. Most people I know have zero or one kid."
Many people have been highlighting this birth rate decline for years, and yet mainstream society continuously encourages women to have abortions and refrain from getting pregnant at all for whatever reason they can come up with. It's refreshing to hear someone with Musk's platform raise concerns about this.