Tim Carney on America's Baby Bust
How could America shift so babies were more welcomed, less dreaded?\nTim Carney, author of the new book \u201cFamily Unfriendly: How Our Culture Made Raising Kids Much Harder Than It Needs to Be,\u201d has a few ideas. He\u2019d like to see corporations offer parents their child\u2019s birthday off every year. He wants parents to not work so hard at parenting\u2014and to never, ever, sign up their kids for a travel sports team. He\u2019d like to see local governments prioritize sidewalks and denser housing, which would make neighborhoods safer for kids.\nBut he also wants us to think about\xa0why\xa0we have a falling birth rate\u2014and what it says about us. After World War II, America had a baby boom, while Germany experienced a baby bust. Now, we\u2019re struggling with our own baby bust, even as we are hammered by relentless discussions of America\u2019s failures, the threat of climate change, and more. \u201cThe spirit of the age now is what I call civilizational sadness,\u201d says Carney. \u201cAnd the sadness is a belief that we\u2019re just not good or that humans were a mistake.\u201d\nEnjoy the show!\n Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.