Demographic Winter
In the video "Demographic Winter" it addresses the issues of population, birth rate, and fertility rate and what that means for the family
Population: total number of people living in a region
Birth Rate: Births per thousand people born in a population during a year
Fertility Rate: Average number of children born over a lifetime of the average women.
To start out with, have you ever wondered why everyone thinks that the earth is going to become over populated? Well the source of this idea came from the book "The Population Bomb" by Dr. Ehrlich. He stated that not only is the world going to over populate but that this would lead to mass starvation and the human race would run out of room. With this idea in mind more parents started to decide to have less or not children. This idea of 'overpopulation' started shortly after WWII, so you may be wondering why is the world population increasing?
First of all in order to grow a population the fertility rate needs to 2.13, a child to replace each parent and then a little to grow. But in the U.S the fertility rate has been under that since 1961. So how are we growing? There are three major factors: 1) children are living. It use to be that many children died at a young age, but now days if a child is born the likelihood of them living is much higher. During the Baby Boom the fertility rate was 3 children to a women, which isn't much, but they were living to adulthood. 2) People are living longer. Since population counts the number of people living in a region then the longer a person lives the more times they are counted. Instead of dying off when they are 40 they are living until 80, so they stick around longer making the population 'grow'. 3) Immigration. Population counts immigrants and their children. Without them the U.S would be in a sorry state. But with the decline of fertility rate which equals the decline of population less people will want to immigrate and then where will we be? Without human capital the economy will crumble, which isn't good for the human family.
This is a very broad overview of the video, but if an economy crumbles then the standard of living will fall for our children, and our children's children. And that is why fertility rate matters. Children are a gift and should be brought into this world.
Here is the link to the video: http://www.byutv.org/watch/59b6b917-984a-478f-93b1-521a647779c4/new-economic-reality-demographic-winter-part-1