Bryan Caplan — economist, free thinker and father of four — came out with a fun book 15 years ago called “Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids.” He made a good argument but evidently nobody listened, for people have been having fewer babies ever since.
Not that it’s his fault. Like many of us, he came of age in the days when overpopulation was a fashionable concern. But today, the world’s “total fertility rate” (a standard measure of fecundity) is roughly half of what it was in the 1950s and, in many countries, well below even replacement levels. American women now have an average of 1.6 children, a record low, compared with the 2.1 needed to maintain population in a developed country. Some places in Europe and Asia are lower. China is at 1.0.
“During my lifetime, the American family has drastically downsized,” the 55-year-old author writes, adding that big families have “all but disappeared. In 1976, 20% of women in their early forties had five or more kids; by 2006, less than 4% did.”
Doing their part to combat this trend, Caplan and his publisher, Basic Books, have brought out a new edition of “Selfish Reasons,” with a new afterword by the author. It couldn’t be timelier. Back in 2011, the author explains, “very few people were worried about declining fertility, at least in the US. But over the last 15 years, it has become at least a moderately mainstream concern.”
There’s good reason to recognize the birth dearth for the trouble that it is. Aging societies are often economically stagnant and plagued by loneliness, labor shortages, spiraling pension and health care costs, mounting deficits and levels of immigration that can lead to political turmoil, as has been the case in recent years in Europe.
Caplan (a supporter of unrestricted immigration) argues that having more children makes us happier at the same time that it’s good for the world, which needs more labor, new ideas and all the other things humans provide. Of course people are self-interested, and the selfish reasons are probably the most persuasive ones. The book is subtitled “why being a great parent is less work and more fun than you think.”
The main point is that we’ve made parenting much more time-consuming and exhausting than it used to be. The massive efforts now invested by many anxious parents are pointless, the author told The Post, because in the long run heredity is a far more important factor in how your kids turn out than whether you took them to violin lessons and made them practice every night. “Stay-at-home moms used to tell their kids to go outside and play,” Caplan observes in the book. “Now, moms and dads tag along with their kids as supervisors, or servants.”
Caplan cites extensive studies of twins raised apart showing that in adulthood they are far more like one another than they are like adoptive parents or siblings. Parenting — as opposed to genes — has little enduring impact on children’s intelligence, happiness, health, longevity or character, he reports. There are plenty of good reasons to be a kind, loving and sensible parent. But even heroic efforts undertaken to shape one’s offspring have only a temporary effect. Once the kids grow up and live their lives, most of this stuff just wears off, says the author, who is himself the father of identical twins.
In effect, Caplan said, we’ve dramatically and needlessly raised the price of kids, thereby discouraging ourselves from having more of them — and foregoing lots of fun. “Parents,” he writes, “have accidentally tipped their scales against fertility.”
For example, parents nowadays worry obsessively about safety. But despite widespread alarmism, the author insists that “on almost every measure, the world is better than it has ever been.” When young people say they can’t imagine bringing a new life into this troubled world, they ignore medical advances, diminished accidents and violence and vastly greater affluence. They also ignore history.
Name a better time to have children. How about during the polio epidemic? The Great Depression? In the 14th century, bubonic plague killed at least a third of Europe’s population (predictably, many people blamed the Jews). Kids are undoubtedly much safer today than in the past.
Caplan also argues that prospective parents are far too focused on the burdensome early years of child-rearing without taking sufficient account of the immense benefits that follow. “Kids have high startup costs,” he told The Post, “but wise parents weigh their initial sleep deprivation against a lifetime of rewards — including future grandchildren.”
Kids are lots of fun as well, filling a home with life and love. They even strengthen marriages, Caplan said. And they are an extraordinary opportunity to help humankind by doing something truly great for yourself. “Self-interest and altruism point in the same direction,” he writes. “Parents who have another child make the world a better place, so you can walk the path of enlightened selfishness with a clear conscience.”
Daniel Akst is the editor and publisher of Tivoli Books.
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