My wife and I recently found out that baby number two is on the way, and we couldn’t be more delighted. Parenting is without doubt the most rewarding adventure we have ever embarked upon.

All this being true, the prospect of another baby has made me think long and hard about our financial position over the coming years, especially since we don’t intend to stop at just two children.

My musings have also made me wonder how other families are getting by in our (largely COVID panic–induced) cost-of-living crisis. Ours is a two-parent, single-income household with a bit of financial leeway, so we are far from being the worst off. How are single mothers getting by? What are low-wage workers doing to feed their growing families?

Most of all, how are the current economic conditions affecting the West’s fertility crisis?

It’s no secret that birth rates are dropping across the Western world. A recent OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) report found that the fertility rate among the group’s 38 member nations dropped from 3.3 children per woman in 1960 to just 1.5 children in 2022—well below the replacement level of 2.1 children required to keep populations constant.

To be sure, this is not just an economic challenge but an existential one. A civilization that has lost the will to reproduce is a civilization that has lost the will to live.

According to the latest research, we have indeed lost the will to reproduce. In a study published earlier this month, the Pew Research Center found:

The share of U.S. adults younger than 50 without children who say they are unlikely to ever have children rose 10 percentage points over five years, from 37% in 2018 to 47% in 2023.

Coincidentally, an identical percentage of U.S. adults (47 percent) say the plummeting rate of people wanting to have children will negatively impact the country. In other words, the same high number of people who recognize the problem have no will to solve it.

Pew Research also asked participants which policies they think would encourage more people to have children. The four most popular were “free” (read taxpayer-funded) child care, employer-paid family leave, more tax credits for parents, and regular (again, taxpayer-funded) payments for parents of minor children.

A whopping 60 percent of survey participants said taxpayer-funded child care would be “extremely/very effective” at encouraging people to have more children, while similar enthusiasm for the other measures ranged from 45 to 51 percent.

There were significant differences in support for these policies when parsed by political affiliation, with Democrats generally far more supportive than Republicans.

That gap is not surprising, given the significant reliance on federal government intervention in such schemes, with the notable exception of tax credits for parents.

Indeed, the proposal to give tax relief to those turning the tide on the fertility crisis arguably makes the most sense since it, in some ways, represents a reduction in government intervention. History surely teaches that thriving civilizations are built on a spirit of optimism and self-reliance, not dependence on state aid.

Consider the revolutionary idea enacted by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has eliminated personal income tax for life for mothers under the age of 30. The same benefit is granted to mothers of four or more children.

If Western governments are serious about providing economic relief to encourage fertility, let them follow Hungary’s example. Paying off burgeoning national debt, clamping down on runaway illegal immigration, and bringing back local jobs would also be great ways to stabilize economies and thereby promote family growth.

All that said, there’s mixed evidence on the impact of natalist governmental policies, but what is clear is that they alone won’t fix the fertility crisis. Alarmingly, Pew Research found that 57 percent of U.S. adults said a major reason they are unlikely to have kids is that they simply don’t want to.

Here is an apathy that no financial incentive can solve.

It is a reminder that the West’s fertility crisis is ultimately an identity crisis.

If Western civilization is fundamentally oppressive, why would we want to perpetuate our existence? If we Westerners are destroying the planet, why should we continue populating it? If there’s no ultimate hope or transcendent purpose to life, why have children?

To reverse the fertility crisis, we must rediscover our Western cultural identity, reconnect with our spiritual roots, and stop apologizing for our history and our heritage.

Only by re-embracing our identity can the West inspire a new generation to value family, be filled with hope for the future, and turn our fertility crisis around.

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