Is motherhood sustainable? 4 ways to stop the bleeding

Problem is, a declining birth rate does not bode well for the American labor force or our economy. As an example of what happens when a society gives up on motherhood, demographer Joel Kotkin points to contemporary Japan. Since 1990 the world’s third-largest economy has had more people over 65 than under 15. And by 2050 there could be more people over 80 than under 15. Japan was “long a model of frugality,” writes Kotkin, but “now has by far the world’s highest rate of public indebtedness.” Spending on the elderly has already shot past what the country can extract from its remaining productive workers.