Population – Population Matters-USA

Recently a right-wing group which advocates for more children, published a report with which I agree, mainly. However, they have forgotten to include one important factor in their calculations.

The report, by the Institute for Family Studies, is named: “The Demographic Dead End”. It’s subtitle is more revealing: “Without Action, American Population Will Decline”. I heard about the report by reading a New York Times Guest Essay: “The Population Bust Is Coming Sooner Than Anyone Is Prepared For”, which was written by one of the report’s authors, Lyman Stone. Dr. Stone is the director of the Pronatalism Initiative at the Institute for Family Studies.

Let me be fair. Stone has earned a doctorate in demography, while I have never had any formal study of either demography or economics.

Here are two of the surprising points from the report:

Although fertility in the USA has declined, people want more children, on the average, than they actually have. Total fertility is 1.6 children but studies show that we wish to have 2.4.
Apparently peer culture is a major factor in deciding the number of children to have. If your neighbor has a large family, then you are likely to follow suit. That influence is also true with celebrities; people tend to follow the lead of the celebrities they admire when planning their families.

In the section titled “How to Restore American Family Growth”, the report suggests several inducements to increase family size. These include:

Giving people lots of money for having children. They suggest bank accounts larger than the measly $1000 “Trump Accounts” that were passed in the “Big Beautiful Bill”. Similar to a Finnish plan, the report advocates for a bank account that would be funded at birth for each child born in the USA. The child would only be able to access some of that money when they had a child of their own. Moreover, it would take a family of 3 children before the parent could access all the money in the account. However, international experience has shown little effect of paying people to have children.
Crediting new parents with social security benefits when they stay home from work after the birth of a child. Although new parents in the USA do get leave after the birth of a child, it is usually short. The social security benefit in this proposed plan would be for 5 years.
Doing away with financial penalties for getting married. “Getting married should never cause anybody to lose a benefit,” to quote the report.
Building family-friendly housing. In addition, the report suggests ways to change society to be more family-friendly: “Encourage Supportive Friendship” and “Promote Real-Life Socializing”.

An alternative to these ways to make society more supportive of parenting, I suggest cohousing. Gail and I live in Heartwood Cohousing, an intentional community, with people of all ages. Those of us who are grandparents help the young parents with childcare on a routine basis. I commend this way of trying to rebuild the old-fashioned community where people live close physically and emotionally.

What is the factor left out of these calculations and others worrying about the decreasing birth rate? Humans do not exist in a vacuum, but we are dependent on a huge, complex ecosystem with amazing biodiversity. We are already causing the rapid extinction of species and using up our progeny’s resources. With even larger populations, there will be less left for posterity. “One Health” may help guide our future: it is a movement that looks at the complex relationship between deterioration of our environment, animals and global human health. All people looking at the future of human population must also consider our effects on the natural world.

©?Richard Grossman MD, 2026

Image by Stan Shebs, via Wikipedia.

Today our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change.

Martin Luther King, Jr., “The World House”

Recently I went to visit a friend whom I knew would be dying soon. She had failing health and failed eyesight. I arrived with two goals in mind, but left with a third.

Earlier this year I attended my 65th high school reunion. It was that long ago—2/3 of a century—that I pledged to work in the field of human overpopulation. I also had a realization in high school about myself: I don’t like and don’t understand politics. I appreciate the necessity for politics, but I vowed to remain unsullied by never running for office. That vow was broken only once—long ago when I ran for the Durango School Board. Fortunately, I lost.

Most of my professional work was at the beginning of life. I have enjoyed helping families bear healthy children, and helping them to avoid bearing children when that was their choice. However, I am ending my medical career at the other end of the lifespan, with Medical Aid In Dying (MAID).

Is this MAID work in response to my concern about overpopulation? No, it is not. It is in response to my own aging, and a desire to have some control over my own death. It is also a response to an image from my internship that I cannot get out of my mind.

Mrs. Jones was too young to be dying of cancer. She was in her late 40s, as I remember, but she looked to be much older. She had had breast cancer that had spread throughout her emaciated body. This was 1970 and doctors didn’t know much about the care of people with terminal disease. Mrs. Jones was in constant pain which was only partly controlled by periodic injections of morphine. We now have hospice care which can help keep people comfortable in the last chapters of their lives.

I have battled one potentially fatal illness—bladder cancer—and won. Who knows what the future holds for my health, and I would like to be able to have control over my own death if living becomes unbearable.

If you read the Herald’s beautiful editorial on July 20th, you already know about Salye Stein’s death. This editorial was written by her daughter, Ellen Stein, the Herald’s Opinion Editor.

Fortunately, there are many safeguards in the Colorado MAID law, which requires that a person fulfill several requirements before they can get medication for MAID. They must be likely to die of natural causes in the next 6 months. They must be mentally competent, and able to drink the medication. Two physicians are needed to certify these conditions; I was one of those who attested this for Salye.

Many people get the MAID medication and keep it in their refrigerator, but never take it.

My official visit was a few weeks before her death. I returned a few days before the planned death for two reasons: to be certain that she realized that she could change her mind, if she wished, and to say good-bye to my friend. However, Salye reminded me of my responsibility to my values and my country, and I left her apartment with a third motivation.

Salye was distraught over the condition of democracy in the USA. She made me realize that I need to be more active politically to be a good citizen and to protect this country’s democracy. Since then I have taken several steps to do my civic duty.