US Births Dip to 30-yr Low; Fertility Rate Sinks Further Below Replacement Level
For decades, the US birth rate has been held up by immigration.  American values have been to regard the country as a nation of immigrants, who not only act as a source of youthful workers, but also have more kids than Americans who have been here longer.  So the US has avoided workforce aging, as has happened in parts of Europe and especially Japan, through immigration.<p>With the recent reduction in immigration, accelerated by the party in power now, the US is going to face the same low birth rate problems as other advanced economies.<p>And the people leading immigration suppression in the US know this.<p>Paul Ryan in December:
<i>This is going to be the new economic challenge for America: people. Baby boomers are retiring—I did my part, but we need to have higher birth rates in this country,” Ryan told reporters on Thursday.  Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican and current Speaker of the House, “did [his] part” by having three children.</i>
<a href="http://www.newsweek.com/paul-ryan-wants-you-have-more-kids-749328" rel="nofollow">http://www.newsweek.com/paul-ryan-wants-you-have-more-kids-7...</a><p>It's also worth adding: the political environment in the US for decades means that one party wants to make it hard for two-parent working families to have more kids (because those two-parent families tend to vote for the other party, and one-earner families have kids that vote for their party).  That's a big part of the reason the US has poor child care and maternity leave support -- because those policies are a political football in the US.