Technology, or the lack thereof, is not the problem

There’s a link from Instapundit to an essay that states technology will be the way to reverse the birth decline.

Or how about this: What if tech-driven economic growth makes us so much richer that we simply choose to work less? Maybe a lot less. With all that extra time and all those extra resources, maybe we would choose to devote more of both to having more kids. As it is, the rich seems to be having more kids than the poor. What if we all were far wealthier than even the top 1 percent are today?

You want to know why the rich have more kids than the poor? Because kids are expensive, and everybody below that 1% line is getting hammered by inflation.

My friend has a rather large family. One of his daughters married a nice young man, and they moved back to our little town here in Northern Idaho to raise a family. Wanna guess how much a house costs to rent around here? Half his monthly take-home pay, and he’s not some minimum wage earner. This guy can BUILD things. Machines. Parts. He is a skilled metalworker, and yet he’s struggling to make ends meet with a wife and a child.

Don’t get me started on the cost of food. I’m eyeing the arable land that I have and wondering just how much I could grow in it. Unfortunately we’re on the northern slope of a hill, so our sunlight is rather limited compared to just across the road.

And then there’s the laws. The regulations. Gotta have a car seat for each child. Up to the age of whatever the government says is safe. Car seats are expensive. And now, thanks to inflation and the stupid government regulations, a vehicle that will fit a large family is also out of their price range most of the time. The Fat Electrician went on a little rant about this. Short version: The US Government in it’s cult-like devotion to Mother Earth decreed that US automobiles can only emit CO2 in relation to the weight of the vehicle. Now, unlike the US Government, engineers who actually build things instead of ruin them understand that there’s only so much energy that you can get from a gallon of gas. On top of that, every new safety feature that’s mandated by the government adds weight to the vehicle, and that’s more mass the engine has to push. So, in order to get the power that you need for a truck to do truck things, the companies just made them bigger, in order to meet US regulations.

It’s stupid. It’s all stupid. It’s stupidity on a scale that would cause any other intelligent life in the universe to simply avoid our planet the way I avoid San Francisco’s feces-crusted streets.

And it all adds up to higher prices all around. Look, the Geo Metro when it first came out was a tiny little car that got 48 miles to the gallon. I’m not joking. I don’t know what the website specifics on it are, but my friend was getting 48 miles a gallon out of that car. It was light. It was tiny. If it hit a semi truck it would most likely be destroyed along with whoever was in it. But they sold, because they were cheap and got good gas mileage.

The Geo Metro couldn’t be sold today. It wouldn’t meet regulations.

So if the government wants the US population to start having kids and reverse the demographic bomb that’s waiting, they need to get their polished jackboots off of our necks for one, and stop being idiots about money.

(pause for bitter laughter)

Plan accordingly. I’m scouting out the area where I’ll plant my strawberries. And buying more ammo.