Ben Shapiro

Fewer people are getting married and fewer people are religious.

That's the answer.

And there are no more answers.

Those are all the answers.

This idea that is rooted in sort of economic turmoil is nonsense.

There are lots of poor countries all over the world where people have tons of babies.

The notion that this is rooted in the inability of people to get married is total crap.

It is easier to get married now in 2026 than pretty much any time in human history.

You have more freedoms.

You have more rights.

You have more abilities.

You have more economic capacity.

The idea that there's some sort of gigantic conspiracy to stop you from getting married is total trash.

It is nonsense.

Nonetheless, the New York Times ran a piece called by a woman named Anna Louise Sussman.

called Inconceivable, The Impossibility of Family in an Age of Uncertainty.

And basically the case that she makes is the reason that people are not having babies is young people's inescapable and crushing sense that the future is too uncertain for the lifelong commitment of parenthood.

Call it the vibes theory of demographic decline.

I would just note at this point.

that we had a lot more certainty about, you know, where things were economically speaking in, say, 2006.