Why Nobody's Having Babies Anymore
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Why are birth rates collapsing globally?
All coming up on the podcast, fertility, babies, sex, why younger generations are not having sex, and if they are having sex, they're not having sex, they're not actually producing babies, and what this means for the world. But the key issue is, why is this the case? We have an unusual culprit in the room. And also, we're going to be talking to Ibex about what Irish businesses are seeing through the lens of Washington, London and Brussels.
Talk to you in a couple of minutes. To understand the economy you have to understand human nature This podcast is powered by ACAST
How you doing there? It is uncharacteristic of the podcast, which we're going to be talking, John, which is going to be rather, rather uncomfortable. We're going to be talking about sex. Oh, God. I know. Oh, God, I feel uncomfortable already. Oh, Lord, God. Oh, Lord, God. Holy sweet lamb of divine Jesus. Don't be talking about the riding. Don't be talking about the riding. It's very... It's a pathetic site where you get to a certain age. But the reason we're talking about sex, John, is we're going to talk about fertility. Because apparently to be fertile, you have to have sex. So at least we're going logically backwards. No, what we're going to talk about is the extraordinary and rapid change in fertility, the amount of babies that we are having all around the world.
The implication of this for economics is profound. It's varied. It's largely negative. The implications for sociology is profound, largely negative again and varied, but also much more interesting. It's what it is to be human is what we're talking about, right?
What role does human nature play in fertility rates?
What it is to be human, one of the absolute existential urges of humanity is to reproduce, right? Now, whether that is reproducing in wholesale or in a very, very logical... Retail. Retail, exactly, exactly, exactly. Wholesale or retail. So let's go for retail. We're more retail sort of blokes, right? But the idea is what we've seen in the last few years is a dramatic fall in the amount of babies being born Everywhere. This is the thing. So for most of the last hundred odd years, there has been a gradual slow trend of less and less babies being born in rich countries. Contraception being the major reason for that. Education, wealth, yada, yada, all these sort of things. Even television, John. Yes, you were saying this beforehand.
Well, the most shocking thing is that if you look at American data, the generation that were... We always think that the sexual revolution happened in the 1960s and 1970s. Yeah. And promiscuity and... Raiden was basically a... Drug-fueled... Drug-fueled youth fornication, John. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Was a sort of a phenomenon of our modern world and our lifetime. But in actual fact, if you look at the data from the United States, the generation that had most sex were in the 1930s and 1940s. And I don't think... We don't like to think about our parents having loads of sex. It's uncomfortable. Our grandparents. But that was actually the case. So the amount of... When the Americans have these longitudinal studies...
Yeah. Which are great, right? And what they're basically saying is they do them over time, they do them consistently. And what they show is that the generation that had most sex were the generation that would have been most conservative politically. Yeah. The people of the 1930s and 1940s. This is all behind closed doors and twitching curtains. That's the best place to have sex, John.
Yeah.
John is a little bit of a dogger. He goes dogging down to Learie Pier. I didn't realize this until we just had this podcast. I came across you. Until I saw him.
How have societal changes affected young people's relationships?
He's got a little small online community of like-minded individuals. And we will give you the details at the end of the podcast. Anyway, we are now going to go. Enough of your dogging. Hang on a second. You're saying about television that kind of took off in the 50s. And really into the 60s and 70s when it became absolutely ubiquitous. So in the 30s and 40s, that was the time when radio took off. Yeah. So radio was the, could you say that radio was the... The fluffer.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why are birth rates collapsing globally?
0:00–2:12
2
What role does human nature play in fertility rates?
2:12–4:28
3
How have societal changes affected young people's relationships?
4:28–6:43
4
What is the impact of smartphones on dating and relationships?
6:43–10:58
5
How do economic factors influence fertility decisions?
10:58–14:15
6
What are the surprising statistics about sexual activity across generations?
14:15–17:24
7
How does social media shape modern dating dynamics?
17:24–20:31
8
What does the future hold for family formation and childbearing?
20:31–51:56
Speakers
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