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Absence of births means an aging population. Median age of the U.S. was 29.5 in 1960. In 2023, it was 39.2.
The aging population is one major reason for Social Security’s fiscal problems. Retiree benefits are paid by those working and paying payroll tax. The system breaks down when the number of retirees per worker grows.
An aging population means higher national health care costs. In 2021, the percent of the population 55 and above was 31%. But those 55 and above accounted for 56% of national health care expenditures.
If the disappearance of marriage, children, families and home ownership is a problem, is there a solution?
The Wall Street Journal essay has little to offer. To suggest this reflects that the financial pressure that our youth feel is no answer.
For the full decade of the Great Depression, from 1930 to 1940, fertility rates never dropped below the 2.1 replacement rate.
It is closer to the truth that our young people act this way because they have grown up in a culture that teaches them to act this way.
Marriage and monogamy are not natural. They are religious values that are taught. In a culture that has purged religious truth, egotism and secular humanism take its place. Why let a spouse or children impinge on your personal space?
A legacy of the now late President Jimmy Carter was the creation of two new federal Cabinetlevel departments. He signed into law the Department of Energy and the Department of Education.
Apparently, Carter, who was very public about his Christian faith, did not see a conflict in growing government and his Christian values. But as is wellknown, the Department of Education initiative was, at least in part, the result of his effort to ingratiate and get support from the nation’s largest teachers union, the National Education Association.
A short visit to the websites of the NEA and the American Federation of Teachers — the major teachers unions — will show that the values being advanced there are the wokeism and secular humanism that drive the collapse of marriage, family and children. It is these values that are conveyed in America’s public schools.
Step one in our battle against this social and cultural destruction is to support President-elect Donald Trump’s effort to disband the Department of Education.
Step two should be a nation-wide effort to change our education paradigm and create a new regime that gives parents control over where to educate and how to educate their children.
Star Parker is founder of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education. Her recent book, “What Is the CURE for America?” is available now. To find out more about Star Parker and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators. com. COPYRIGHT 2025 CREATORS. COM
