We Told People Not to Have Kids — Now We’re Surprised They Listened – The American Spectator | USA News and PoliticsThe American Spectator

For the better part of five decades, we told Americans — implicitly and explicitly — that children were a burden. We built a culture that prizes career over commitment, convenience over continuity, and freedom from ties over the joys of rootedness. We told women that motherhood was a trap, that marriage could wait (or be skipped entirely), and that the future would take care of itself. Now, with birthrates scraping historic lows, we act shocked. We clutch our pearls, roll out baby bonuses, and pretend this was all some mysterious accident of economics.

It wasn’t. It was a choice — repeated, reinforced, and rewarded at every level of modern society.

The CDC recently reported that the U.S. birthrate ticked up by just 1 percent in 2024 — a glimmer of good news, perhaps, but hardly a reversal of the decades-long fertility free fall. America is still well below replacement level. And the longer we stay there, the harder it will be to recover. A nation that forgets how to replenish itself eventually forgets how to sustain itself at all.

In response, former President Trump is reportedly floating a $5,000 “baby bonus” as part of a new pronatalist policy push. The idea isn’t bad in theory, but it reveals something deeper: we’ve reached the stage where even conservatives are trying to buy their way out of a cultural collapse. (RELATED: The Spectator P.M. Ep. 134: Can $5,000 Change Americans’ Minds on Babies?)

That collapse can’t be solved by subsidies. It won’t be reversed by one-time payments or campaign-season checks. The problem isn’t just financial — it’s spiritual, civilizational, and deeply embedded in how we teach young people to think about meaning and identity. You can’t bribe someone into believing that family is beautiful. You have to raise them in a world where that belief is affirmed by media, by institutions, by leaders, by life. (RELATED: Marriage Is the Antidote to Societal Decay)

The American family has not just been neglected; it has been culturally maligned. Parenthood is now marketed as a luxury for the rich or a last resort for the unlucky. Meanwhile, the cultural left has made a hobby out of undermining marriage, masculinity, and motherhood — all under the guise of liberation. From “childfree by choice” influencers to academic elites who treat fertility like a climate threat, the message has been clear: the future isn’t yours to raise — it’s yours to escape. (RELATED: How to Renew Society’s Commitment to Marriage)

Ironically, many of these same voices now panic about the long-term consequences of depopulation: economic stagnation, collapsing entitlement programs, and cultural drift. But that’s what happens when a society turns inward and atomizes itself into lonely, anxious individuals who can’t imagine bringing a child into the world, let alone two or three.

If conservatives want to change this trajectory, we have to offer more than fiscal carrots. We need a full-spectrum pro-family agenda that restores dignity to the roles of husband, wife, and parent — not just for those in elite circles, but for working-class Americans who are often told they can’t afford a future. (RELATED: Yes, We Need a National Conversation on Dating, Family Life and Economics)

This starts with tax reform. The so-called “marriage penalty” in our tax code punishes low- and middle-income couples for staying together. That has to go. Child tax credits should be expanded and tied to family structure, not just income. Housing policy should reflect the needs of multi-child families, not single urban professionals. Zoning laws and urban design should prioritize neighborhoods where children can thrive, not just bike lanes and cocktail bars.

But what is just as important is what we stop doing. We should stop funding institutions that actively denigrate the family. That includes public universities pushing anti-natalist ideology and public schools more focused on identity workshops than basic literacy and civics. It includes entertainment subsidies for cultural products that glorify loneliness and dysfunction. And it includes political leaders, on both sides, who only remember the word “family” when it polls well in Iowa.

We’re long past the point of polite nudges. What we need is a cultural counter-revolution — one that re-centers family as the core institution of a healthy society. That means changing not only laws but norms. It means encouraging marriage, celebrating children, and lifting up those who choose the hard but noble work of building the next generation. It means understanding that “freedom” isn’t just about avoiding responsibility — it’s about having the strength and structure to take responsibility for something greater than yourself.

This is the real crisis of our time. Not inflation. Not polarization. Not even the border. The real crisis is that our civilization no longer believes in itself enough to reproduce.

Until we fix that, no bonus will be big enough to bring us back.

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David Sypher Jr. is a former Republican candidate for New Jersey state assemblyman for the 22nd Legislative District, and a former candidate for Rahway City Council.