U.S. Engineering and the Baby Bust

The United States has an average birth rate of 1.93 children per woman (the replacement rate is 2.1).  China, with its one-child policy, has a birth rate of 1.54.  The harsh political reality of China has produced this baby bust.  Here in the United States, white, college educated women have a fertility rate of 1.60.  This group is a good proxy for the middle class - - where the decline is a complex mix of social, cultural, and economic forces. 

Our baby bust should be a prime concern for engineering.

Low-fertility societies produce huge problems for most segments of engineering.  The consumption focus switches dramatically from investing in the future to a health-care driven focus of paying for the past.  Who cares about schools and long-term safety of dams in a society void of child with AARP running commercials every time we start talking about austerity for the past so we can invest in the future?  The American Society of Civil Engineers ought to retitle their annual infrastructure report -

"No babies, No Bridges"

The Wall Street Journal has a great article on the subject today by Jonathan Last - - America's Baby Bust: The nation's falling fertility rate is the root cause of many of our problems.  And it's only getting worse. - -

"There has been a great deal of political talk in recent years about whether America, once regarded as the shining city on a hill, is in decline.  But decline isn't about whether Democrats or Republicans hold power; it isn't about political ideology at all.  At its most basic, it's about the sustainability of human capital.  Whether Barrack Obama or Mitt Romney took the oath of office last month, we would still be declining in the most important sense - demographically.  It is what drives everything else."