re: #131 SanFranciscoZionist

More than the pill, I think it’s that the whole reproductive history of the United States in the 20th century created a perfect storm. The birthrate was very low in the 1930s, rose somewhat in the 40s, and then the baby boom started, and the whole pig in the python profile was created. And THEN the baby boomers got birth control, women’s lib, and the smaller nuclear family.

We would have been in a better place if the post-war prosperity had not led to such a craze for big families, or if the boomers had not mostly opted for small ones—but those are the breaks.

Yes, and the breaks will have to show up in the numbers. We’re heading into the retirement of the Boomers in the middle of a horrible recession.