There are basically four reasons why so many women–and not just American women–refuse to get married, settle down, and have kids:
- In a knowledge-based economy, lots of men are financial liabilities, not assets;
- In addition to bringing home the bacon, women are expected to do the bulk of the housework and the caregiving;
- For women, having kids damages their career prospects; and
- The cost of childcare is astronomical.
The answer to #1 was the creation of the Godly Society through the use of massive tariffs. Trump has already recognized economic reality and abandoned that objective by setting the tariffs at more moderate levels. The pro-natalists are proposing nothing to address the other three issues; their pitch to women seems to be to embrace poverty and sacrifice. That isn’t going to cut it.