Our recent issue of our Leisure eNewsletter included the article, Where have all the babies gone, that discusses the continuing baby bust, the continuing decline in the birth rate since 2007 that has resulted in the birth of 4.9 million fewer babies than if the birth rate up to 2007 had continued.
One of our readers wrote this back to us: “I just wanted to comment on your article about fewer babies. Over Father’s Day weekend, we had a long discussion with our younger son John and his wife Diana (ages 33 and 32). They don’t plan to have any children and quickly listed five couples that they know who are also not planning to have children. They are all college educated with good jobs, but they look at the world and don’t want to bring a child into it, because they all think the world is only going to get worse, not better, especially in terms of the haves and have-nots, and they believe the have-nots are only going to get more violent. All of the couples I’m talking about would be great parents, but they’ve intentionally decided not to have children, including the adoption option.
“We talked about the world after WWI, WWII, Korean Conflict, and Vietnam Conflict and asked them what would have happened if none of us who went through those eras had children, because we were afraid. Their only response was that it’s different now as there are fewer jobs and lower wages than ever before and the distance between the haves and have-nots is so much larger. One couple moved to England, one couple moved to France, and our son is thinking about moving to Spain. Brian and I really didn’t have a good argument for having children and just listened. It was a little scary, and then along comes your article to add to the scary feeling.”
I can’t tell you whether the above is the primary cause for the baby bust, but it sure makes you think about where younger adults think the worldis today and headed in the future. Yes, it is a little scary.
About Randy White
Randy White is CEO and co-founder of the White Hutchinson Leisure & Learning Group. The 31-year-old company, with offices in Kansas City, Missouri, has worked for over 600 clients in 37 countries throughout the world. Projects the company has designed and produced have won seventeen 1st place awards. Randy is considered to be one of the world's foremost authorities on feasibility, brand development, design and production of leisure experience destinations including entertainment, eatertainment, edutainment, agritainment/agritourism, play and leisure facilities.
Randy was featured on the Food Network's Unwrapped television show as an eatertainment expert, quoted as an entertainment/edutainment center expert in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Times and Time magazine and received recognition for family-friendly designs by Pizza Today magazine. One of the company's projects was featured as an example of an edutainment project in the book The Experience Economy. Numerous national newspapers have interviewed him as an expert on shopping center and mall entertainment and retail-tainment.
Randy is a graduate of New York University. Prior to repositioning the company in 1989 to work exclusively in the leisure and learning industry, White Hutchinson was active in the retail/commercial real estate industry as a real estate consultancy specializing in workouts/turnarounds of commercial projects. In the late 1960s to early 1980s, Randy managed a diversified real estate development company that developed, owned and managed over 2.0 million square feet of shopping centers and mixed-use projects and 2,000 acres of residential subdivisions. Randy has held the designations of CSM (Certified Shopping Center Manager) and Certified Retail Property Executive (CRX) from the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC).
He has authored over 150 articles that have been published in over 40 leading entertainment/leisure and early childhood education industry magazines and journals and has been a featured speaker and keynoter at over 40 different conventions and trade groups.
Randy is the editor of his company's Leisure eNewsletter, has a blog and posts on Twitter and Linkedin.
