The Chicago Tribune on how JD Vance’s approach to reversing US birth trends is the wrong one:

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance’s past remarks on Americans who opt not to have children have struck a nerve during a tense presidential election season.

Unearthed and popularized by his opponents, Vance’s 2021 castigation of Democratic Party leaders as “childless cat ladies” and his depiction of Democrats as a party whose “entire future … is controlled by people without children” has created a firestorm, prompting actress Jennifer Aniston, among many others, to take understandable umbrage.

In that interview three years ago with Tucker Carlson, Vance took his position a step further, questioning whether those forgoing parenthood should enjoy the same status as those who procreate. “And how does it make sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a stake in it?” he asked rhetorically.

Since his selection as former President Donald Trump’s running mate, Vance has been given several opportunities to clarify matters. He’s chosen mainly to double down, ascribing any number of societal ills to America’s historically low birth rate.

The quotes rightly are viewed as insulting to those who for any number of reasons, ranging from infertility to simple personal preference, don’t procreate. But Vance isn’t wrong to draw attention to a U.S. birth rate that last year fell to 1.62 births per woman, the lowest since the U.S. began keeping records in the 1930s, according to The Wall Street Journal, and well below the rate of 2.1 needed to keep the nation’s population stable.

There are numerous reasons. The cost of raising a child to age 18 has ballooned to more than $300,000 on average for a middle-class family of four, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The daunting cost of raising a family in all likelihood is the biggest factor.

Other explanations include the relaxation of societal expectations for women to have kids. What once was a significant stigma — going childless — no longer remains so in most parts of the country. More women deciding not to raise children means that those making that choice are in good company without kids in tow. In this day and age, a fulfilling life is widely available regardless of marital status, coupledom or children.

Also contributing to the trend is that professional women who become mothers often still are penalized in terms of workplace advancement and pay.

The low birth rate, however, carries with it serious future consequences for the country. A graying society means that the costs of the safety net for seniors — principally Social Security and Medicare — grow while the younger workers paying taxes to finance those benefits decline. Without revenue increases or benefit reductions or both, Social Security and Medicare both are on a path to insolvency.

The needs for national defense and an adequate workforce necessary to sustain a thriving economy also are negatively affected by low fertility.

In short, a declining population leads to a declining nation. Immigration can help make up for some of the loss, but probably not fully, if this low birth rate persists.

So what to do? First, here’s what not to do: continue as Vance has done to attempt to “shame” childless couples into having kids.

What we’d like to see is both parties (absent the Vance-style character judgments) acknowledge that the low birth rate is a problem and that encouraging more people to have children is a positive.

Neither political party here has a monopoly on ideas for improving the situation. Both ought to make the issue a priority and work together to make it easier for young couples and singles interested in starting families to do so.