We’re not facing history’s first population collapse

We’re not facing history’s first population collapse. It’s happened before. That’s part of why, historically, having children was seen as a civic duty, ike paying taxes or serving in the militia.

I suspect we’ll return to a time when bearing children is once again considered a legal, civic, and moral obligation. Unfortunately, that doesn’t produce the best kind of parenting. People who raise children purely out of duty, without love, rarely become great parents.

A better solution would be this: Let those who genuinely love children and family have as many as they want, without interference from the state, whether through taxation or regulation. Those who don’t want children can pay the price of that decision by caring for themselves in old age, or by paying the children of others to do it for them.

That would lead to a temporary population decline. But that’s not a problem, so long as it isn’t used as an excuse to replace the native population.