New Members Added: 88/1000 Skip to content Try Ads-Free Fark It's Not News, It's Fark How To FarkLog In | Sign Up » Forgot password? Turn on javascript (or enable it for Fark) for a better user experience. If you can read this, either the style sheet didn't load or you have an older browser that doesn't support style sheets. Try clearing your browser cache and refreshing the page. Discussion Entertainment Americans started having fewer babies at the advent of the Great Recession around the end of 2007, so 2025 sees start of a long decline in the number of 18-year-olds. And a shrinking pool of college students (yahoo.com) More: Interesting, High school, Economy, United States, Education, Research, Higher education, Great Recession, Shortage 396 clicks;posted toMain »on 26 Apr 2025 at6:05 PM(1 hour ago) | Favorite | Watch | share: Copy Link 41 Comments Enable JavaScript for Fark in order to vote for entries. Log in (at the top of the page) to enable voting. View Voting Results:SmartestandFunniest Dodo David (8) Funniest A shrinking number of 18-year-olds is a problem only if the purpose of a college is to employ people in the higher-education industry. Fursecution (27) Funniest Well, good thing all those international students are coming here to.... Oh, right. Lumber Jack Off (27) Funniest My wife and I graduated in 2009 and got married a few years later. We never had kids because it took us years to actually secure meaningful employment. We went so long without that when we finally were financially stable and actually saving money, buying a house, etc. we no longer wanted kids. So yeah. Plus who the fark would want to have kids in America current social climate? fark that. /NB4 Idiocracy reference (9) Funniest In the long wrong it's probably for the best for the rest of the world that America and its shiatbaggery withers and dies. (4) Funniest The problem with babies is they shiat all over the place. contrapunctus (25) Funniest Lumber Jack Off: My wife and I graduated in 2009 and got married a few years later. We never had kids because it took us years to actually secure meaningful employment. We went so long without that when we finally were financially stable and actually saving money, buying a house, etc. we no longer wanted kids. So yeah. Plus who the fark would want to have kids in America current social climate? fark that. /NB4 Idiocracy reference I got in just under the wire. Had my daughter at 40. Any longer than that would have risked the health of the child. My biggest contributing factor was layoffs. Went through it 3 different times in the first decade of my career. If I can't feed and house myself, I'm not having a kid. It's that simple. You wanna increase the birth rate of a given country? Start instituting worker protections that keep corporate slime from jettisoning people for the purposes of bumping a stock price by a quarter point. contrapunctus (1) Funniest Bslim: In the long wrong it's probably for the best for the rest of the world that America and its shiatbaggery withers and dies. This is a good point. UNC_Samurai (8) Funniest The anti-intellectual knuckle-draggers in this country see nothing wrong with this Telephone Sanitizer Second Class (0) Funniest RR62: The problem with babies is they shiat all over the place. Also, they still squeak when you bend them, no matter how much baby oil you apply. farkitallletitend (4) Funniest It's cheaper to rent than buy a home now. A one bedroom place in California is around 1800 to 3000 a month. Who can afford kids. Factor in child care and you'll be begging part time to make ends meet. (10) Funniest RR62: The problem with babies is they shiat all over the place. Yes. But unlike the president, they grow out of that eventually. (17) Funniest Trump offering $5,000 is the capitalist class realizing that the past 45 years of Reaganomics has stolen so much wealth from the producing classes and the future that people are acting rationally after being burdened with debt so young in life, increased demands for education for roles that used to be taught on the job, and constant crises form every Republican administration, and the Democratic administrations too burdened by cleaning up the mess, and in many cases to cowardly to act boldly when they can. What good is $5,000 for a kid when RFK Jr. is trying to ban vaccines that will keep them alive past age 5? Where anti-teachers union Republicans will force them into for-profit charter schools using AI slop to educate them under a fascist ideology? Where government and business will only value them as a labor and attention commodity, as a consuming entity where very moment of their life is tracked more than the Truman Show? Crises like these cause people to rethink having kids because the same people shaming them for not having kids are the same hypocrites who shame poor people for having kids that require some government help. In a system like that, the only moral answer is to not bring a kid into the world. The last thing these pro-natalist will do is sacrifice any of their wealth, privilege, or power to make a world where having kids isn't a insurmountable burden, where society operates with a level of fairness, and sustainably without wrecking the environment, creating endless waste, and valuing people only in what they produce and consume for corporations. (0) Funniest Well good lord?! Am I pregnant again?! (3) Funniest Lumber Jack Off: My wife and I graduated in 2009 and got married a few years later. We never had kids because it took us years to actually secure meaningful employment. We went so long without that when we finally were financially stable and actually saving money, buying a house, etc. we no longer wanted kids. So yeah. Plus who the fark would want to have kids in America current social climate? fark that. /NB4 Idiocracy reference whither_apophis (11) Funniest Maybe we should sit down as a nation (and planet) and figure out an economy that isn't based on infinite growth? (7) Funniest The last few generations grew up hearing how the world is overpopulated and the climate is being destroyed. They can't afford houses, cars, or medical care. They can only afford an education by taking on crippling lifelong debt. And somehow it's a surprise that birth rates are falling? Fortunately the Republicans have a plan. They'll make all of those underlying problems worse, while outlawing birth control, sex ed, and abortion. All the teen pregnancies should eventually catch up with the higher infant mortality rate from healthcare cuts. (8) Funniest UNC_Samurai: The anti-intellectual knuckle-draggers in this country see nothing wrong with this I've seen the opposite. They're freaking out because the average size of white families keeps shrinking while the size of Hispanic families remains high, which will eventually result in the USA become a minority-majority country in a decade or three. It is a reason why Trump's deportation efforts are so lauded by MAGA racists. pastramithemosterotic (2) Funniest whither_apophis: Maybe we should sit down as a nation (and planet) and figure out an economy that isn't based on infinite growth? No. Shut up and consume Lumber Jack Off (1) Funniest contrapunctus: Lumber Jack Off: My wife and I graduated in 2009 and got married a few years later. We never had kids because it took us years to actually secure meaningful employment. We went so long without that when we finally were financially stable and actually saving money, buying a house, etc. we no longer wanted kids. So yeah. Plus who the fark would want to have kids in America current social climate? fark that. /NB4 Idiocracy reference I got in just under the wire. Had my daughter at 40. Any longer than that would have risked the health of the child. My biggest contributing factor was layoffs. Went through it 3 different times in the first decade of my career. If I can't feed and house myself, I'm not having a kid. It's that simple. You wanna increase the birth rate of a given country? Start instituting worker protections that keep corporate slime from jettisoning people for the purposes of bumping a stock price by a quarter point. We almost decided to go for it last year when the country was still mostly sane and seemed to be heading in the right direction. But age became a concern regarding pregnancy so we decided better not risk it. Definitely something to consider that I think a lot of people in my generation are grappling with now. Probably for the best. (0) Funniest Going from Pac-12 to Pac-2 is just being ahead of the curve. Lumber Jack Off (1) Funniest Ed Willy: Trump offering $5,000 is the capitalist class realizing that the past 45 years of Reaganomics has stolen so much wealth from the producing classes and the future that people are acting rationally after being burdened with debt so young in life, increased demands for education for roles that used to be taught on the job, and constant crises form every Republican administration, and the Democratic administrations too burdened by cleaning up the mess, and in many cases to cowardly to act boldly when they can. What good is $5,000 for a kid when RFK Jr. is trying to ban vaccines that will keep them alive past age 5? Where anti-teachers union Republicans will force them into for-profit charter schools using AI slop to educate them under a fascist ideology? Where government and business will only value them as a labor and attention commodity, as a consuming entity where very moment of their life is tracked more than the Truman Show? Crises like these cause people to rethink having kids because the same people shaming them for not having kids are the same hypocrites who shame poor people for having kids that require some government help. In a system like that, the only moral answer is to not bring a kid into the world. The last thing these pro-natalist will do is sacrifice any of their wealth, privilege, or power to make a world where having kids isn't a insurmountable burden, where society operates with a level of fairness, and sustainably without wrecking the environment, creating endless waste, and valuing people only in what they produce and consume for corporations. Stop making logical sense god damn it! sunderland56 (0) Funniest A shrinkage problem could explain the declining birth rate. UNC_Samurai (0) Funniest Dinjiin: UNC_Samurai: The anti-intellectual knuckle-draggers in this country see nothing wrong with this I've seen the opposite. They're freaking out because the average size of white families keeps shrinking while the size of Hispanic families remains high, which will eventually result in the USA become a minority-majority country in a decade or three. It is a reason why Trump's deportation efforts are so lauded by MAGA racists. I'm talking specifically about the impending decline in college applicants. (1) Funniest 33 minutes ago Scorpitron is reduced to a thin red paste (1) Funniest 35 minutes ago Dodo David: A shrinking number of 18-year-olds is a problem only if the purpose of a college is to employ people in the higher-education industry. Well, no, that's not the only problem. I don't know why anyone could say this (4) Funniest 34 minutes ago When you remove the religious and cultural pressure to have kids, couples might become more hesitant to have them when they're economically strained, hold bleak expectations for the future, don't trust the medical system, or just have other priorities in life. Who knew? (2) Funniest 31 minutes ago A declinging birthrate is a good start, but can we speed it up a bit? (0) Funniest 33 minutes ago Mock26: A declinging birthrate is a good start, but can we speed it up a bit? [cdn.arstechnica.net image 850x565] Having a beard made of stone is pretty badass (0) Funniest 31 minutes ago Scorpitron is reduced to a thin red paste: Dodo David: A shrinking number of 18-year-olds is a problem only if the purpose of a college is to employ people in the higher-education industry. Well, no, that's not the only problem. I don't know why anyone could say this So can you explain to us what the actual only problem is, and explain your circle of friends who could not say those words? (0) Funniest 33 minutes ago Another repeat? I guess there's no new news, which is good (5) Funniest 32 minutes ago contrapunctus: Lumber Jack Off: My wife and I graduated in 2009 and got married a few years later. We never had kids because it took us years to actually secure meaningful employment. We went so long without that when we finally were financially stable and actually saving money, buying a house, etc. we no longer wanted kids. So yeah. Plus who the fark would want to have kids in America current social climate? fark that. /NB4 Idiocracy reference I got in just under the wire. Had my daughter at 40. Any longer than that would have risked the health of the child. My biggest contributing factor was layoffs. Went through it 3 different times in the first decade of my career. If I can't feed and house myself, I'm not having a kid. It's that simple. You wanna increase the birth rate of a given country? Start instituting worker protections that keep corporate slime from jettisoning people for the purposes of bumping a stock price by a quarter point. That's why when I read that Trump was considering offering parents $5,000 for a new kid, I just started laughing. $5,000 may cover the cost of the labor and delivery. It's a drop in the bucket when it comes to the costs of raising a kid until 18. Vermithrax Perjorative (0) Funniest 34 minutes ago RR62: Mock26: A declinging birthrate is a good start, but can we speed it up a bit? [cdn.arstechnica.net image 850x565] Having a beard made of stone is pretty badass I always thought they were like the grooves on a whale's throat that let them expand. What if Thanos is a filter-feeder? (4) Funniest 35 minutes ago 1980: Hey wife, dad got me a shift at the paint canning factory. After your 19th birthday next week let's go buy that three bedroom house in the suburbs we liked. 2025: Hey wife, congrats on turning 40. Good news: after years of saving together it looks like we'll be able to make that down payment on a mobile home and get out of this apartment. (2) Funniest 33 minutes ago Olthoi: 1980: Hey wife, dad got me a shift at the paint canning factory. After your 19th birthday next week let's go buy that three bedroom house in the suburbs we liked at 20% interest. 2025: Hey wife, congrats on turning 40. Good news: after years of saving together it looks like we'll be able to make that down payment on a mobile home and get out of this apartment. Mortgage rates in the early 80s are in the double digits. Rates above 18% were not unusual. Lipspinach (0) Funniest less than a minute ago RR62: Mock26: A declinging birthrate is a good start, but can we speed it up a bit? [cdn.arstechnica.net image 850x565] Having a beard made of stone is pretty badass That's Thanos. He was in a movie. (0) Funniest less than a minute ago Lipspinach: RR62: Mock26: A declinging birthrate is a good start, but can we speed it up a bit? [cdn.arstechnica.net image 850x565] Having a beard made of stone is pretty badass That's Thanos. He was in a movie. Really? At what point in his career did he start acting? How many roles has he played? I see him as a Dave Bautista like actor who can play both the tough guy and the comedic parts. some_beer_drinker (1) Funniest RR62: The problem with babies is they shiat all over the place. i shiat on my neighbors lawn twice a month or so. NotARocketScientist (1) Funniest less than a minute ago RR62: Scorpitron is reduced to a thin red paste: Dodo David: A shrinking number of 18-year-olds is a problem only if the purpose of a college is to employ people in the higher-education industry. Well, no, that's not the only problem. I don't know why anyone could say this So can you explain to us what the actual only problem is, and explain your circle of friends who could not say those words? The problem is that college admissions are an indicator of how many educated people will be entering the work force in the near future. This drop isn't just a 1 or 2 year thing, it's the leading edge. We are going to need a lot of immigrants with an education to keep things running if thus pattern continues (and it looks like it will). You can't run a modern country on blue collar workers anymore. (1) Funniest 1 minute ago dustman81: Olthoi: 1980: Hey wife, dad got me a shift at the paint canning factory. After your 19th birthday next week let's go buy that three bedroom house in the suburbs we liked at 20% interest. 2025: Hey wife, congrats on turning 40. Good news: after years of saving together it looks like we'll be able to make that down payment on a mobile home and get out of this apartment. Mortgage rates in the early 80s are in the double digits. Rates above 18% were not unusual. And? Nobody kept those rates as homeowners laughed all the way to the bank every few years to refinance. Snarcoleptic_Hoosier (0) Funniest less than a minute ago Dinjiin: UNC_Samurai: The anti-intellectual knuckle-draggers in this country see nothing wrong with this I've seen the opposite. They're freaking out because the average size of white families keeps shrinking while the size of Hispanic families remains high, which will eventually result in the USA become a minority-majority country in a decade or three. It is a reason why Trump's deportation efforts are so lauded by MAGA racists. "White Replacement" is the best policy idea that Republicans have had in the last 75 years. I support it completely. (0) Funniest less than a minute ago Ed Willy: Trump offering $5,000 is the capitalist class realizing that the past 45 years of Reaganomics has stolen so much wealth from the producing classes and the future that people are acting rationally after being burdened with debt so young in life, increased demands for education for roles that used to be taught on the job, and constant crises form every Republican administration, and the Democratic administrations too burdened by cleaning up the mess, and in many cases to cowardly to act boldly when they can. What good is $5,000 for a kid when RFK Jr. is trying to ban vaccines that will keep them alive past age 5? Where anti-teachers union Republicans will force them into for-profit charter schools using AI slop to educate them under a fascist ideology? Where government and business will only value them as a labor and attention commodity, as a consuming entity where very moment of their life is tracked more than the Truman Show? Crises like these cause people to rethink having kids because the same people shaming them for not having kids are the same hypocrites who shame poor people for having kids that require some government help. In a system like that, the only moral answer is to not bring a kid into the world. The last thing these pro-natalist will do is sacrifice any of their wealth, privilege, or power to make a world where having kids isn't a insurmountable burden, where society operates with a level of fairness, and sustainably without wrecking the environment, creating endless waste, and valuing people only in what they produce and consume for corporations. And that $5k is an insult. Maybe if they gave $5k a month for a kid. How many hundreds of thousands does it cost to raise a kid now? Displayed 41 of 41 comments Enable JavaScript for Fark in order to vote for entries. Log in (at the top of the page) to enable voting. 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