This doesn't get directly addressed in the article, but the problem goes beyond Americans not making babies. It's also a problem with making families. In 1968

This doesn't get directly addressed in the article, but the problem goes beyond Americans not making babies. It's also a problem with making families. In 1968, only 7% of parents with a child in the home were unmarried. In 2017, that had risen to 25%. That rise is partly driven by an increase in couples who are cohabiting but unmarried. In 2017, 35% of unmarried parents were cohabiting. But cohabiting relationships tend to be less stable than married relationships. Whereas about 20 percent of parents married at the time of their child's birth have split up five years later, that jumps to nearly 50 percent for parents who were cohabiting but unmarried at the time of their child's birth. There are myriad difficulties associated with the decline of stable marriages among parents. There are economic implications. There are implications for child development and outcomes. There are legal implications, particularly with regard to family courts becoming a party to the relationship. There are tons of policies that influence these trends, but I would argue that paid parental leave, paid medical leave, flexible work schedules, incentives for attending marriage-prep classes and parenting classes, and other social welfare programs have the potential to move the needle. It's unfortunate that we live in a society where families with minor children are one of the most common household types (making up about 40% of all households) and yet our laws and our employer's policies are so anti-family. Sources: https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2018/04/25/the-changing-profile-of-unmarried-parents https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2018/04/25/the-changing-prof... https://ifstudies.org/blog/for-kids-parental-cohabitation-and-marriage-are-not-interchangeable https://ifstudies.org/blog/for-kids-parental-cohabitation-an... https://www.statista.com/statistics/242074/percentages-of-us-family-households-with-children-by-type https://www.statista.com/statistics/242074/percentages-of-us...