What to Expect
Jonathan V. Last is a senior writer at The Weekly Standard in Washington. His writings have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The New York Post, The Claremont Review of Books, First Things, The Week,Salon, Slate, TV Guide, and elsewhere.
His book on fertility and demographics, What to Expect When No One’s Expecting, is published by Encounter. You can order it now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indiebound, and Books-a-Million. And become a friend of the book (or JVL) on Goodreads.
What people are saying about What to Expect When No One’s Expecting:
Interview on CBS Sunday Morning, May 12, 2013
Interview with Les Sillars, Touchstone, May/June 2013
Bruce Thornton, “The Coming Demographic Crisis,” Defining Ideas, April 25, 2013
Walter Russell Mead, “Capsule Review,” Foreign Affairs, May/June 2013
Lecture at the Family Research Council, April 3, 2013
Nick Gillespie, “Let It Breed,” BookForum, April/May 2013
Scott Yenor, “Part II: What to Do When No One Is Expecting,” The Blue Review, March 25, 2013
Michael R. Rosen, “Expecting the Unexpected,” The American, March 25, 2013
Electa Draper, “Decline in Birth Rates Breeds Worry,” Denver Post, March 11, 2013
Bill Donohue, “Our Anti-Child Culture,” Catholic League Catalyst, March 2013
David DesRosiers, “What to Expect?” Washington Times, March 4, 2013
Brad Wilcox, “The Empty Cradle?” National Review, March 11, 2013
Mark Tapson, “Why Have Kids?” Acculturated, February 28, 2013
Interview on Fox Business Channel’s Stossel, February 28, 2013
Interview on MSNBC’s The Cycle, February 28, 2013
Interview with John Hawkins on RightWingNews.com, February 27, 2013
Scott Yenor, “Population Decline and the Birth Dearth,” Public Discourse, February 26, 2013
Celeste McGovern, “Demographic Disaster Looms for America,” National Catholic Register, February 26, 2013
Kyle Smith, “Young Americans Should Beware Grandpa Simpson,” New York Post, February 23, 2013
Interview with Kathryn Jean Lopez on National Review Online, February 21, 2013
William McGurn, “Children of Men,” Wall Street Journal, February 20, 2013
Interview with Ed Driscoll on PJ Media, February 18, 2013
AEI Bradley Lecture Series, “What to Expect When No One’s Expecting,” February 11, 2013
AEI’s Banter Podcast, February 11, 2013
Interview on The 700 Club, February 11, 2013
Bryan Caplan, “Demographic Disaster?” February 10, 2013
Justin Green, “What Can We Do About America’s Baby Bust?” Daily Beast, February 8, 2013
Jay Evensen, “Overpopulation? We Should Be So Lucky,” Deseret News, February 7, 2013
JVL on Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld, February 6, 2013
Interview on The Blaze Real News, February 6, 2013
Interview on Fox Business Channel Tonight with Lou Dobbs, February 5, 2013
Stanley Kurtz, National Review Online, February 5, 2013
10 Questions with the Daily Caller, February 5, 2013
Interview on CBS This Morning, February 5, 2013
Coffee and Markets Podcast, February 5, 2013
National Review “Between the Covers,” podcast February 5, 2013
Laura Vanderkam, “What to Expect,” February 4, 2013
After Words, C-SPAN2, February 2, 2013
Austin Ruse, “No Babies, No Future,” Crisis magazine, February 1, 2013
Heather Wilhelm, “When Babies Disappear,” RealClearBooks, January 14, 2013
Les Sillars, “America’s Baby Bust,” World magazine, December 19, 2012
Jeff Jacoby, “The Baby Bust Generation,” Boston Globe, December 16, 2012
More JVL on Demographics:
The “Overpopulation” Hoax, The Daily, May 2, 2012
On Wrongful Birth, The Weekly Standard, April 30, 2012
Demography Is Destiny, The Weekly Standard, April 23, 2012
America’s One-Child Policy: A Very Special Episode
7 Billion People, The Weekly Standard, November 14, 2011
China’s Lost Girls, The Weekly Standard, September 26, 2011
The U.N.’s Imaginary Babies, Wall Street Journal, August 4, 2011
Child’s Play with Numbers, WeeklyStandard.com, August 3, 2011
The War Against Girls, Wall Street Journal, June 24, 2011
Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids, Wall Street Journal, April 16, 2011
Ted, Teddy, and the Natalist Impulse, WeeklyStandard.com, December 7, 2010.
America’s One-Child Policy, The Weekly Standard, September 27, 2010
There Goes the Neighborhood, The Weekly Standard, September 13, 2010
The Depopulation of Greenland, The Weekly Standard, May 17, 2010
Duggar Economics, Wall Street Journal, September 18, 2009
The Population Sink, The Weekly Standard, June 7, 2006.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Another policy that would work is to control the sex-ratio. After times of war, and in polygamyst societies, the fertility rate is high.
Dear Sir:
My business partner and I host a radio show for retail investors. We frequently have guests join us to talk about trends and the business environment. I just ordered your book and would like to know if you would be interested in being a guest on the show to talk about it and the impact of your findings on the economy. If you are please email me at the noted address and we can discuss details. Our next open slot is early May.
Thanks,
Troy
I’ve been doing some personal research on this subject for some time – became aware of this issue back in 2oo7 when I first received a copy of Economist’s (not exactly a conservative) publicaton “Pocket World in Figures” and stumbled on the incredible falling fertility rates – and populations – in many countries of the world – I have ordered subsequent years’ editions through 2013 with each year confirming this startling downward trend – and each year wondering why I never hear anything in any news media that highlights this trend! The “why” of this was what fascinated me – and I had concluded simply – unscientifically – that it must have to do with the advances and promotion of birth control – the widespread acceptance of abortion and the new tolerence for the gay lifestyle – looking at all of these factors with a detached unemotional and unprejudicial view point. All these factors come with a simple common denominator – less children being born across all levels of society! So hearing about your book one day on a talk radio show I was amazed to find that there is indeed a book out that focuses on exactly what I have been in my limited way trying to convince everyone that would listen to me – inspite of the ridicule that my observations usually produce!!! even though inviting them to go see the data for themselves – I find however that most people I talk to refuse to look beyond the current common acceptance that our world population is in a never ending upward spiral – they simply do not look to 100 years from now – I would hope that those in our government whose job it is to be aware of these trends are aware of this reality and working on a solution!!!! I received your book in the mail this week and can’t put it down !!! Thanks for having the courage to publish this work of yours.
First I really enjoyed your book. It is a fun read funny stories etc. However as a liberal I am still unconvinced this is a problem. Why replacement rate is 2.1 the world is at 2.5. As an American I do not care if we are a nation of Immigrants we always have been. So we are fine we can just have immigrants pick up the slack regardless of where our birth rate is.
I do not see how a Liberal will consider this a problem. Why is it a problem if 100 years from now the world is at 3 billion people? And gets halved every generation that would make an interesting sci-fi book I suppose but I just do not see how it is a problem.
I am currently watching your FRC lecture.
Four years ago my husband and I were diagnosed with infertility. Because of this I found your lack of attention to this major medical crisis glaring.
Every childless couple I have met in the past four years who tells others that they’re childless by choice has at one time been diagnosed as medically infertile. I was shocked that your idea of a childless by choice person wasn’t informed by the average person’s ideal fertility rate.
Medical fertility is declining at terrifying rates. (Did you know that you probably have half the amount of sperm that your grandpa did?) Without attention to this problem, we will only see further decreases.
Pronatalist policies rarely work because they do nothing for the underlying cause of declining fertility rates. Concentrating our focus on motivating those who can have kids and will have them anyway will not produce positive outcomes.
It is my understanding that the only place these policies do work is when they are focused on infertility; such as Israel’s fertility medicine guarantee and their 2.6% growth rate.
Enjoyed your book. Believe that you, Mr. Goldman, and Mr. Steyn are a bit optimistic. None of you have addressed two potential problems that could make the problem bleaker. One is the increasing incidence of sex selection abortion. This is reducing the number of potential fertile females that will grow up in spite of the level that raw numbers of births indicate. Another is that the “greying” of all these countries will be providing fertile ground for a pandemic.
Have you considered “artificial children” in the future.
We are on the cusp of having robots do a lot of work for us.
Cooking, cleaning, caring, working robots to replace the need of having children.
Dear Mr. Last,
I was fascinated to learn of your book on Sunday Morning. I am going to pick up a copy tonight.
The organization for which I work, Baby Buggy, provides families living in poverty with the essentials they need to make sure their children are safe and healthy. By making our donations through anti-poverty programs like Nurse-Family Partnership and Harlem Children’s Zone, we are ensured that our donations are going to parents who are enrolled in programs that will help build their self-sufficiency over the long term. But it’s a struggle: it takes two hours of minimum wage just to afford a pack of diapers in NYC and LA.
I would love to chat with you more about your research at some point. I would love to get your perspective on the growing child poverty rate and some ethical issues we grapple with here at Baby Buggy.
I hope you’re kidding. Depleting water supplies, global warming (you probably don’t believe that exists either), the exponential increase in the death of natural environments: Arctic sea ice, rain forests, coral reefs, you name it, it’s disappearing. Due to what? May I ask? How about TOO MANY PEOPLE. Especially people that pollute. Continuing to crap all over the place without any regards to the consequences. There’s already too many people, you’re saying there won’t be enough. Just like any other conservative, right wing type who looks up at a bleak, stormy sky and says the sun is shining, don’t worry, keep doing what you’re doing and, while you’re at it, do more of it!
For God’s sake man, stop the lies, the contradictions against common sense. Look around you: see as many trees as you used to? Ever see a bear in the wild? Sure as hell if you look around you’ll see plenty of people – all resplendent in their polluting cars, driving down highways that were made by raping the landscape. And your answer is we don’t have enough!
{ 2 trackbacks }