The Unborn Ultimatum

Not tonight, honey, I’ve got a pandemic. Historically, pandemics have led to fewer babies being born. The same is true for deep recessions. Well, we’ve got both right now. “Using the skyrocketing unemployment rate as a baseline and factoring in the additional effect of an ongoing public health crisis with no end in sight, Kearney and Levine estimate we’re in for a decline of anywhere from 300,000 to 500,000 births.” WaPo: ‘Covid baby bust’ could lead to half a million fewer births next year.

+ Economics are the primary driver of the impending baby bust. But maybe it’s also that people just aren’t in the mood. Watching John Bolton and Donald Trump exchange critiques is not exactly effective foreplay. And the two kids fighting, the two beagles howling, and the two cats starting down from the top of the padded headboard is not a scene that lends itself to the kind of lovemaking we’ve come to associate with our personal brands. Sorry, this may have just slippery sloped from a news blurb to a diary entry, and you don’t want to think about middle aged people having sex. You want to think about young, toned, and still marginally hopeful people having sex. Sadly, they’re not doing it either. For the younger generation, it’s less about the economy or the pandemics or the babies, and more about social media, electronic gaming and binge-watching. There’s so much Netflix, there’s no time left to chill.