Global birth rates are declining. We are now lower than replacement numbers. This will cause socioeconomic problems and is one of the significant reasons for forced immigration.
Righteous societies focus on marriage and family.
The Book of Mormon shows that children are given as a blessing to righteous societies.
[Music]
rest all right welcome to Quick show my
name is Greg Matsen and I am your host
in this episode we're talking about the
collapsing birth rate if you think that
overpopulation is a
problem you're wrong that is not the
issue we have a much much bigger problem
than overpopulation now this episode is
brought to you by going do travel I am
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going back here to the collapsing birth
rate uh I think that these things are
way worse than you might think they are
uh the fertility rate let's start with
the us and we're going to move beyond
that and go to the world here globally
what we're looking at but the fertility
rate in the US is at a historic low it's
well well below replacement levels right
you need two kids to replace yourself
we're we're we're going backwards right
we are depopulating now in the United
States uh and that's the case by the way
with all industrial Nations at this
point this is a trend that has given
rise to the pro-natalist movement this
is hey go have kids we are moving away
from family and we're going to talk a
little bit more about this toward the
end of the video but as we move away
from marriage and we move away from
family we move away from population and
based on the Book of Mormon this is a
bad thing there is a new report out
we're going to go to the men first
there's a new report out on the state of
workingclass men uh among the many
striking findings in this report is the
huge class Gap in marriage that's opened
up just in the last 40 Years onethird of
workingclass men have never been married
by the age of 40 we're going to go into
another stat that is even more
concerning I would say but
onethird of uh workingclass men up to
the age of 40 have never been married
and so you have to ask yourself why what
are the cultural Trends what are the
fads what are the distractions that have
men not looking for partners is it a
push off of responsibility is it
economic challenges which we are
certainly facing with the younger
Generations today and there are plenty
of pressures on young men that we have
not really prepared them for I would
suggest uh
in our culture today in the United
States for example we've got a large
number of deaths of Despair put that in
quotation marks right we've got suicides
we've got drug overdoses alcohol related
deaths a lot of things that the word of
wisdom could take care of but a lot of
times you're looking for something to
replace a void and in so many way ways
we are leaving the men behind men are
also more vulnerable to other health
challenges like workplace injuries right
they're going to do the labor the
physical labor chronic diseases so let's
go over the numbers here just a little
bit you have uh for working class men
right it's
67% have never been married uh men up to
the age of 40 two out of three right so
a third have not then we go to men that
are non-working class men so more the
white collared educated uh higher
educated
men they're at
80% uh have been married so one in five
so there's a 17 a 133% change there for
women workingclass women it's just a
little bit better for them than it is
for the men
73% have been married by age 40 27%
obviously have not then those numbers
are not that far off and 80% of and 84 %
of educated women have been married this
is a really interesting dynamic
because as you look at these numbers
here it's 84% of of working of of
nonworking class women have been married
but those are also the most educated and
what hap what do we know happens with
divorce with women 90% in the US 90% of
all divorces if it's an educated woman
will have been initiated by that woman
so if there's an educated woman gone
through college and there is a divorce
in that marriage 90% 90% of the time it
will be initiated by the woman now
there's a number of things to look at
there right for for example uh so so in
other words they're getting married
right A lot of them are getting married
but a lot of them are getting
divorced and I'll be honest for some men
you have to think to yourself well do I
want an educated woman or a non-educated
woman that is not going to initiate
divorce as much but the Dynamics there
are the women are going to get married a
lot more if they 84% of them if they are
educated but there's a high chance that
they are going to initiate divorce down
the road why well a number of the
reasons is because as we know
sociologically women are going to marry
want to marry across and up in terms of
status in terms of economic position in
terms of uh Security in terms of
Education that's a really difficult
thing and so if you're going to marry
someone or choose someone because the
pool is shrinking in those with those
men which it is we are very close to
6040 on women that graduate from college
compared to men that graduate to college
so 1.5 and if you go to uh graduate
school and those that graduate the
number is even the disparity is even
higher so you have a lot more women
becoming more educated getting married
and and then wanting divorces and then
on the men's side of course what are the
dra what are the the distractions there
for them of course you've got
pornography and you've got gaming and
yes these are issues guys or you've got
someone who can't hold up responsibility
but in the end what is happening is that
we're having fewer kids and that is not
a good thing for several reasons so in
the US we're going backwards we are
depopulating and you wonder why the
elites those that uh are very
economically keen on things and stand to
benefit the most from masses of numbers
why there is so much push in the West
for
immigration let's transition here to
Global and us here the current landscape
of depopulation both in the United
States and globally right presents
several different issues by demographic
Trends economic factors
Etc global population Trends all right
the world's population growth rate has
been slowing with projection projections
suggesting a peak around 10.4 billion by
the by the mid 2080s so a lot of people
are saying well wow we're we're
continuing to grow there's going to be a
lot more people but that's because the
West is the the East and the UN un uh
the unindustrialized nations are making
up for what we're doing here by a by a
large portion so 10.4 billion by the
2080s we're over 8 billion right now
according to the United Nations this
indicates a shift from Rapid growth to
stabilization or
decline this is influenced by a falling
fertility rate which is happening
because more parents do not want kids or
they want fewer kids in the west and
other issues both men and women are
facing fertility issues men have a much
lower sperm count today than their
fathers did and especially what their
grandfathers had there are several
factors that could be playing into that
environmental issues definitely I
believe this is Gospel by Greg uh
consumption right food consumption and
what we're eating what we're putting
inside
ourselves and culture even the demac
Demas of of
men by the way the United States fits
right in about that same place there at
2080 it it is looking like it will
Peak research is showing that by 2100 to
2100 uh significant depopulation may
have may happen in more than half of US
Cities including a decline in Industry
lower birth rates which will lead to
economic challenges I want to get to
that in a minute Urban Decay and shifts
in urban planning paradigms one of the
major factors with
depopulation uh it's not the major
factor I don't believe I'm going to get
to that in a minute but one of the major
factors is the socio economic effect
that it is already having and why you're
seeing so many pushes and changes in
Immigration and in economic policy and
I'm not saying those are right I don't
think they're right at all but that's
that's a good portion of where they are
coming from when you have two things
happening at once which we all of a
sudden are having right because we are a
very abundant Society in the west number
one we have a a a an advancement a a
strong uh uh steep advancement in health
care and the technology that allows us
to live longer so you've got retirees
that used to retire around 65 and now
they've got a
longer life
expectancy and so they're around longer
but they're retired
and many of them are on social
security so on one end on the Aging end
you've got a larger population that you
used to have previously a larger
percentage of the overall population
that is not contributing to the
workforce that needs to live that has
skyrocketing Health costs because that's
what's keeping them alive and then on
the other end of the spectrum you've got
a a reduction in fertility rates so
there are fewer people being born
there's a smaller Young
Generation that are coming into the
workforce there's going to be even
smaller Young Generation coming into the
workforce in 20
years and they're trying to sustain the
economy help add to the economy and the
productivity that's that's that's a bad
sign right you're economically you're
going backwards in that situation your
your GDP per capita Falls perhaps
dramatically and the economy overall
begins to collapse that that's not a
good sign there's so much talk about
reducing a carbon
footprint and as the intro song there
from Saturday's Warrior I'll get to that
in a minute zero population you know
going after zero it's not a real smart
thing it's just the opposite and the
scriptures back that up so because of
these numbers here we are already in the
US and in Europe in a post Peak position
that doesn't mean we're not going to
continue to grow but our fertility rate
has already peaked and we are now moving
backwards so because of the volume
because of immigration we will probably
still have growth as far as population
goes in the US for the next see 20
almost 60 years but but again that
population is going to be that
demographic is going to be very
different and hard to sustain itself
China by the way is not coming backwards
yet but they're almost there they are
peaking right now and in fact they will
have a severe reduction over the next
decades in their population what is that
going to do to their
economy there's some countries like
South
Korea where their their fertility rate
is
72 right 72 so that's per couple there
are no kids being born in South Korea
now I happen to know that they have a
lot of immigration as well they they
immigrate a lot from the
Philippines and there are other
countries across Asia and and of course
Europe and Latin America that are
actually even Latin America that are
facing the same problems look at this
chart here for uh
China you have here in 2024 roughly
about 1.42 billion people okay uh in one
in 2050 they're projecting 1.27 billion
all right that is a let's see that is a
150 million person reduction reduction
that's 10% of where they are right
now and by
2100 639 million in half again based on
these projections now only can change
culture can change Mass immigration may
have to start taking place in China but
that's the the trajectory that they are
currently
on now more on looking at this not just
as a a socioeconomic issue right a
cultural issue uh a real concern I mean
again don't wait till 20150 till you
think things are really going to start
getting bad as things go negative
already that means that companies lose
jobs because they have they have they
have less of a market to go to there's
less of a demand there's less of a
demand for Real Estate there's less of a
demand for products and and consumerism
there's less of a demand for jobs
it doesn't take that much to change
everything including especially the
stock market I'm not trying to be
doomsday about this but this is a real
concern that very few people are talking
about and in fact most of the voices the
loud voices are on the other side saying
we need to reduce our carbon footprint
and we need to reduce the amount of
people on the Earth I want to read a a
quote here by Farzad Who is an
influencer on
X he says one of the biggest things I've
realized since being becoming a father 3
months ago is that I spend an obscene
amount of time thinking about the future
this is because I want my child to have
the best possible place to grow up in so
imagine your mind shift right all of a
sudden he's changed completely on how he
looks at the future and what it means
because he cares about his kid now that
doesn't mean that people that don't have
kids don't care about the
future but it becomes much more
important I would imagine overall
probably by quite a margin for those
that are parents and have kids and what
they worry about uh you know the world
what it's like going forward right he
goes on and he says what's becoming
painfully clear is that everything is
broken he's starting to look at
everything like well wait a minute how
long is this going to last how how
fragile is this such as the economy Etc
I am now constantly filled with a sense
of dread it feels like a good future is
almost impossible given the amount of
stuff that is completely broken today
now look things are always broken things
can always be fixed and changed but it's
just that perspective that changes
parents inevitably as a whole become
more conservative especially women when
they get married they become more
conservative and when they have kids
they become more conservative because of
these types of
things think about that eventually there
will be a party that may already be
there that wants to push against
marriage because they know that women
that get married and and men but
especially women that get married are
going to vote away from them and women
that get married and have kids and have
a family life are more likely to vote
against
them now I'm going to say that that is
starting to shift somewhat right that is
starting to shift I mean if you look at
the uh the the the issues of that that
fall under wokeism it is the women that
lead the way especially Suburban women
so we're going to see a a demo change
there I think quite a bit over the next
few years so then he starts saying now I
look back and I start thinking about the
past and I compare it to today I realize
that things are so much better there's
so many things that are so much better
than they were in the past right so it
gives me hope that a better future is
possible with enough effort and pain and
then he says this and then it dawned on
me that the declining birth rate is not
not just a simple math problem it
fundamentally deinen devizes
civilization to look
forward this means that there are less
people now more than ever in recent
recorded history that don't have that
child making it painfully obvious how
broken everything is and how desperately
we need to make everything better for
our children all right this as he says
is a very dangerous place to believe in
and I I think this is exactly right it's
a mental state it's about individuals
and it's about families that's where
your your Society is built from if you
take that out it's over and so I wonder
about this you know what it's not just a
matter of well we need to fix these
things it's a matter of people's
perspective on the future and it's a
it's a matter of how grounded are you
looking at things and not distracted by
other things just because you're on your
own again I'm not putting single people
down that's not what I'm doing I'm just
saying
for a society you want a large
percentage of individuals married and
with kids it is the Bedrock of a
society and for a man it gives him a
check right a feminine check and for a
woman it gives her a masculine check and
for children it stabilizes them to a
much greater degree as if they were
growing up without one of the other
parent I mean the fact is we need more
children right let's take a look here at
this global population growth and take a
look at this uh this chart here so here
we're looking at the world population
growth from 1700 and then which
projected up to 2100 right at that 10.43
billion total and look what we have here
with the actual world world population
in the green and the annual growth rate
right so the rate it's growing at each
year going uh in the in the red on the
red line right look at the massive
increase that you get coming up here
after 1900 right the industrialized
World you've got Health Care getting
much better massive change starts to
happen and it just skyrockets skyrockets
coming up here to a point of what it's a
point of
abundance it's a point of saying hey
here we are at this point now let's say
we're going from
1900 all the way up to
1963 1963 is the year and then at we're
at 2.3% globally right much more than
replacement that3 is a big deal it means
an expanding
population 1963 and then all of a sudden
I mean like that of course look what
happened in the 60s but just immediately
we start to to get a
skyrocketing it's actually the wrong way
to imagine that right it is a
plummeting of the birth
rate to the point that as of last year
2023 we are at
0.9
percent that is really
concerning so you can see because of
this growth rate before you're going to
continue to have this growth going up
here up through 2100 but but the rate
here is projected to drop real really
really far like hardly any kids are
going to be
born those are projections by the way by
the UN right 0.1% in 2100 they're
probably stoked about
that and by the way that's I'm looking
at that closer now I think that's a 1968
not not
1963 I think it's 1968 when it
peaked so I believe that there is a real
several natural spiritual cultural
practical
consequences for building families and
my question is to the UN to the United
States and you know what even to
ourselves as church members is why are
we not focused more on building marriage
and building family and doing what it
takes to create uh uh what would be
going against the culture and the trends
of the world I know we're up up there
we're still high on that on that bar
compared to relatively to the rest of
the world but we're decreasing quite a
bit
too and I can't help but think that to
some degree that's overall a sign of
Pride I don't want to give up that much
I don't want to sacrifice that much for
others but that's when the Lord blesses
us the
most economic circumstances are simply a
byproduct of a growing Society built off
of good rules trust to some degree
marriage and family I want to share with
you what we went over in and come follow
me this last week or or coming up here
this is Helman 723 and 24 this is uh Nei
up on the garden Tower talking to
everyone right talking about the gadian
and robbers the wickedness of the
Nephites at this point we're not that
far away a couple decades away from the
birth of Christ here here's what it says
it says for behold and and by the way we
should look at these things and
understand that these are Eternal
principles and they definitely apply to
us today for behold thus sayith the Lord
I will not show unto the wicked of my
strength to one more than the other save
it be unto those who repent of their
sins and hearken un my words now
therefore I would that ye should behold
my brethren that it shall be better for
the lamanites than for you except you
shall repent all right think of yourself
as the West as the Gentiles whether it's
here in the United States or just in the
west period as if you're the lamanites
in this or the Nephites in this
circumstance and those that outside of
the West are the lamanites right think
think of it in those terms um and that
could also be Eastern Europe and and and
and others that have not uh enjoyed the
the the abundance of of Western
Civilization okay look what it says here
in 24 right so it'll be better for the
lamanites except you
repent right why well very practical
reasons I think for behold they are more
righteous than you for they have not
sinned against the great knowledge which
ye have received think of Christianity
as a whole and you know what think about
ourselves as church members therefore
the Lord will be merciful unto them yeah
he will lengthen out their days that's
one end which is
good okay that's that is happening in
the west all right and increase their
seed
even when thou shalt be utterly
destroyed except Thou shalt repent right
there you see the difference between
those that are wicked it looks like or
at least an example of this those that
are wicked who will have less seed those
who are righteous who will have more
seed and I think often times we need to
look at how the Lord intervenes with
these things through practicality they
are simple consequences of
living and they're saying basically the
Lord's laws say this if you are
righteous if you are focused on marriage
if you are focused on having kids and
building
families having more seed
right then your chance of being more
righteous is is strengthened that is how
a righteous Society is built but because
of those blessings that come to that
society that are focused on a strong
family base then abundance is going to
allow for Pride to come in so you have
to balance that out but right there I
think we easily can see what the issue
is here right one of the issues of of a
righteous growing society and how are we
looking in the church today which
direction are are we going in how much
do we I saw someone on a comments
mentioned this um which was really
interesting I I just thought it was odd
I'm going to throw it in here I I just I
I'm not saying that this is is wrong
right I'm not saying that I'm just
saying there's a lot of wonderful things
in this young women's theme uh looking
at this you know what's missing it does
say this in the last thing it says as I
strive to qualify for exaltation that is
awesome so glad they specifically state
that that is awesome I cherish the gift
of repentance and seek improve to
improve each day with faith I will
strengthen my home and family okay very
important but there is nothing in
here about a role of being a mother and
a
wife I I find that very odd I I think
that's really odd right just just a an
observation if I go to the iranic
priesthood theme they have some great
things in here also but at least it says
here I will prepare to become a diligent
missionary loyal husband and loving
father by being a true disciple of Jesus
Christ I think that those roles are
they're crucial to include in there and
be specific about those things so zero
population my friend it's the answer
right maybe not so maybe we ought to be
looking exactly the other way toward
building families focusing more on
marriage and the Order of marriage and
the Order of family and
building the Bedrock right of civiliz
ation and I would suggest of the church
thanks for
