They say they want Americans to have more babies. What's beneath the surface?

[Dulcinea]

(NPR) "Humanity is dying," billionaire Elon Musk told Fox News anchor Bret Baier recently when asked what keeps him up at night. "The birth rate is very low in almost every country. And so unless that changes, civilization will disappear." Through interviews, social media posts, funding for population research and his own example as the parent of at least 14 children, Musk has become one of the most visible beacons of anxiety about falling birth rates.

While discussions about the economic challenges of falling birth rates exist across the political spectrum, the right has increasingly taken up the cause under the banner of "pronatalism" to promote higher birth rates. The Trump White House is reportedly soliciting suggestions to boost births from married couples, even as it continues drastic reductions to social services and public health funding.

In recent years, a revitalized pronatalist movement has brought together parts of the religious right, tech types and dedicated "new right" anti-feminists. These camps have some disagreements over government policy, technologies like in vitro fertilization, genetic engineering and the rehabilitation of eugenics. But most are united in the belief that modern culture has failed to adequately prioritize the value of nuclear families and making lots of babies.

https://www.npr.org/2025/04/25/nx-s1-5371718/pronatalist-birth-rate-musk-natal-conference

[bucolic_frolic]

1. The monied elites can afford more and more and more babies

Working career folks, not so much. When the continent was newly colonized and the population were farmers, it made sense to have many children because you needed the labor for the farm, many children died of childhood diseases, and the preachers were putting the fear of God to you if you didn't get down. Was common to see families of 7-10, 12-14, and even 17 or more.

Cannot think of anything more revolting than muusk babies. and you know why they do it.

[Omnipresent]

2. Musk isn't advocating for everyone in the US to have more babies.

He really only wants whites to have more kids, preferably if they are wealthy.

[ariadne0614]

3. Whatever happened to concern over the carrying capacity of Mother Earth?

It seems to me that our planet got along just fine for millions of years without the current level of human population.

I suspect a more nefarious reason for their intent to keep women barefoot and pregnant, aside from muskrat’s pathetic need to ensure his own immortality. If they were so concerned with the survival of our species, they’d be making rational policies based on the wellbeing of all. I smell masculine insecurity among the less evolved individuals of that gender. They’re panicking.

Thank goodness for the growing number of men who are breaking out of the “man box.”

[TommyT139]

5. You might enjoy this book:

Sheri S. Tepper's The Gate to Women's Country. Hard to describe it without spoilers, but this is a fair job, although it's not as depressing as this makes it seem.

...enclaves of women run society, relegating men to hyper-masculine garrisons, sending them off to war to thin the numbers, and trying eugenics to solve the problem of men.

https://www.npr.org/2016/11/05/500668072/remembering-sheri-s-tepper-eco-feminist-sci-fi-firebrand

Anyway, worth a read, if you haven't.

[RockCreek]

6. I read this decades ago and loved it.

The 1990s, I think. I think my paperback copy eventually gave out. It may be time to read it again.

[ariadne0614]

7. Thanks ever so!

Like most women, I actually love actual men, as long as they’re at least curious about escaping from the man box. Nevertheless, I do enjoy fantasizing about sending the diehards to re-education camps.

[TommyT139]

8. For sure

The book isn't saying all guys gotta go - it's a much more positive take.

[sop]

4. Everything I've read points to overpopulation as the most worrisome global problem.

I suspect eugenicist Musk has some (not so) secret plan to reduce overpopulation among certain groups in less developed parts of the world, then repopulate these areas with his superior white babies.

[FakeNoose]

9. This is so short-sighted

The only women who would respond to this bribe are women in poverty, probably lacking good health, nutrition or education. I'm sorry if I sound prejudiced, but any desperately poor woman who would agree to have a baby for $5,000 ... well that's not an ideal parent IMHO.

If you REALLY want to appeal to healthy, educated American women to become mothers - offer them a full scholarship to a great American university. Something of lasting value that would change their lives for the better. Uncle Sam could afford it, and women from good American families could hold their heads up and accept the responsibility of raising a healthy family while getting a good education.