Shall the Youth of Zion Falter? Apparently yes. A little something extra to be thankful for. :)

https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2019/11/27/first-time-fertility/

“They said it would never happen here,” said Pam Perlich, senior demographer at the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Institute. “No one who knew the old Utah ever expected this to happen — or so quickly. The drop has been precipitous.”

The 2018 total fertility rate for Utah — the number of children each woman here would expect to have in her lifetime — has now dropped to 2.03, according to a report released Wednesday by the National Center for Health Statistics.

The replacement rate is considered to be 2.1. Utah was essentially at that level in 2017, and now with new data for 2018 dropped below it.

The new rate is less than half of Utah’s fertility rate back in 1960 of 4.3. It also comes after 11 straight years of decreases since the rate was 2.68 in 2007. “When you see 11 years consecutively of declining total fertility rates, that is a definitive trend,” Perlich said.

Yet more of the "Oh no. Where will we get our cheap labor from." mantras.

My TBM daughter was telling me that she is seeing something in the younger LDS population. She said so many young couples are getting divorced after one or two years of marriage. She also said young adults are not pairing off as much. Group events are very popular but not as much single dating as in the past. I've seen it in my own extended family. Also young adults are so stressed about rent and living expenses that they are in no hurry to have kids or are thinking they do not even WANT kids.

This article does not surprise me. The times they are a-changing.

The two economic models are failing in Utah.

A stay at home mom and a never at home working two jobs plus church dad does not provide sufficient income to live.

Secondly, with daycare topping $1500 for an infant in some areas, moms work almost for free.

I see so many grandparents watching kids.

Rent in my area can exceed $1800 a month.

Add student loans, health care and tithing and it's no wonder couples choose to stop at 2 kids.

It really says something if their central dogma (and near as I can ascertain ONLY selling point) of being family centric is failing in their heartland.

"How much is housing in Utah?
The median sales price of a new home in Salt Lake County in 2018 was $418,376 up 61 percent from the median price in 2010. Three other Wasatch Front counties have had similar rates of increase; in Weber County the median price is up 50 percent, in Utah County 62 percent, and in Davis County 71 percent."

Per my google search.

Now if an lds or non lds family would have many children 4 children and more the homes have gotten expensive.

43. Salt Lake County, Utah 481.73


https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/credit-cards/highest-bankruptcy-rates-states-counties/

The mission/have 4 babies/skip education formula is just not as attractive as it once was for Mormons struggling with finance like everyone else,or,with tithing involved and too many kids, more than anyone else.

As pointed out in Cabaret, Money does indeed make the world go round. More companies infused their advertising with all ethnicities in their adds and the world started being more accepting. More companies started going for the lucrative gay dollar and more people started accepting. Because, we accept what we are used to, that which is in our face all the time, because getting used to something is about all it takes most times to effect change. The exception to the rule though is no one likes getting used to being poor.

When I was a kid the average in our community was at least 5 kids and nine or more was not uncommon. The downsizing has been happening for a long long time where I come from

I mentioned the findings from this article to my extremely TBM elderly parents (87 years old) but both very lucid and oriented for their old age. They said in unison, "This is the last days where even the royal generation in Utah is faltering, just as the hymnal says, 'shall the youth of zion falter in defending truth and right', so we are seeing the fruition of evil among the church, the effects of (you guessed it) PORN, the internet, lasciviousness, and worship of the dollar...Jesus will be returning soon mark our words."

So to keep from laughing and with a straight face, I said, "So you believe that PORN and evil doing is the reason behind the low birth rate..it's not just a simple matter of young Mormon couples having to pay tithing, fast offering, mission, etc, and struggling to stay afloat pay check to pay check?"

Their reply, "nope it's because of porn."

“Jesus will be returning soon mark our words.”

How many times has that been said in the past 2000 years?

"just as the hymnal says, 'shall the youth of zion falter in defending truth and right'"

But, mom & dad, the hymn also promptly answers that question with a resounding "NO, the youth will not falter and will remain 'true to the truth' etc." So you two are contradicting the very hymn you are quoting. This is what happens when you mindlessly repeat stuff instead of actually thinking about what you're saying.

Large families were a good thing back in agrarian times and before child labor laws when children provided labor, thereby being at least partly an asset rather than solely an expense. More bodies meant you could work more land, tend more livestock, make more money, or the kids could go work in factories and bring home their wages. And since families tended to live in multigenerational homes, the old folks were there to care for the kids who were too young to work.

Maybe the "rising generation" (hard to write that phrase) can see the hypocrisy of the high geezerhood. "Have more kids!" they say.

Meanwhile -

The wives of Holland, Bednar, Cook, & Monson each had just 3.

Uchtdorf & Hales? Just 2.

And Renlund's wife had only 1.

Then there's Mrs. Oaks, Mrs. Wendy, and Sheri Dew, with a combined 0 between them. One set of rules for the common folk, another for the leaders. What a surprise.

How sad for the multitudes of Heavenly Father's spirit children who are waiting for the opportunity to be born into earthly tabernacles (bodies).

Another gross of excedrin for the GAs is ordered & on the way.

Yet the people who keep telling us we are having too many children are the same ones who tell us we desperately need to import massive amounts of people from elsewhere to support our economy. Irony, huh?