On how to encourage college-educated women to have more kids

Economist  on how declining birth rates will lead to demographic catastrophe, a world populated by old retired people, and not enough young workers to support them.

More than half the drop in America’s total fertility rate is explained by women under the age of 19 now having next to no children. Around a third of the missing births would have been unplanned, and most of these would have been to women on low incomes.

However, instead of encouraging teenage pregnancies, the Economist tells us to encourage college pregnancies.

Only 8% of the children of American-born non-college-educated parents are themselves expected to obtain a bachelor’s degree, and during their adult life the average high-school graduate boosts the public finances by less than a tenth of the net contribution of a college graduate.