They only tell half the story

Fertility rate in USA on upswing - USATODAY.com

Okay I read this story and they said they thought the rise in birth rate was due to kids being a "luxury item" {I really hate that terminology} but they do not mention the rise in the working poor.

Despite what they say, you are statistically more likely to have a large family if you are of lower-middle income than you are if you have a large income. At first this might seem counter intuitive--after all kids aren't cheap--but once you really think about it, if you don't have much money what else is there to do at night? How can you afford birth control?

Now I'm not talking lower class or middle class, I'm talking about those ones that fall into the cracks of not making enough money to afford most basics but making too much to qualify for state/federal suppliments.

The story also does not say if the average size of the American family has changed....my guess is not. While they do say that an average of 2.1 births/woman is what's happening, this may not effect the average family size...the average of births/woman is based only on those who gave birth...the family size is based on all family units in the US.

But we need more births....the nation will only thrive when there is actually a surplus of one generation to not only replace the generation before but enough left over to take into account famine/war/natural disaster/pestulance/etc.

This of course is scary in and of itself--if any of you are Star Trek fans you will remember the episode where Kirk gets kidnapped and spirited away to the planet Genosia so that he can infect the people with a rare but deadly disease that he carries. Why would they do this? Because their population became SO big that there was no room left on the planet...they had to sleep standing up, they couldn't stay still, they were never alone.
I heard once that Japan used to be very simular to this as well--they were so densely populated that the only way to get time to yourself was to do it spiritually...

Okay I need to end this before it turns into a tirade on the need for the Space Program.