According to the latest projections released by the Census Bureau, deaths in the U.S. will outpace births by 2038, and the American population will begin to shrink in absolute numbers by 2080. The editors of the Washington Examiner comment:

[A] declining population only brings pain in the form of weak economic growth, impoverished young families, and lonely adults. On the economic side, the older a population is, the fewer workers there are to support those too old to work. This means that any productivity achieved by the overall economy is consumed by retirees, not younger workers.

Older people also require more services, such as healthcare and housecleaning, but fewer goods, such as cars and computers, than younger people. This means more spending on low-wage service sectors and fewer investments on infrastructure and manufacturing, sectors that have long provided high stable wages to support young families. Additionally, most innovations come from younger people, so the older a society is, the less innovative it is and more prone to stagnation and recession.

We can reverse our population decline by increasing marriage. We just need to find the political will to do so.

Yesterday, the Iranian foreign minister flew to Geneva to meet with European diplomats. President Trump, meanwhile, indicated that cease-fire negotiations might soon begin with Iran, which would presumably involve Tehran agreeing to make concessions regarding its nuclear program, while Washington pressures Israel to halt its military activities. According to Israeli media, Iran already began putting out feelers to the U.S. earlier this week. Aviram Bellaishe considers the purpose of these overtures:

The regime’s request to return to negotiations stems from the principle of deception and delay that has guided it for decades. Iran wants to extricate itself from a situation of total destruction of its nuclear facilities. It understands that to save the nuclear program, it must stop at a point that would allow it to return to it in the shortest possible time. So long as the negotiation process leads to halting strikes on its military capabilities and preventing the destruction of the nuclear program, and enables the transfer of enriched uranium to a safe location, it can simultaneously create the two tracks in which it specializes—a false facade of negotiations alongside a hidden nuclear race.