A radical plan to make children a national priority

Forget the slogans about “delayed parenthood” or “work-life balance.” U.S. fertility has dropped below 1.6 children per woman. It no longer signals fluctuation or delay. It signals terminal decline. If we remain on this path, we will become a nation that grows older, poorer and lonelier with each passing year. The tax base will shrink, social services will buckle, and the economy will become a ghost town built for children who never arrived.

And yet, it’s still possible to turn this around.

But not with the tools of the past. Not with half-measures that barely cover gas or daycare programs that reduce children to line items. No, what’s needed is a complete reordering of priorities — a full-scale cultural, spiritual and institutional awakening. A pronatalist revolution. A re-sanctification of the family. A reckoning with what we traded for freedom and what that freedom has cost.

We begin by rejecting the lie that children are a burden. That myth, sold in glossy ads and packaged in corporate feminism, told women their value was in productivity, not procreation. It told men they were better off untethered, that family life was a trap, not a purpose. So we sterilized ourselves with ideology and congratulated ourselves for our clever escape. But now we see what’s left behind: A generation that won’t replace itself, relationships replaced by apps, and cities full of childless professionals wondering why they feel so hollow at 40.

We need to stop talking about families like they’re relics and start treating them as national infrastructure. Raising a child is not just a personal project — it’s a patriotic act. America must reward it accordingly.

But culture cannot shift without structure, and structure cannot hold without policy. So yes, policy matters. But it has to be bold. No more milquetoast proposals buried in tax codes or dressed up as pilot programs. We need a full-scale federal overhaul — one that makes parenthood not just possible, but aspirational.

That begins with the basics: A 100 percent tax exemption for parents. Not a credit. Not a deduction. An exemption. If you’re raising the next generation of taxpayers, the state shouldn’t be taxing you like a childless corporate executive. This isn’t far-fetched — it’s scalable. The infrastructure exists. It’s just never been aligned with civilizational priorities.

Next: a guaranteed mortgage pathway for families with two or more children. Not as a handout, but as a vote of confidence in the future. We underwrite solar panels and stadiums — we can underwrite a roof for a child. Give families early access to fixed-rate, long-term mortgages tied to childrearing benchmarks. Not speculative. Not risky. Just a structural nudge toward stability.

Housing priority for growing families is not some radical, Zohran Mamdani-like demand; it’s common sense. We already fast-track luxury high-rises, hand out zoning breaks to developers, and greenlight entire “sustainable” communities for digital nomads and investment firms. The system bends over backward for people with no stake in the soil.

Meanwhile, young families get priced out, boxed in or pushed aside. That balance has to shift. Families raising the next generation shouldn’t be buried under red tape while hedge funds buy up entire neighborhoods. They should move to the front of the line. If you’re raising future citizens, you should live like one, with space, stability and support.

National service incentives for young couples are long overdue. If we offer student loan forgiveness for bureaucratic work-study programs, we can offer equivalent aid for those committing to the far harder, longer task of raising children. When a couple commits to raising a family, the state should meet that commitment with real support — subsidized health care, childcare and education. That’s not idealism. It’s policy with a measurable return — socially, demographically and economically.

And yes, a full year of paid leave. Not for optics or corporate diversity reports, but to rebuild the home as the foundation of society. One parent at home during a child’s first year should be normal, not a privilege for the wealthy. The money exists. What’s missing is the will. We spend billions propping up foreign regimes and funding faceless non-governmental organizations. That money belongs with the people building the next generation.

And finally: education. Not just algebra, not just STEM pipelines. Schools should be reminding students why civilization exists at all. Why marriage matters. Why sacrifice sustains, and why tradition outlasts trend. We’re raising kids to memorize pronouns but not understand permanence. That’s not education. That’s deracination.

And we need to say what’s become almost unspeakable: marriage matters. Stable families matter. The state must stop propping up broken homes through policies that quietly reward dysfunction. That means rewriting the incentives — legal, cultural and financial. Because when marriage disappears, birth rates decline rapidly. That’s not opinion. It’s fact. Yet American policy treats the nuclear family as outdated — or worse, as a threat. That mindset has to end. A society that treats the building block of civilization as disposable won’t survive long.

Immigration cannot solve this. Every country is aging. Even migrants are having fewer children once they arrive. Technology can’t save us. AI might clean your house, but it won’t carry your DNA. The only way out is through a collective decision to choose life, choose children and choose continuity over collapse.

Let this be our moonshot. Not for profit margins or GDP bumps, but for grandchildren. For a country that can still fill its parks, light up its schools, and pass down more than debt and digital memories. Innovation built America. But only birth can save it. Resurrection begins in the crib.

John Mac Ghlionn is a writer and researcher who explores culture, society and the impact of technology on daily life.