We Don't Do That Any More

Sorry, dear, I have to see how the Umbrella Academy turns out.

A question we never thought to ask:

Is streaming video responsible for America’s falling fertility rate? Thus far the "evidence" is anecdotal and/or very limited, for example:

She had been trying to get pregnant again, and he was in a romantic mood.

She made a counterproposal. “Or we could watch ‘The Prophet,’ ” she said, referring to an animated movie based on a book by Lebanese-American author Kahlil Gibran.

“I’m a mom,” the 31-year-old digital-marketing strategist explains. “I literally just want to Netflix and chill. We stop there.”[snip]

Ashley Aranda, a 36-year-old who runs an online business making stationery and lives in Rockville Centre, N.Y., says that at least 25% of the time, she and her husband choose Netflix over sex—despite their wish to conceive a third child....

One in four people said they turned down intimacy in favor of binge watching in the prior six months, according to a March survey of more than 1,000 people conducted by SurveyMonkey for The Wall Street Journal. Among people 18 to 38, the rate is higher, with 36% of respondents saying they opted for streaming video.

The bomb was a dud (Catholic thing)

When your humble blogger was in high school, Paul Ehrlich's predictions of over-population were embraced by all the smartest people. We had to attend school-wide assemblies on the topic.

Paul Ehrlich shouldn't be blamed for not foreseeing the agricultural revolution, how higher living standards would lead to smaller families, or Netflix.

He should be castigated for taking some data points and creating an upward sloping line that continued indefinitely into the future. It's a good thing we don't do that any more.