America's birth rate has hit its lowest level in over 70 years, and the squeeze is bad for schools, pension systems, and anyone counting on a growing workforce.

• The US birth rate is now under 12 per 1,000 people, and the country is heading into the largest retirement wave in history with too few young workers to replace the Boomers.
• Chicago is already living with the fallout: hundreds of schools sit half empty, and districts are closing and selling them off.
• Housing is the biggest brake on large families — starter homes near cities run half a million dollars, and fire rules that force two staircases make big apartments rare, so one-bedrooms outnumber three-bedrooms about ten to one in new New York buildings.
• Car seat laws that keep kids in boosters until age eight mean a third child often requires a new vehicle, and studies tie those rules to tens of thousands of missed births.
• Dating apps and phones are cutting into how often couples meet and how much time they spend together, so fewer families even get started.

Outlook: South Korea spent over $200 billion trying to buy a baby boom and the birth rate kept falling, which suggests cash alone will not turn this around anywhere.