Counterpoint to the vasectomy argument: the recession may be causing more babies

WalletPop contributor Aaron Crowe has an interesting post about how thanks to the recession, more men are considering vasectomies. I'm sure that's true, but after reading that, I thought I'd mention that earlier this month, U.S. News & World Report had their own blog post that put out the idea how due to the recession, there may be a mini baby boom.

That seems crazy, of course, and to fly in logic's face: why have a baby when you're presumably broke? Having children, maybe you've heard, can be expensive.

The U.S. News blogger, Kimberly Palmer, said that research from the National Bureau of Economic Research has shown that fertility often rises with the unemployment rate, and that "one possible explanation for the findings is that when people are laid off or under-employed, they see it as an opportunity to have more children because they have more time."

In other words, people are having more fun in the bedroom because it's free--and worrying about the financial costs that may incur later. Not to rain on anybody's parade, because there are a lot of good things that can come out of a baby boom, but that pretty much describes the state of our current economy.