BYU Speeches Why Children Became Useless: Faith and the Future of the Family | Catherine Ruth Pakaluk | October 2025
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Oct 28, 2025 
Catherine Ruth Pakaluk, a faculty member at the Busch School of Business and founder of the Political Economy area, explores profound societal shifts regarding family and faith. She discusses the decline in birth rates as a symptom of lost purpose and the need to view children as blessings rather than mere biological occurrences. Pakaluk critiques current pro-family policies, examines the impact of technology on family structure, and emphasizes how faith can rekindle the intrinsic value of having children, potentially reviving family formation.
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Birth Rates Defy Biological Default
- Falling birth rates show that children are no longer treated as necessary by modern societies.
- Low fertility challenges assumptions that reproduction is an automatic biological default.
Function Shapes Culture
- Cultural change follows changing functional needs, not just politics or policy.
- The Model T replaced horses because cars met transportation needs better and culture adapted around that utility.
Children Replaced By Institutions
- Children have become 'useless' in many households because other institutions now meet former child-based needs.
- Machines, social insurance, and contraception displaced children's economic, old-age, and sexual functions.
