Latest news with #Guzzo
CTV News
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Terrebonne Cinemas Guzzo reopens after months-long closure
A Guzzo cinema sign is seen on a store front in Montreal on Tuesday, June 18, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson
Vox
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Vox
Would a baby boom be good for kids?
is a senior correspondent for Vox, where she covers American family life, work, and education. Previously, she was an editor and writer at the New York Times. She is also the author of three novels, including the New York Times bestseller Outlawed. Would kids be happier if there were more kids in the world? Getty Images/fStop This story originally appeared in Kids Today, Vox's newsletter about kids, for everyone. Sign up here for future editions. The pronatalists have entered the White House. Today, however, I want to look at pronatalist policies through a slightly different lens: whether they benefit kids. People who want to boost birth rates generally talk about the importance of children to society as a whole: We need more kids, they often say, to pay into Social Security and take care of us when we're old. But what about the kids themselves? Are pronatalist policies, and pronatalism in general, in their best interest? In some cases, these questions can be easily answered with data. In others, they're more about values. Is a world with more kids inherently better for kids? Is championing childbirth the best way to show kids that they're valued? The answers to these questions are complex, but the experts I spoke to were clear about one thing: If the United States aims to be a pro-child country, we have a long way to go. The idea that really helps kids Of all the pronatalist policies reportedly under consideration, one is straightforwardly good for kids, experts told me. That would be the one where the government gives parents money. Five thousand dollars may not pay for day care — and it may not substantially boost birth rates — but it could be enough to allow a parent to stay home for a few more weeks with a new baby, said Karen Guzzo, a family demographer and director of the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. That extra leave would benefit baby and parents alike, research suggests. The money could also help defray the costs of a birth (often expensive even with insurance) and of necessities like car seats and strollers (which could be about to go up in price). If it helps keep families solvent during a time of financial upheaval, a baby bonus could benefit children in the long run, since financial stability is good for kids' health and learning. 'I'm all for giving families money,' Guzzo said. In fact, a similar policy already had impressive results. During the Biden administration, the American Rescue Plan expanded the child tax credit from a maximum of $2,000 to between $3,000 and $3,600 per child per year, and made it fully available to poor families. As a result, child poverty dropped to the lowest level on record, and the number of kids going hungry appeared to decrease as well. However, the expanded child tax credit lapsed at the end of 2021, and child poverty immediately spiked again. Republicans are reportedly interested in bringing the expanded credit back, but the path for any legislation remains unclear. For now, 'it is frustrating to hear that we are thinking of giving one-time bonuses when we already had a plan that worked' to reduce child poverty, 'and we got rid of that,' Guzzo said. Is it better to be one of many? Other policies reportedly under consideration, like giving a medal to moms with more than six children or reserving a certain percentage of Fulbright scholarships for married people or parents, are unlikely to do much of anything for kids or birth rates, according to Philip Cohen, a sociology professor at the University of Maryland who studies demographic trends. But more broadly, it's worth thinking about whether the pronatalist project in general — producing more births — is good for children. Some observers argue that certain countries with low birth rates have become actively anti-child. In South Korea, for example, hundreds of restaurants, museums, and other public spaces bar children from entering. These 'no-kids zones' make life difficult for parents, who have begun to campaign against them, but they arguably limit kids' opportunities to enjoy and learn about the world as well. 'We don't fund school systems, we don't fund child care, we do not fund leave programs. We are so not pro-family in the United States.' — Karen Guzzo, director of the Carolina Population Center at UNC at Chapel Hill If pronatalism led to more children and therefore more tolerance of children in public space, or even to child-friendly urban design, it could benefit kids. For example, child-centric neighborhoods where kids were able to 'flow out their doors' and form 'their own little society' would be both fun for kids and beneficial for them as adults by potentially making them more self-sufficient and able to advocate for themselves, Trent MacNamara, a history professor at Texas A&M University who has written about fertility rates, told me. Some experts worry about the decline of autonomy and free play among children today, and for MacNamara, it's possible to imagine that having more children around could bring some of that freedom back. 'Maybe if you do build a more child-centered society, it's easier for parents to think of kids as running their own show,' he said. There are also intangibles to think about — the joys (and trials) of growing up with a lot of siblings, or a lot of cousins, or as part of a big generation. Having a lot of kids around helps both adults and other children get in touch with 'their wilder side' and 'let go a little bit,' MacNamara said. However, because pronatalism often goes hand in hand with patriarchal values, it's not necessarily great for the roughly half of children who happen to be girls, Cohen noted. It's also not completely clear that a world with more births is always a better one for kids. Around the world, 'the decline of fertility has been a key part of rising living standards' for kids and adults alike, Cohen said. Fewer kids can mean more resources per kid — for example, falling birth rates in the US are one reason that state and local governments have been able to expand publicly supported preschool. Birth rates falling below a certain point could be bad for kids — if, for example, their schools close. But when it comes to policy, the most pro-child ideas aren't necessarily the ones advocates typically bring up to increase birth rates. Kids need food, housing, health care, and education, and they need 'the confidence that those things will be there for them in the future, and that their families will be there for them in the future,' Cohen said. Policies that would bring stability to parents and kids include robust paid leave, access to health care before and after birth, and subsidized high-quality child care, Guzzo told me. Some pronatalists have pushed for such supports, but right now, they feel out of reach in many parts of the country. 'We don't fund school systems, we don't fund child care, we do not fund leave programs,' Guzzo said. 'We are so not pro-family in the United States.' What I'm reading Three children who are US citizens were sent to Honduras last week along with their mothers, who were deported. One is a 4-year-old with Stage 4 cancer who was removed from the country without his medication, advocates say. Cuts to the federal government have had a profound effect on programs serving kids, affecting everything from education to safe drinking water. My little kid and I have been reading Nothing's Wrong! a picture book about an anxious rabbit and the bear friend who makes him feel better. My kid refers to this only as 'the cool book,' for reasons that remain unclear. From my inbox Last week, my story about mental health days for kids reached Sean, a reader who is a high school student in California, when he was, in fact, taking a mental health day. 'There is a freedom in knowing that when I take on things outside of school to boost my college resume, I can also alleviate some of the pressure that school puts on me,' he wrote. 'Yesterday, the thought of going to school made me feel zombified and my usual motivation had melted away, but by the time Monday rolls around, I expect to feel at least somewhat motivated to go.'
CBS News
27-04-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
The trends behind the historically low U.S. birth rate
What could be driving a low U.S. birth rate What could be driving a low U.S. birth rate This week, correspondent Jon Wertheim reported from Japan, the land of declining sons and daughters. Over the last 15 years, the East Asian country has seen its population decline, amid low birth rates and falling marriage rates. Last year, more than two people died for every baby born in Japan, a net loss of almost a million people. 60 Minutes reported on efforts by the Tokyo government to reverse this: shortened workweeks for government workers and a citywide dating app, both initiatives aiming to encourage people to get married and start families. A young leader was elected to the Japanese Parliament last year; her campaign centered on transforming rural areas—where there have been diminishing economic opportunities—into viable working and living environments for young families. She believes revitalizing the countryside will help ease the population decline. While these efforts are just the latest attempts to address demographic issues, previous attempts by the government have not made a significant impact on the country's fertility rate. Wertheim told 60 Minutes Overtime that, in some ways, Japan is a "canary in a coal mine." "This is a real barometer of what a number of countries, the United States included, is going to confront in terms of demographics in the next decades and even centuries," he said. In fact, like Japan, the United States has seen its birth rate steadily decline over the last 15 years. On Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that the total fertility rate was 1.6 children per woman in the United States, or 1,626.5 births per 1,000 women. That is a less than 1% increase from 2023— a year that marked a record low, and well below the total fertility rate of 2.1 needed to naturally maintain the population. 60 Minutes Overtime spoke with Dr. Thoại Ngô, chair of Columbia University's Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health. "The big data story from the CDC data is that women under the age of 30 are having less babies," Dr. Ngo explained. "Teenage pregnancy has been declining and… [there's] a macro-societal shift on how people value family, work, and personal fulfillment moving forward." Breaking down the data The recent CDC data shows the birth rate of teenagers between 15 and 19 dropped from 13.1 to 12.7, part of a long downward trend that started in the 1990s. 60 Minutes Overtime also spoke with Dr. Karen Benjamin Guzzo, director of the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina. Guzzo said the largest contributing factor to the decline in teenage pregnancies is the increased use of more effective contraception. "The United States has always had much higher rates of teen and unplanned pregnancies than other countries," Dr. Guzzo explained. "This is a success story… that people are able to avoid having births early on, when they themselves would say, 'This is not the right time for me.'" But taking overall trends into account, American women between the ages of 20-29 are also having fewer babies, and may be opting out of having children altogether. Dr. Kenneth M. Johnson is senior demographer at the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire. In an interview, Dr. Johnson said finding out what's happening among this particular age group is the "big question" and many factors are at play. He pointed to one trend that could explain part of it: many young women are delaying marriage, and a significant share of that group is delaying having children. And within those marriages, the time taken between marriage and childbirth is now longer than it has historically been. "In a sense, it's just pushing everything further out," he told 60 Minutes Overtime. And despite more women in their late 30s having children, "it's not making up for fertility declines among younger women," he said. "What's coming to appear is that a lot of these babies are just going to be forgone entirely. They're not going to be born." A fear of economic decline The worrisome scenario for countries who face low birth rates is a small young population and a much larger elderly population. In theory, a smaller young population would not be able to contribute to the workforce, attend schools and universities, pay for goods and services, pay taxes, start businesses and create economic growth at the level that the previous generation did, since there would simply not be enough people to contribute at the same scale. In that scenario, institutions used to larger amounts of young people, like hospitals, schools, and businesses, wouldn't have the number of patients, students and customers needed to maintain growth. And that could create economic decline and unemployment due to reduced demand. Dr. Ken Johnson of the University of New Hampshire described a scenario feared by universities called the "demographic cliff." "Right now, [the demographic cliff is] a big worry at the university level, because the amount of young people is declining," he told Overtime Dr. Johnson explained that babies who were born in 2008, when the birth rate first started to decline, are now 17 years old and matriculating into college. And the gap between how many babies would have been born, based on the birth rates then, and how many were actually born has already started to widen. "There will be 100,000 fewer kids than there might have been who reach the age of college freshmen next year, and the gap will widen to 500,00 a year in three years and nearly a million a year in ten years," Dr. Johnson said. Another concern is Social Security and elder care, which arguably requires a proportionate young population to take care of the elderly population. "Young people are paying tax into the system so that it can keep the [Social] Security system up and running for the older generation," Dr. Thoại Ngô of Columbia University told Overtime. "But it's also the young people [who] are meant to take care of the older generation." Trump administration hearing proposals The Trump administration is listening to proposals that would encourage more people to have children. Some of these ideas include financial incentives like a "baby bonus" for new mothers and an expanded child tax credit that would reduce the tax burden on new families. But Dr. Ngô thinks cash incentives are unlikely to have a significant impact on the U.S. fertility rate. "I think the global evidence is very clear: we can't buy fertility," he told 60 Minutes Overtime. "Japan [has] invested so much in the last 40 years, and their fertility [rate] is still at 1.2…South Korea [has] invested $200 billion into boosting up fertility, and it hasn't worked. Their total fertility rate is at 0.7." The University of North Carolina's Dr. Karen Benjamin Guzzo explained that the state of the economy and a hopefulness about the future are stronger influences on would-be parents. "People really need to feel confident about the future… having kids is sort of an irreversible decision and it's a long-term one,'" she explained. She said the Trump administration should take a closer look at solving the difficulties and expense of child care. "We have child care deserts in the United States where you cannot find affordable, accessible childcare in a reasonable distance," she said. "[If] you're in major cities… you're talking like $1,400 a month in child care and there's a nine month waiting list. "We don't have sufficient child care infrastructure. That's where we should be building." The Trump administration has also issued an executive order that aims to make IVF treatments more accessible for those who can't afford them. Dr. Thoại Ngô is optimistic that affordable IVF treatment would have an impact and allow couples who want children to do so more easily. "Lowering the cost of IVF is great for a couple who wants to have babies. And I think we have to do it in a fair way… all couples who want [a] baby should have access to that." Finding demographic solutions Fertility rates and birth rates are helpful indicators to understand where a population may be heading, but these statistics only focus on births. Population change is also influenced by mortality, immigration, technological advancements and many other social, economic, and technological factors. "Not everybody is going to like it, but… immigration, technology, and education can all help keep the economy dynamic," Columbia University's Ngô told Overtime. "The rise of AI [will] replace a lot of mundane and repetitive jobs… it opens [the] door for investment in training, and education in quality jobs, in enjoyable jobs." UNC's Dr. Karen Benjamin Guzzo believes that immigration could make up for future shortfalls in labor. "Our health care industry actually uses quite a bit of immigrant labor… they're often willing to work in places that are rural, where it's harder to get [Americans] to live." Dr. Ngô said a reallocation of resources, a supportive set of policies and programs, like paid family leave and better child care, and a strong economy could allow all parents to have a child more easily, without worrying about the financial stress. "Better health care, economic stability, and a more thriving set of [policies could] allow people to have a freedom of choice in terms of what kind of life they want for themself." The video above was produced by Will Croxton. It was edited by Sarah Shafer. Jane Greeley was the broadcast associate.
Cision Canada
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Cision Canada
Ciné Starz Acquires Two More Guzzo Cinemas
Leading cinema chain to redefine movie-going with CinéStarz Deluxe experience MONTREAL, April 25, 2025 /CNW/ - Following the recent receivership and closure of Guzzo Cinemas, Ciné Starz is excited to announce the acquisition of two more former Guzzo theatres in Longueuil and Greenfield Park. This move marks a significant growth for Ciné Starz, one of Canada's leading independent cinema operators, as it accelerates its footprint across Québec and Ontario. "This expansion represents more than the acquisition of cinemas — it's a reaffirmation of our belief in the future of theatrical exhibition," says Bruce Gurberg, CEO of Ciné Starz. "We are investing in communities and technology to ensure our theatres remain essential cultural hubs." The two theatres, rebranded as CinéStarz Deluxe Longueuil and CinéStarz Deluxe Taschereau, will serve both Francophone and Anglophone communities, screening films in both languages. The new Deluxe locations will be renovated, featuring: The CSX – Ciné Starz Experience, promising premium cinema experiences at reasonable prices Luxurious fully reclining seats, state-of-the-art screens and sound, dynamic food options A community-first approach that aligns with Ciné Starz's long-standing commitment to accessible entertainment "With the revitalization of these theatres," Gurberg adds, "we can't wait to bring our award-winning CSX – Ciné Starz Experience to the communities in Longueuil and Greenfield Park, focusing on delivering a deluxe movie-going experience at an affordable price." Movie-goers won't have to wait long for the highly anticipated Ciné Starz Experience at CinéStarz Deluxe Longueuil and CinéStarz Deluxe Taschereau, as the two movie theatres are set to open by the end of May 2025. About Ciné Starz Ciné Starz is one of Canada's leading cinema chains with locations across Québec and Ontario, and a two-time winner of the prestigious Best of Montreal award for their Deluxe Cavendish location. Established over two decades ago, Ciné Starz's recent expansion follows their acquisition in February of former Guzzo theatre in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, now 'CinéStarz Deluxe Des Sources,' set to open Summer 2025. SOURCE Out There Productions Inc.
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
The fertility rate was stable in 2024, but it's still near record lows
As the Trump administration renews its focus on declining birth rates in the U.S., new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that births were fairly stable in 2024, rising 1% over the year prior. There were 3,622,673 births in the U.S. last year, according to a CDC report released Wednesday. Overall, the number of births declined by 2% per year, on average, from 2015 through 2020 and fluctuated in the years since, according to the report. The report also estimated the birth rate among women ages 15 to 44, referred to more specifically as the fertility rate. The rate declined from 2014 to 2020, then fluctuated through 2024. The fertility rate last year was 54.6 births per 1,000 women, the report found — a 0.2% uptick compared with 2023. Brady Hamilton, the report's main author and a CDC statistician, said the data marks 'a continuation of the general downward trend in births to teenagers and upward trend in births to older women seen for the last three or so decades.' However, he said the CDC could not speak to the reasons behind the trend. Sociologists who examined the CDC data said it largely reflects women who delayed having children in their 20s finally choosing to do so in their 30s and 40s. Birth rates increased last year among women ages 25 to 44, but declined among teenagers and those under 25. 'It's not that people are deciding against having kids at all,' said Karen Benjamin Guzzo, director of the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Rather, she said, people are asking themselves: 'Do I have the right partner? If I have another baby in child care, what would that do to my expenses? Does my job feel stable?' Those same concerns might also compel parents to have fewer children, Guzzo said. The average woman in 2024 had one to two biological children, according to the CDC report, compared with more than three in 1960. The overall fertility rate in the U.S. has declined since 2007 — a pattern sociologists expect to continue, despite the nominal uptick last year. While the economy has generally improved since the 'Great Recession,' many people still don't feel like their financial position has gotten better, said Sarah Hayford, director of the Institute for Population Research at Ohio State University. 'In a lot of places, the housing market is really challenging, and that's something that a lot of people want to have kind of in place before they have children,' she said. Guzzo said the Trump administration's tariffs on imported goods and gutting of federal programs that support women and children could add to a climate of women delaying having kids or deciding not to altogether. The Trump administration, for its part, has lamented the decline in birth rates. Vice President JD Vance called for 'more babies in the United States of America' at an anti-abortion rally in January. And Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that same month that communities with higher-than-average marriage and birth rates should be prioritized for federal transportation funds. President Donald Trump dubbed himself 'the fertilization president' at a White House event in March. His executive order to expand access to in vitro fertilization emphasizes 'the importance of family formation' and calls for making it easier 'for loving and longing mothers and fathers to have children.' Tech billionaire Elon Musk, a senior Trump adviser, has also referred to declining birth rates as a danger to humanity's survival. According to the CDC report, the birth rate in the U.S. is far below what's known as the 'replacement level,' where enough babies are being born that a population can keep its size from one generation to the next. The New York Times reported Monday that the White House is weighing proposals to incentivize childbirth, including a $5,000 cash bonus to mothers after delivery. But sociologists said those efforts aren't likely to reverse declining birth rates. A 2021 study of 'baby bonuses' in South Korea found that most of the money went to women who would have had a child regardless of the incentive. 'You can't just flip a switch and change the birth rate,' said Julia Strasser, an assistant research professor at the George Washington University Fitzhugh Mullan Institute for Health Workforce Equity. 'The economic requirements — not just for having babies, but for raising babies — last a very long time, and $5,000 doesn't really go a long way towards supporting that,' she added. Sociologists generally agreed that low fertility or birth rates aren't an inherent problem. In fact, they said, the decline in teen birth rates is a positive trend. 'It's good news when people can avoid having kids at periods of their life where they themselves would say, 'This is not the right time,'' Guzzo said. This article was originally published on
