12 america's baby shortage, big tech is winning

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big idea: census says america needs more babies

1. the first results of the 2020 census were released this week, which dictates how house seats, electoral college votes, and federal spending are allocated
2. the midwest and northeast did surprisingly well, losing fewer house seats than expected to the south and west, with minnesota not losing a seat by just 26 residents. dems will lose 2-4 reliably blue house seats as a result.
3. however, the bigger story is that the US population grew by only 7.4% since 2010, the second slowest rate of growth ever. this was caused both by reduced immigration and lower birth rates. fewer new americans means slower economic growth, which means fewer new americans...it’s a vicious cycle much of europe and china are already trapped in. who knew babies didn’t just mean two years of no sleep and dirty diapers?
4. demographers believe the US is already locked into lower birth rates (as typically happens in most developed economies, with only the US bucking that trend until now), so Joe wants to make things easier for families, with proposals unveiled wednesday to provide free childcare & pre-K. even low immigration numbers will be tough to increase. mexico, our largest source of immigrants, has a growing middle class, resulting in fewer immigrants. 
5. we’ll also get out our soapbox and scream into the abyss for an expanded house, which could reduce gerrymandering's impact and increase the electoral college’s proportionality

story to watch: big tech is winning

1. this week, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google reported massive revenue and profit jumps so far this year. Google’s YouTube will bring in more money than all of Netflix, the iPhone brings in more money for Apple than all of Microsoft’s products, Amazon’s ad business alone brought in seven times Twitter’s revenues, and Facebook’s Instagram generated more money than Snap, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and TikTok - combined.
2. big tech didn’t simply survive the pandemic - it thrived and grew beyond anyone’s expectations. while there was an increasing drumbeat to rein in their monopolistic control thru much of last year, it seems that that momentum has been lost. the bigger these companies get, the easier it is for them to keep power.
3. while the EU announced an antitrust case against Apple’s App Store this week, it’s clear big tech is winning the overall war. it’s also clear consumers don’t seem to care about their lack of choice, as long as it means your organic, locally-sourced goat’s milk can be delivered in two hours with Amazon Prime. 

this week’s image: moonlit babysitting

• (Getty) a vietnamese grandkid takes his grandpa out for a bike ride

this week’s number: GDP rockets by 6.4% in Q1

1. the US GDP jumped a staggering 6.4% from January to March, the fastest rate since 1984. while we’re only 1% away from our pre-COVID GDP, we’re still more than 8 million jobs in the hole. it’s clear many of those jobs will never come back, and our economy has fundamentally changed.
2. while the travel and food industries will likely bounce back this summer, other sectors, like fossil fuels, healthcare, and commercial real estate face different consumer landscapes. even sectors which are doing well, like manufacturing, will change as they try to prevent supply disruptions (like the computer chip shortage). let’s be real though, whoever actually liked staying in hotels before COVID?
3. it’s also unclear how long the US can grow while the rest of the world is ravaged by ‘rona. Joe is sending 60 million unused AstraZeneca shots abroad and millions of Pfizer vaccines to Mexico, Canada, & Brazil, but that’s just a drop in the bucket compared to what’s needed.

what we’re reading: “An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth”

1. suggested by reader M.H., Chris Hadfield, our favorite YouTube viral star and canada’s most famous astronaut, shares his experiences in space in an unexpectedly funny, visually stimulating, and emotionally poignant memoir. don’t worry, we were also surprised to find out canada has a space program.
2. the book includes tidbits like NASA’s claustrophobia test, which is basically zipping candidates up in a giant beach ball for an indeterminate amount of time, and how you lose the ability to tell which direction is up in space

and, in case you missed it:

• Facebook & Twitter are censoring anti-Modi posts in india, at the government’s request, amid a covid tsunami and US travel ban
• Joe wants to ban menthol cigarettes, which historically have been marketed towards blacks
• on wednesday, houston drivers encountered two separate traffic jams caused by a cow and an alligator. one man got out of his car and tried to lasso the cow himself before cops showed up, because #texas.

the weekly rundown is produced by Yunus, Faisal (@faisalc93), and Ahmed (@ahmedhcheema). learn more about us and email us your comments and feedback!