A core rationale for the new programs was to use government spending to alternatively mop up all that labor, or ship the now-former soldiers off to university for a few years to defer the pain. Many debated (and still debate) the pros and cons of so permanently expanding the government’s footprint, but it is undeniable that with all these pieces in place, America experienced the greatest baby boom of its history. Between war’s end and 1965, more than 70 million births occurred in a country that before the war had under 135 million souls.
