The economic and sociopsychological foundations of the decentralized decisions involved in the production of new labor power, human reproduction, have never been adequately understood. The consequences for the labor markets of the laissez-faire policies of capitalist societies toward human reproduction are discussed from historical, economic, social, political, demographic, and legal perspectives. The extent to which the production of children causes or exacerbates poverty for the producers of the children is discussed, along with the question of how capitalism can rely on a labor force produced by reproductive whim.