Posted on 01/27/2009 11:06:53 AM PST by NYer
Its a statistical fact that population decline follows a rise in affluence. Eventually the more populated countries will slow down and the ratios will be more static.
Children are a gift from God, not a financial burden. There are natural means of preventing birth. The rest is up to God.
Just thought I'd add that little nugget you seem to have forgotten.
Please understand, I'm not saying social security and medicare are good things. I am saying that it is unfair to expect those who paid into those systems their whole lives to just walk away from that money.
Personally, I'd like to see the money that is SUPPOSED to be in those two programs for those who are still working given to those individuals to invest as they see fit. Of course, we'd have to cut other things to fund social security and medicare for those already on them. I imagine we could do so pretty easily if people of sound mind were given the chance. (Foreign aid, particularly to Islamic and communist nations comes to mind, as does welfare for those who can work but won't.)
Yes. Isn’t it self-evident?
From the Article:
“Some of us remember when births weren’t controlled and pregnancies weren’t planned.
...snip...
The decline of marriage and the rise of cohabitation. Not surprisingly, in relationships without commitment, people have fewer children. By the way, the left’s contribution to the coming population crisis is to push the one type of ‘marriage’ (and I use the term advisedly) that can’t conceivably produce children.
“But perhaps,” he concluded, “the most important factor is a culture (including Hollywood, the news media and academia) that tells people that children are a burden, rather than a joy; that pushes an ego-driven, live-for-the-moment ethic; a culture that tells us that contentment comes from careers, love, friendship, pets, possessions, travel, personal growth - anything and everything except family and children. It’s a culture that can look at Sarah Palin and her beautiful family and ask why she had to have 5 children and why she didn’t abort her child with Downs syndrome.”
Where I think the article needs clarification: it’s misleading to think that people did not plan children in the past; neglects discussion of purposeful planning to cooperate with God in the pro-creative act.
Where I agree: His analysis of the anti-family culture of death is completely accurate.
Anyone interested in examining the data should check out American economist Peter G. Peterson’s book “Gray Dawn” (Random House, 1999). He provides a wealth of statistics and facts to back up his thesis. It’s just one of a number of books and reports that give the hard numbers that tell the story:
Funny there sure seem to be a lot of people here despite using contraceptives. They aren’t always perfect....many people will attest to.
“I assume the rise in US fertility over the last 20 years or so is due to the fertility of immigrants.”
You are correct and I’ve seen the graphs that demonstrate this.
Americans and Europeans, although the richest people on earth, believe that they cannot afford children.
Muslims, on the other hand, plan to dominate the world and are having the children to do it.
Okay, so I’m 51 and intend to have no more children. But less children mean the burden on those alive now will increase as I age. So, what “cost cutting” measure will save taxpayer dollars when I’m 85?
From the Article:
“Some of us remember when births weren’t controlled and pregnancies weren’t planned.
...snip...
Lots of guys with defective condoms would tend to strongly disagree with this statement.
So, as people live longer and longer, the solution is to have more and more children, who will grow up and live and longer and longer, but that’s OK because they have more and more children, etc.
Somehow that doesn’t sound like a viable solution.
Yes, I think that’s largely the case. US birth-rate numbers seem to be skewed higher because of the higher birth rates among our immigrants.
Definition of "underclass:" Anyone less educated, less cultured, less affluent than I.
Regards,
It may have been around but ALL Christian Churches banned the used of artificial birth control. That was until the Lambeth Congress of 1930 when the Anglicans tossed that notion and began contracepting. Only the Catholic Church has maintained the ban on artificial birth control while approving natural family planning. Catholics who do not heed this teaching are in a state of sin.
There is a flipside to this argument that nobody cares to mention either.
Today people are selfish for not wanting a lot of kids.
But back 100+ years ago when there was no state welfare and most people were agrarian, they had a lot of kids because they needed help, and they needed someone to take care of them when they got old, and having lots of kids ensured help, and care for themselves because many would survive to make it to adulthood and be able to care for the parents. It’s just as selfish a reason to have them if that’s a contributing factor in your reasons to have kids.
Your statement supports the following (though not in the totality of what I was attempting to state):
Some of us remember when births weren’t controlled and pregnancies weren’t planned.”
;-)
Immigration cannot be the only factor, because West Europe has immigration as well, especially from former colonies.
Another factor has got to be the higher level of religiosity in the US compared to Europe. Attendant with that are larger families, whether contraception is formally denounced as in Catholicism or simply practiced less.
I can’t afford children. The state of California has me busy paying taxes to support the children of illegal aliens. I’d be mean spirited if I had kids of my own and forced the poor Mexican kids to have to go hungry. [/s]
GOOD history which most are unaware of...
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