ping to self.
Xer Ping
Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations (i.e. The Baby Boomers) are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.
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Ahh, liberal philosophy at work destroying civilization.
Those from a generation who's parents had such a high divorce rate are cynical about marriage. Who wants to tie the not when she will leave you in 5-10 years and take all your money?
This is just a natural change in society. With technological and economic progress, people want different things from their living and family arrangements than they used to. Those who are constantly wailing about how awful it is that the "nuclear family" is increasingly scarce, are conveniently forgetting that most of the people who are now choosing NOT to participate in such arrangements, did grow up in a "nuclear family" household. It must not have been nearly as wonderful as its cheerleaders claim, or more young adults would have fond memories of living in such families, and want to form similar ones. They certainly aren't making their choices out of ignorance of what "nuclear family" life is like.
It is not possible for a man to enter a legally equitable relationship with a woman. Married men are 2nd class citizens and men married with kids are little more than serfs. I.E. no real claim on their future labor or even the custody and upbringing of their children.
No thanks.
I think it is difficult to get one's hands around this problem and there are many factors: No-fault divorce is one. The ease of travel and consumerist lifestyle is another. A third is high taxes and the high cost of living. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Of one thing, I am sure, though. The country, as a whole will drift "rightward" as time goes on. Conservatives are more likely to have babies (and not abort them) and religious conservatives are more likely to have more babies.
ROTFL. This moron just described the Baby Boomers to a T.
This is an idiotic argument; it presumes that having kids in your 20s is the only way to grow or have fulfillment. So I guess a priest or a monk cannot grow as a person or have a wonderful sense of fulfillment? If this is the only way you can grow or be fulfilled, it brings into question your value as a human being.
The reality is that a very significant chunk of the people who have kids in their 20s today did so as a result of a character flaw, personal stupidity, or random chance. Hardly a ringing endorsement. For most people, it does not make sense to have children in your 20s which is the real reason this is happening -- if it isn't rational, most people won't do it. GenX is under no obligation to meet the vacant ideal of anyone.
With greater prosperity people do not feel the need propagate the world with progeny because they will be able to save enough for themselves to pay people to take care of them in times of infirmary (or depend on the government).
Thus, in the US, Old Europe, Australia and Japan the birthrate has decreased to the point of receding population unless immigrants from poor countries are allowed in.
I do not believe this to be a difference between Baby Boomers and Gen X/Y. It is the perils of prosperity.
Being 40 with kids under 10, I would encourage couples to have kids in their 20s. They can wear me out!
Here in the U.S., at least, I see lots of young people whose parents actively discourage marriage until (fill in blank) . . .
Then at about 25-30, the kids start realizing they'd like to have a family. They start looking around for someone to marry and, guess what, it's not as easy to meet people as it was in college and the few years afterwards.
The other sad thing I have seen more than once is the young person who deliberately delays marriage (urged by parents or not), marries in the early 30's, takes the parents' advice to settle down and build the nest egg for a few years, then gets around to wanting children . . . and it's too late.
Women have been bamboozled into thinking they can snap their fingers and get pregnant any time they want.
Some are sorely disappointed to find out that, after 30, fertility does start a down trend.
Sure, many women get pregnant even in their forties, but for anyone who is sure they want children, any doctor will tell them it's a risk to wait too long.
Of course, that counters the feminazi perspective that a woman must have it all before having children. And it counters the parents who constantly tell their children to make more money first or whatever.
But the biology don't lie.
oh, relax - the pendulum will shift the other way inside ten to twenty years: the nice thing about fads is that they die.
reality will reassert itrself, and the old ways shall return to the forefront.
the only questions:
1. will the lesson stick?
2. will it be too late to save the western culture?
A world of bastards awaits.
At least here in the US there are two factor at work. Firstly tax policies still don't greatly favor having kids as much as they should. And secondly, the fear of how to deal with the indoctrination in the government schools puts a damper on procreation. If it was more financially appealling to have kids, and if the school situation was not so depressing, I think more people would be having kids.
Drastically cutting Social Security benefits for the childless would be a good start.
Moral Absolutes Ping.
Get rid of the family and get rid of human civilization. Or that which makes it human and civilized.* It's that simple.
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*Disagree? Take a look at what happened in NO after the 'cane. Note that among black people in the US, approximately 80 (yes, eighty percent) of babies are born to mothers and fathers who are NOT married (to each other). Illegitimate. Destruction of families causes destroyed individuals.
Absurd. Immigrant families are the largest growing segment of housing buyers. And they are having tons of babies while white GenX'ers are having abortions. Those GenX'ers will spend their lonely, divorced retirements childless and alone, full of regrets, while they also lose political and economic influence to the immigrant groups that replace them. Demographics is power. The idiots quoted in this article will simply disappear. They are not part of the future.
"the boomers were great supporters of mum, dad and the kids"
Boy, Australia must be VASTLY different from USuns!
Most of the U.S. data indicates that Gen-Xers are rejecting the Boomer "Me,Me,Me" navel-contemplating, and instead are planning on having traditional families (as well as rejecting abortion). And the Y-Gen just coming up, apparently, are in large numbers rejecting the no-holds-barred sexual promiscuity of the sixties as well.
So maybe the terminology sounds the same, but reflects very different trends in the U.S. and Australia.