Is “Old Europe” Doomed?

Cato Institute ^ | February 6, 2006 | Theodore Dalrymple

[AntiGuv]

Yes. Next question?

[Flavius]

geesh so many words when one can just type

YES

[jjm2111]

yuppers.

[ken5050]

Is the Pope Catholic?

Does a bear s**t in the woods?

Next......

[PeteB570]

Yes!

[dalereed]

Looks like a roadmap of where the US is heading.

[Recon Dad]

I like his take on the EU and its purpose.

[DB]

I believe this article describes the situation well.

Too bad we're on the same path...

[anton]

Oh crap! Just when I was thinkin about moving to France.

[tonycavanagh]

re :Is “Old Europe” Doomed?

No, each decade we have doomsayers telling us that our way of life is under threat, we have had plagues, pestilence one destructive war after another Empires have risen and empires have fallen and still Europe always bounced back.

There is talk about a falling birth rate but the the baby boom was a aberration caused by the end of the war increase health care and people having large families.

Before the war you had large families but some would die during birth or to child hood diseases.

Ok we will for short time have a aging population but when the new generation ages the figures will go back to normal.

As for the Islamic threat, Europe is waking up to the idea that we multi cultural ism in its present form is not workable and you will see as we already have a hardening of attitudes.

[Buffettfan]

The answer is YES

[Ninian Dryhope]

"create administrative jobs on an unprecedented scale, whose principle function consists of obstruction of other people as they try to create wealth"

Boy, isn't this the truth?

[AntiGuv]

I saw an interesting quote some years back from either Plato or Aristotle, I forget which, that basically talks about how the younger generation is debauched and dissolute and how the culture is doomed. I wish I could find it again, but I haven't been able to. Anyhow, it perfectly mirrors the type of thing you see people saying today.

[tonycavanagh]

re :Anyhow, it perfectly mirrors the type of thing you see people saying today.

As long as we have societies we will have the same problems over and over again.

I read a report on how soft Britain was and that she would not be able to shoulder the burden of another great war that was written in the 30s and the Great war was the First Wold War.

[R.W.Ratikal]

It's beginning to look more and more like Old Europe is indeed doomed. Look at what is happening. The birth rate is declining and is negative in some Western European nations.

At the same time Third World immigrants are flooding in with a birth rate like maggots. These masses do not assimilate and are probably not able to merge into a fully civilized country.

Already there are demands that civilized laws be changed to accommodate primitive fundamentalism, the very thing that has held back development in the Third World.

All great civilizations in the past that have fallen have been a victim of massive demographics shifts of inferior or less developed populations. (President Bush, call your office.)

[gaspar]

I always like Plato's quote on Socrates: "The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways - I to die, and you to live. Which is the better, God only knows."

[WashingtonSource]

You're wrong to say that when the aging population dies, things will go back to normal. That would be true, if the birth rate had been sustained at 2.1 per woman. It has not. There will be absolutle declines in populations in Europe and Japan. Canada has only 1.5 births per woman per lifetime. In the U.S. lower birth rates among whites will mean that whites will become a minority in only 35 to 45 years, partly driven by immigration.

[Tolik]

Interesting analysis from the always sharp Theodore Dalrymple!

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[Rummyfan]

Good sober assessment. Time will tell.