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What is the Cause of Low Birth Rates?
Global Politician ^ | 6/2/2007 | Fjordman

Posted on 06/01/2007 11:27:39 PM PDT by Sleeping Beauty

What causes low birth rates? I have debated this issue at some length with blogger Conservative Swede. Among the reasons frequently cited are the welfare state, feminism and secularism. However, if you look closely at the statistics from various countries, the picture gets quite complex, and there doesn’t appear to be an automatic correlation between low birth rates and any one of these factors.

The United States has the highest birth rates in the West, but this is largely due to ethnic minorities. If you compare white Americans to white Europeans, the American birth rate is somewhat higher than those of the Scandinavian nanny states, but still lower than replacement level. Scandinavian countries such as Norway and Sweden do have elaborate welfare states, high degrees of feminism and are not very religious, yet have some of the highest birth rates in the Western world (though still below replacement level.) They are certainly much higher than those in Catholic Poland, perhaps the most conservative religious country in Europe. And they are much higher than those of South Korea, which has more traditional sex roles and where Christianity is booming these days.

The gap between the Western world and the Islamic world in birth rates is clearly caused by religious factors, but the differences between industrialized nations are far more difficult to explain. If the cause is not welfarism, feminism or secularism, then what is it?


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: birthrates; deathofthewest; demographics; eurabia; fjordman; population; populationcontrol
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To: Sleeping Beauty

My favorite is this reason: “... I would then have him trace the process of our moral decline, to watch, first, the sinking of the foundations of morality as the old teaching was allowed to lapse, then the rapidly increasing disintegration, then the final collapse of the whole edifice, and the dark dawning of our modern day when we can neither endure our vices nor face the remedies needed to cure them.....of late years wealth has made us greedy, and self-indulgence has brought us, through every form of sensual excess, to be, if I may so put it, in love with death both individual and collective...” TITUS LIVIUS 59 B.C. TO 17 A.D.


61 posted on 06/05/2007 6:08:10 PM PDT by AEMILIUS PAULUS (It is a shame that when these people give a riot)
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To: donna

Bravo, your tagline.


62 posted on 06/05/2007 6:27:57 PM PDT by Nea Wood (I'm not a bad Christian because I refuse to join you in giving other people's stuff away.)
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To: gardengirl
As to your comment about women wanting more time to themselves-when women work outside the home, the first thing they do when they get home is start cooking, put a load of laundry in, settle the kids for homework-yada, yada,yada. Trying to get all the things done that they should have been doing all day. The men come in, sit down in front of the tv, and complaing because supper’s not on the table! Is it any wonder women need quiet time?!

Thanks for speaking up for the ladies! On threads like this, there are far too many male Freepers who blame women for everything. They sound exactly like Feminazis in reverse.

63 posted on 06/05/2007 6:30:35 PM PDT by Nea Wood (I'm not a bad Christian because I refuse to join you in giving other people's stuff away.)
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To: All
What is the Cause of Low Birth Rates?

Ugly women.

Want me to breed? I need a Playboy Playmate, stat.

64 posted on 06/05/2007 6:48:55 PM PDT by lowbridge ("The mainstream media IS the Democratic Party." - Rush Limbaugh)
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To: Sleeping Beauty

Take the Hillary Clinton/Janet Reno picture away from the side of the bed.


65 posted on 06/05/2007 6:50:57 PM PDT by A CA Guy (God Bless America, God bless and keep safe our fighting men and women.)
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To: Nea Wood

Ha! I like your’s, too.


66 posted on 06/05/2007 7:53:14 PM PDT by donna (They hand off my culture & citizenship to criminals & then call me racist for objecting?)
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To: donna

What about loss of faith? It contributes to breakdown of our culture and society in many different ways and it’s not until we’re actually experiencing living in a culture which exhibits behaviors that would have been unheard of in the past that we realize that a lot has to do with not actually practicing religion. Judeo-Christian values watered down?


67 posted on 06/06/2007 4:09:23 AM PDT by Smocker
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To: Sleeping Beauty
We don't need to increase our birth rate. Our population is growing at .894% annually. Our total fertility rate is at 2.09, or replacement level. In addition we admit 1.1 million legal immigrants a year and 500,000 to one million enter illegally.

Since 1970, the population of the US has increased by 100 million; since 1990, by 53 million; and since 2000, by 20 million or the equivalent of our six largest cities. The Bureau of the Census projects that we will have 364 million by 2030, which translates into 63 million additional people in the next 23 years or the equivalent current population of the UK, and 420 million by 2050 with one-quarter of the population being Hispanic.

68 posted on 06/06/2007 4:20:28 AM PDT by kabar
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To: Nea Wood

Thanks to you for hearing me! Don’t they though? He didn’t hear a word I said. I wonder what he considers housework and cooking and homework if not family? Sometimes, I just need five minutes-even if I don’t do anything but bang my head against a wall. Somehow my comments got turned into a lecture on men being head of household and the Garden of Eden being completely Eve’s fault. I love my husband and my kids but sometimes, it would be nice to be able to go to the bathroom and if I actually closed the door-(horror)-to not hear a voice or a bark on the other side saying “Mom?” Men have no clue. They get up in the morning, are responsible for no one but themselves. My husband used to drive me nuts-why do you have to yell so much in the am? Notice he’s not getting the kids up, or ready for school, or lunches, or homework. LOL! They just don’t get it!


69 posted on 06/06/2007 6:03:21 AM PDT by gardengirl
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To: Smocker

You’re right, because the reason every baby announcement was a celebration was because we all truly believed that each baby was literally a gift from God. I still do!


70 posted on 06/06/2007 9:00:16 AM PDT by donna (They hand off my culture & citizenship to criminals & then call me racist for objecting?)
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To: Sleeping Beauty

Cause of low birthrate:
Children cost money.
Poor people have more children than rich people, that’s why they are poor.


71 posted on 06/06/2007 9:04:55 AM PDT by Aloysius88 (In an emergency, an oak desk makes a fine percussion instrument.)
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To: Sleeping Beauty

In through the out hole and tongue-in-groove could have something to do with it.


72 posted on 06/06/2007 9:06:29 AM PDT by CholeraJoe ("Cruel is a matter of perspective." Cap'n Jack Sparrow)
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To: Sleeping Beauty
Children are a big responsibility. They're expensive, financially and emotionally. Being a parent means sacrifice.

Sadly, in today's world, the noble sacrifice and responsibility of parenthood is derided and mocked. Those who are "Married, With Children" are often viewed with pity and or amazement by others. They wonder why anyone would want to give up so much of their free time and money, just to bring more "curtain climbers" into the world.

It's the direct result of increased selfishness and the demand for immediate gratification. Neither of those two urges are well met by parenting. The deep, profound rewards of parenthood are often realized only after long, difficult struggles with frustration and other emotional ups and downs. To an increasing number of people, it's just not worth the personal cost.

When a society no longer reveres and honors sacrifice, patience, responsibility, wisdom, etc., then decreasing birth rates should be very much expected.

73 posted on 06/06/2007 9:12:20 AM PDT by TChris (The Republican Party is merely the Democrat Party's "away" jersey - Vox Day)
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To: Sleeping Beauty
What is the Cause of Low Birth Rates?

The zero birth rate in my house is directly attributable to confiscatory taxes.

I won't have kids unless I can stay home with them, and we cannot afford to lose half our income.
74 posted on 06/06/2007 9:14:04 AM PDT by Xenalyte (Lord, I apologize . . . and be with the starving pygmies in New Guinea amen.)
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To: donna

There was a great pic on freeper a few years ago-a newborn with a big bow tied around him. The gift tag said-From:God


75 posted on 06/06/2007 9:27:18 AM PDT by gardengirl
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To: TChris

When my kids were younger, they drove me batty! :) Now that I’ve got a grandkid, I’ve started thinking how nice it would have been to have more kids. LOL! I never would have survived more than the three I had. Of course, if we’d had more money, more kids wouldn’t have been such a problem.


76 posted on 06/06/2007 9:33:34 AM PDT by gardengirl
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To: Trebics

Thanks for the Spengler quote. this is a bump to myself to read the book.


77 posted on 06/06/2007 9:36:36 AM PDT by Puddleglum
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To: donna

totally agree, and also love your tag line.


78 posted on 06/06/2007 6:22:07 PM PDT by Smocker
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To: Sleeping Beauty
the differences between industrialized nations are far more difficult to explain.

They may not be worth explaining. Do you have any idea whether thse differences are statistically significant? That should be your first question before pursuing further a tangent which may turn out to be a cul-de-sac.

79 posted on 06/06/2007 6:30:18 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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