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The Baby Bust Generation
Townhall.com ^ | December 16, 2012 | Jeff Jacoby

Posted on 12/17/2012 4:28:04 AM PST by Kaslin

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To: Kaslin; mgist; raptor22; victim soul; Isabel2010; Smokin' Joe; Michigander222; PJBankard; ...
+

Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:

Add me / Remove me

Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.

21 posted on 12/17/2012 6:00:31 AM PST by narses
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To: afraidfortherepublic

Thanks! One of my boys was 9 lbs. It was a surprise to see such a big baby!

Most of the people I know with large families also have pets, so it’s not one or the other, as the author writes. We currently have “only” six pets (two cats, four lizards), but we’ve had as many as 11 at one time.


22 posted on 12/17/2012 6:01:44 AM PST by Tax-chick (I'm a nightmare, not a dream.)
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To: napscoordinator

It could mean that your circle of friends aren’t guilt ridden whacked out liberals.


23 posted on 12/17/2012 6:03:27 AM PST by listenhillary (Courts, law enforcement, roads and national defense should be the extent of government)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

Congratulations!


24 posted on 12/17/2012 6:06:27 AM PST by RedMDer (Please support Toys for Tots this CHRISTmas season.)
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To: vet7279

Narcissism at its finest.

**
Amen


25 posted on 12/17/2012 6:08:03 AM PST by Bigg Red (Sorry, Mr. Franklin, I guess we couldn't keep it.)
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To: listenhillary

It could mean that your circle of friends aren’t guilt ridden whacked out liberals.

That definitely has something to do with it. However, in my parents circle which included only Christian Republicans they were only having two children for the most part...My parents are 67 years old. My parents did have 3 but was looked on as “a lot”. My friends are mostly conservative but I have a few RINO friends amongst them. They vote Republican but are not near as conservative as my wife and I are.


26 posted on 12/17/2012 6:10:50 AM PST by napscoordinator (GOP Candidate 2020 - "Bloomberg 2020 - We vote for whatever crap the GOP puts in front of us.")
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To: Strategerist
We’re not going to be going back to an unmechanized agriculture society anytime soon.

Well, not intentionally, anyway, but it is the unintended consequences which could make that a reality.

27 posted on 12/17/2012 6:17:53 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing)
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To: Joe 6-pack

Doggy ping list and Kitty ping list if you know who has that.


28 posted on 12/17/2012 6:19:51 AM PST by verga (A nation divided by Zero!)
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To: RedMDer

Thank you much!


29 posted on 12/17/2012 6:21:05 AM PST by afraidfortherepublic
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To: Smokin' Joe

That was my thought when reading that post -

a “subsistence agrarian society” is EXACTLY what we’re “going back to soon”.


30 posted on 12/17/2012 6:23:06 AM PST by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: Kaslin

Or it could be that after a couple generations of no fault divorce, a divorce rate of over 50% which has created a vast public/private divorce industry and a “family court” system that is very hostile to fathers, many men are saying no when it comes to playing this game. The risk/reward math no longer pencils out.


31 posted on 12/17/2012 6:26:49 AM PST by Orangedog (An optimist is someone who tells you to 'cheer up' when things are going his way)
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To: AnAmericanMother; Titan Magroyne; Badeye; SandRat; arbooz; potlatch; afraidfortherepublic; ...
WOOOF!

Computer Hope

The Doggie Ping list is for FReepers who would like to be notified of threads relating to all things canid. If you would like to join the Doggie Ping Pack (or be unleashed from it), FReemail me.

32 posted on 12/17/2012 6:39:54 AM PST by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: Orangedog

If the drop in birthrate were limited to societies in which those circumstances prevailed, then the, shall we say, “male crisis” might be considered causative. However, below-replacement birthrates are found in countries with a wide variety of legal and social systems.


33 posted on 12/17/2012 6:40:07 AM PST by Tax-chick (I'm a nightmare, not a dream.)
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To: AnAmericanMother; Titan Magroyne; Badeye; SandRat; arbooz; potlatch; afraidfortherepublic; ...
WOOOF!

Computer Hope

The Doggie Ping list is for FReepers who would like to be notified of threads relating to all things canid. If you would like to join the Doggie Ping Pack (or be unleashed from it), FReemail me.

34 posted on 12/17/2012 6:40:34 AM PST by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: vladimir998

Yes..and abortion! There will be great hell to pay.


35 posted on 12/17/2012 6:42:53 AM PST by fabian (" And a new day will dawn for those who stand long, and the forests will echo in laughter")
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To: Kaslin

It began striking me not long ago in any large public gathering (concert, sporting event, church service) how few pregnant women I was actually seeing. Just by the sheer law of averages common sense was telling me I should have been seeing many more.


36 posted on 12/17/2012 6:47:56 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: vladimir998

Is it better to have unexpected babies?


37 posted on 12/17/2012 7:09:02 AM PST by stuartcr ("Everything happens as God wants it to, otherwise, things would be different.")
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To: Kaslin

Demographically, when a nation reaches a particular economic plateau unique to them, suddenly its birthrate drops from strong growth to just a “maintenance” birthrate of 2.1 to 2.3 children per family.

The most recent of these drops has happened in Mexico and much of the Arab world.

Importantly, government and culture are almost incapable of increasing the birthrate, but they can drive it down even further rather easily.

Only once has this situation been reversed, in the post-WWII baby boom in the US, which came about because of a unique set of conditions.

To start with, during the war there was a long period of “delayed sexuality”, in which many men and women who otherwise would have had sex for pleasure instead of procreation, could not. This meant that when the men came home, the emphasis for sex had shifted strongly to procreation. This abstinence meant that they had a great abundance, a surplus of energy, to make and raise children.

The next factor was the explosive growth of cities with suburbs across the US. Suburbia is far better for having and raising children than are high density urban areas. And along with these new cities and suburbs there was a huge demand for high wage employment.

Importantly, these jobs were for men, but with relatively low taxes, a single breadwinner could support his family, with his wife at home to raise their children. While many more women were educated, being left at home and bored was a good motivation to have children.

Another factor was how these boom towns had few adult entertainments, and were designed with a family orientation, that is, plenty of churches, schools, children’s recreation, shopping malls, etc.

There is also a long list of the things government and the culture did to dampen down the baby boom, and to drive the birthrate down strongly after this period; and most of these restraints still exist today.


38 posted on 12/17/2012 7:09:14 AM PST by yefragetuwrabrumuy (Pennies and Nickels will NO LONGER be Minted as of 1/1/13 - Tim Geithner, US Treasury Sect)
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To: Strategerist
Yep, declining birth rate is an inevitable result of children becoming an economic burden rather than benefit.

Declining birth rate is the way we're locking in economic decline.

39 posted on 12/17/2012 7:47:55 AM PST by Romulus
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To: Joe 6-pack

Just watched a program on the “Black Death”.

After burning itself out in the wake of killing nearly 50% of the population of Europe, the Plague actually caused a Baby Boom.

Good grief...I hope we don’t need something like THAT to adjust the American Birthrate!


40 posted on 12/17/2012 7:51:23 AM PST by left that other site (Worry is the Darkroom that Develops Negatives.)
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