If You Are Contracepting, You Are Part of A Very Big Problem

Madrid Blogspot ^ | January 27, 2009 | Patrick Madrid

[NYer]

Global aging, combined with plummeting birth rates, is a catastrophically dangerous menace that only a few people seem to be waking up to. You may not be familiar with terms like “global aging” and “demographic winter,” but you will be soon.

I've been giving public lectures on the problem of global aging for the past 7 years or so, and my audiences are always shocked and dumbfounded as I explain how the West's ever expanding population of old people (due, thank God, to the ever-improving capabilities of bio-medical science), while a good thing in itself, will soon become a prime target for the forced-euthanasia crowd as the decline in birth rates among women of child-bearing age throughout the West (as well as major non-Western countries like Japan and Russia) forces an ever-shrinking number of younger, working citizens to shoulder the economic burden of paying for the retirement benefits consumed by the ever-expanding population of retired, old folks.

This is a lethal combination that will, I am certain, begin playing itself out with horrifying new consequences within the next 10, 15, 20 years. Perhaps sooner. It's hard to predict. What we do know for sure, though, is that the West has been marinating for decades now in the bloody serum of legalized abortion, and it breathes the toxic atmosphere of ubiquitous pornography, consumerism, and the contraception mentality. What would have been unthinkable to Americans a mere 50 years ago (gay marriage, a billion-dollar abortion industry, the rise of euthanasia, etc.) has become commonplace and increasingly  unremarkable in this generation.

Where are we headed?

American economist Peter G. Peterson, in his book Gray Dawn: How the Coming Age Wave Will Transform America and the World (Random House, 1999), predicts: “Global aging will become the transcendent political and economic issue of the twenty-first century. I will argue [in this book] that — like it or not, and there's every reason to believe we won't like it — renegotiating the established social contract in reponse to global aging will soon dominate and daunt the public policy agendas or all the developed countries” (p. 5).

What Peterson means by “renegotiate the established social contract” is: You retired people, as well as all you who expect to retire in the next decade or two, don't expect that you'll be taken care of by the rest of us the way you now are or expect to be taken care of. Safety nets like Social Security and Medicare may have to be drastically downsized or even, if things get economically bad enough, eliminated. In other words, we may not be able to continue paying for the burdensome expenses old people impose on an ever-shrinking younger workforce (Thanks, contracepting couples! Thanks, abortion industry!). And what happens then? 

I've been saying for years now what is being reported yet again in this article. What is now known as the “right to die movement” is steadily morphing into what will soon become the “oblicagtion to die movement.” 

The politics of “young versus old” is rising, slowly but surely, and we will live to see its pernicious effects. Soon enough we will begin to see how the demographic winter results in an intergenerational struggle. The younger people, who have lived their entire lives learning from the media and our culture as a whole that other people are only useful or valuable insofar as they do one or more of a few things: give sexual pleasure, provide entertainment, make money, or produce some kind of product or service.

30+ years of legalized abortion has hardened millions of younger Americans into seeing unborn children as “parasites” who should be eliminated because they are inconvenient and unwanted.  50 years of the mainstreaming of pornography (thanks, Heff!) have educated a wide swath of Americans to look at others as objects for pleasure. And the aggressive cult of scientism has successfully swayed many people to look at unpleasant realities such as aging, pain, and lonliness as intolerable conditions that must be eliminated at all costs. 

So, barring some miracle (and while I do believe in miracles, I also believe in Divine Justice), I predict that the next step in the morbid evolution of the West's enmeshment in the culture of death will entail such horrors as forced euthansia and cloning human beings for body parts. This will begin to take shape as soon as enough people who have no belief in God and no regard for the value of human life begin to realize what “demographic winter” means for them financially.

With that in mind, please consider the chilling points made in this LifeSite article:

Celebrated columnist and pro-family leader Don Feder gave a jaw-dropping presentation on the coming 'Demographic Winter' at the Rose Dinner which closes the official March for Life festivities every year. Speaking to hundreds of attendees, Feder suggested that the demographic problem of worldwide declining birthrates "could result in the greatest crisis humanity will confront in this century" as "all over the world, children are disappearing."
 
"In the Western world, birthrates are falling and populations are aging," said Feder. "The consequences for your children and grandchildren could well be catastrophic."
 
Feder noted, "In 30 years, worldwide, birth rates have fallen by more than 50%. In 1979, the average woman on this planet had 6 children. Today, the average is 2.9 children, and falling."  He explained the situation noting, "demographers tell us that with a birthrate of 1.3, everything else being equal, a nation will lose half of its population every 45 years."
 
Beyond an inability to pay for pensions, it is likely that euthanasia will be one looked-to solution to the aging crisis, he said.

"Demographic Winter is the terminal stage in the suicide of the West - the culmination of a century of evil ideas and poisonous policies,'" he said.  Among them he listed:
 
"Abortion - As I mentioned a moment ago, worldwide, we're killing 42 million people a year. It's as if an invading army killed every man woman and child in Italy - then repeated the process every year.
 
"Contraception - For the first time in history, just under half the world's population of childbearing age uses some form of birth control. Some of us remember when births weren't controlled and pregnancies weren't planned. With all the wailing about man-made Global Warming, carbon footprints and the ozone layer, wouldn't it be ironic if what did us in wasn't the SUV but the IUD? . . . (read article)

 

[Troll_House_Cookies]

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.

[NYer]

I do not bring children into this world that I can not afford to care for.

Children are a gift from God, not a financial burden. There are natural means of preventing birth. The rest is up to God.

[MEGoody]

Article summary - Have more babies so I can get Social Security and Medicare into which I paid my entire working life.

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.)

[annalex]

Yes. Isn’t it self-evident?

[SumProVita]

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.

[Patrick Madrid]

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:

http://www.amazon.com/Gray-Dawn-Peter-G-Peterson/dp/0812931955/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233084528&sr=1-2

[Secret Agent Man]

Funny there sure seem to be a lot of people here despite using contraceptives. They aren’t always perfect....many people will attest to.

[SumProVita]

“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.

[iowamark]

I do not bring children into this world that I can not afford to care for.

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.

[massgopguy]

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?

[Secret Agent Man]

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.

[edweena]

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.

[Patrick Madrid]

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.

[alexander_busek]

I find that interesting considering the underclass is breeding like rabbits.

Definition of "underclass:" Anyone less educated, less cultured, less affluent than I.

Regards,

[NYer]

Contraception has been around MUCH longer than you have been alive

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.

[Secret Agent Man]

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.

[SumProVita]

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.”

;-)

[annalex]

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.

[MahatmaGandu]

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]

[SumProVita]

GOOD history which most are unaware of...