Posted on 12/26/2002 6:50:59 AM PST by twas
Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we will be overrun.
It is hard to imagine that a long time ago, these people's ancestors ruled the world for hundreds and hundreds of years. The best hope for Italy is:
1. A Catholic revival
2. Make it easy for people of Italian decent to move back
3. End the socialist gravy train
This won't initially do anything to solve the problem because the people who will be hardest hit are the elderly who will (A) be unable to do anything about the birth rate and (B) will not have the children to take care of them. The absence of a welfare state to catch you when you are elderly, however, may get enough people to realize that children can be useful to them later in life.
But the trend hit Western Europe earlier, and has had more time to produce hand-wringing and soul-searching. Apart from welcoming more immigrants, "no one knows precisely what to do".
If I may be so bold….I know what to do……women have babies, that is the answer. Nothing new about this, it is called procreation. Governments have to reduce the tax load on families, by granting greater tax relief for married men with families….
What a drastic notion :-)!
I feel so sorry for these people ... the elderly with no grandchildren, the parents with nothing in their hearts but cellphones and cars, the children with no siblings, spending their lives in daycare centers ...
They are so blind. We are celebrating Christmas with six children under twelve ... all the ones who can talk are saying, "Can we have a new baby next Christmas? That was so much fun last year!" Sure it's a lot of work, but what else were you going to do with your life that's worth anything?
I guess I can plan a "Great Mosques of Europe" tour, someday when the kids are grown ...
1) What is it that these childless people are counting on to care for them in their old age? It is the govt, and indirectly, the taxpayers. What if the govt goes bankrupt? What if there are no longer enough taxpayers to finance them in anything like the style to which they've become accustomed? In reality, these people are each making a calculation that they can squander their lives on themselves and materialistic pursuits, and that they can throw the responisibilities of caring for them in their old age off onto society and onto those people (whom they probably view as "suckers") who take the time and effort in their lives to raise children.
2) Notice how these discussions are always draped in the ideology of liberalism. As if everything would be fine in a world without children if we could only find some other way to finance our welfare state.
3) I'm afraid that it will take a severe economic crisis (which many of these old, childless people probably will not survive.....life is tough on the street at 80 with no kids and no socialism) accompanied by a resurrection of traditional western values to turn this thing around. Western people are too steeped in this culture of narcissism and materialism to be extracted in any other way but by cold, ugly reality. Excepting this, we will be displaced by other cultures who harbor values more conducive to survival and procreation.
4) I was at a Christmas party yesterday with 6 other couples aged 35-45....all highly educated professionals. Other than my two kids, one couple had one child and the other 4 couples had none. Twelve adults and only three kids....not a good sign for the future.
Jim Dobson reported this morning that since the promulgation of Roe v. Wade 29 years ago, there have been approximately 100 million American children born and 41 million American children aborted. 28% of the Roe v Wade generation will never know life on this planet.
We all ought to be ashamed of this tragedy. I count seven abortions in my own family:
- My mother had one a couple months before she was married in 1953;
- My youngest sister (age 41, currently married, childless, and infertile) had one at age 16 during an "oops" with a boyfriend
- My older sister (age 47, never married, Hollywood mentality) has had four -- like Russian women, she uses them as a birth control technique
- My father's second wife had one, because she got pregnant before they were married.
My wife and I are dedicated Christians and have three lovely children. They are the only grandchildren my parents have.
Do any of you ever read the obituaries? Do it and see how many elderly that pass away have large numbers of grandchildren -- maybe 1 in 4. It seems like a shame that an 85-year old woman will die with 3 or 4 grown children and one grandchild. The rest were aborted, or the children were too self-centered to marry or perturb their selfish lives with the distractions of children.
Isn't the legacy of the left, and the death culture, grand?
Demography is history. At last year's Eastern Oklahoma Catholic Homeschool Association Valentine's Day party, I counted 74 children ... but they weren't holding still, so I probably missed some. Sometimes I miscount my own kids ...
As if everything would be fine in a world without children if we could only find some other way to finance our welfare state.
Europe thinks they've found it ... import a few million Moslems a year. Is there a mathematically gifted FReeper running a pool on how long it takes before all the governments of Europe are Moslem?
People just don't understand what they're missing. Parents deprive themselves of babies, and then complain that they don't find any fulfillment in their families. (IMO, babies are the reward for moms; Cub Scouts are the reward for dads!) They deprive their children of siblings, and then insist that the children need government-supported "socialization."
If people don't give love, they're not going to receive any ... unless we get the Revival first, or a full-scale jihad (alternate plots in my future-history novel ...) the Social Security Revolution is going to hit a lot of baby boomers right where they live.
Those Hispanics may save us yet...
P.S., Moderator, I think we can only publish excerpts of NYT articles...I know WaPO articles need to be redacted. FYI, thanks
Proverbs: When the wicked rise to power, people go into hiding; but when the wicked perish, the righteous thrive. He who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth and he who gives gifts to the rich-both come to poverty. A large population is a kings glory, but without subjects a prince is ruined.
"Modern times in the west" had better figure out a way for people to have enough kids to bring the birth rate above 2.1 or so, or it's headed for extinction. That's simple mathematical reality.
Of course, long before that takes place, some more fecund folks will move in and turn the few remaining "modern westerners" into dhimmified slaves in their 9th Century Muslim paradise.
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