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I'm just waiting for the idiot who will say, "Yeah, hyuck, hyuck, but think of how many more jobs will be available without all those people!" much like those who think that the economy would be better if all non-English speaking, non-white, immigrants were to be suddenly removed from the U.S.. "Yep," they blithely say. "If all them people was gone jess think how much more money and jobs and stuff they'd be to go aroun to real 'Mericans!"

We are not underpopulation in any real or meaningful sense unless by underpopulated you mean- not enough people to prop up the welfare pyramid state. With unemployment at 11% in Germany and a social policy which delays the entry of students into the workforce until their 30's, there is no sense that Germany is in need of guest workers. The same goes for any western country. The only kind of population increase Europe 'needs' is a large population spike to keep the welfare system going one more turn, at which point Europe will have been overwhelmed by immigrants from hostile countries.

>There are two abortions for every live birth. That is to say, Russians kill two-thirds of their children before they are born. That, Mr. Putin, is the "serious crisis threatening Russia's survival."

The message to Putin and leaders of all western democratic-welfare states.... stop placing burdens on your citizens and making their lives difficult and they will start having the 'proper' number of babies.

Already Europe has had to import large numbers of immigrants to bolster the labor force, most of them from the Middle East.

How many of those immigrants are living on welfare and aren't working at all? Probably quite a few are coming for the good life but not to work. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait actually have to import workers even from the US and especially the Phillipines so this argument doesn't make that much sense. It's the prosperity and often the dole that draw immigrants, not lack of population.

Culture of Death bump! Economic prosperity is impossible in a nation with a declining birthrate.

"If you do not believe in your own stock enough to see the stock kept up, then you are not good Americans, you are not patriots, and ... I for one shall not mourn your extinction; and in such event I shall welcome the advent of a new race that will take your place, because you will have shown that you are not fit to cumber the ground." --Teddy Roosevelt, speaking to a group of liberal pastors.

The problem is this: western nations, which are secular and materialistic, view childrearing as an expensive hobby. The only reason that folks throughout the west have any children at all is to satisfy the nuturing, maternal instinct that exists in most women. Problem is, this instinct can be satiated by one child, or two at most.

But in order to have a healthy, growing population, the average woman must have 2-3 kids...not 1-2. The individualistic view of childbearing just doesn't cut it...it doesn't give any motivation to women to have enough kids.

Only religious conviction, compounded by a cultural expectation of having large families to continue the existence of a cultural/tribal group, can provide adequate incentive to women to have more babies.

To the extent that govt policy can influence this (which is debatable), I would suggest that we pass a law that any married couple who has more than 4 biological children is permanently exempted from paying income tax. This would provide an incentive to those who have significant incomes to have kids, without also stimulating increased fertility amongst those who can't afford to raise kids to begin with.

abortion ends between one-third and one-fifth of all pregnancies

So?

After a while, people inclined to abort their children will have selected their genes out in the course of evolution--such people, by aborting their pregnancies, will make their kind extinct.

Left alone to run its course, and your problem will solve itself.

I believe that Americans should have more kids. See the following Teddy Roosevelt quotes below:

On motherhood as the true source of progress, Teddy Roosevelt said: "A more supreme instance of unselfishness than is afforded by motherhood cannot be imagined."

Before an audience of liberal Christian theologians in 1911, he said: "If you do not believe in your own stock enough to see the stock kept up, then you are not good Americans, you are not patriots, and ... I for one shall not mourn your extinction; and in such event I shall welcome the advent of a new race that will take your place, because you wil have shown that you are not fit to cumber the ground."

On the centrality of the child-rich family to the very existence of the American nation: "It is in the life of the family, upon which in the last analysis the whole welfare of the nation rests....The nation is nothing but the aggregate of the families within its borders."

On parenthood: "No other success in life, not being President, or being wealthy, or going to college, or anything else, comes up to the success of the man and woman who can feel that they have done their duty and that their children and grandchildren rise up to call them blessed."

On out-of-wedlock birth versus practiced sterility: "After all, such a vice may be compatible with a nation's continuing to live, and while there is life, even a life marred by wrong practices, there is a chance of reform.

In another place, on the same subject: "...[W]hile there is life, there is hope, whereas nothing can be done with the dead."

On the behavior of 90% of those who practice birth control: "[It is derived] from viciousness, coldness, shallow-heartedness, self-indulgence, or mere failure to appreciate aright the difference between the all-important and the unimportant."

On the "pitiable" child-rearing record of graduates of women's colleges like Vassar and Smith who bore only 0.86 of a child each during their lifetimes: "Do these colleges teach 'domestic science'?... There is something radically wrong with the home training and school training that produces such results."

My birthday was Tuesday and I {gulp} turned 60!

In 1953 when Stalin died the world also marked a milestone. World Population exceeded 1 billion. Now the population stands at 6 Billion. I just did alittle bond table. 1 Billion grows to 6 billion over a 50 year period at a 3.6% per year growth rate.

Yes certain cultures have embraced policies to limit birth rates.

Implosion? I don't think so!