Posted on 07/14/2012 9:55:36 AM PDT by WXRGina
Civilization really has gone to the dogs.
Oh, good point! :-)
I miss the Far Side!
Do you remember the one where Gary Larson drew his stereotypical scientist in a white lab coat with a gizmo contraption on his head, standing in a residential neighborhood? The caption read, “Professor [so-and-so] becomes the first human being to actually understand what barking dogs are saying.” And, all the dogs in the yards that are barking at him are saying, “Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!”
You found it! That’s a good one! :-)
Like your picture. Should probably be pointed out that a three year old human child is far less capable than a same age German Shepherd of tearing the throat out of somebody messing with your two and four year old children. Dogs AND kids. Gotta love it.
Yeah, I saw it yesterday. That puppy had no hesitation and faster reaction than you’d see in most (maybe any) humans. And was amused at how the owner calmly helped the dog over the counter and out after the would-be-robber to go finish his snack.
Americans can’t afford to have kids because they’re supporting the rest of the world, here and abroad. When you’re working through July 15 to pay the government, that doesn’t leave much for your family.
AHHHHHH............!
The famous Roverand Bones!!!!!
What a breathtakingly ignorant article.
Please cite the statistical evidence — not anecdotal about your friend’s neighbor’s cousin — that supports the premise that Americans are choosing not to have children.
There is none.
There is, however, plenty of quantifiable evidence that 11.6 percent of American women — that’s one out of ten — has impaired fertility. And one out of five couples who are trying.
Why the increase? Because two generations of women were falsely promised they could delay having children into their late thirties and forties. And they can’t.
Speculation about a couple’s reason for not having children is usually wrong.
The column is not “breathtaking ignorant.” Just because he did not provide charts and graphs in the piece does not mean what he said isn’t true.
Perhaps you have not researched the steadily declining birthrates for the younger generations in western countries (predominantly “white” people). Younger people in the West are CHOOSING not to have babies or to abort them more than ever before.
Since you may not have done any research, I found a few quick links to the plain evidence that is plentiful if you bother to look:
Lots of “statistical evidence” in this book: http://www.amazon.com/Death-West-Patrick-J-Buchanan/dp/0312302592
More “statistics”: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2012/0507/current-events-population-global-declining-birth-rates-lee-kuan-yew.html
Census “statistical evidence”:http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/17/census-2011-data-confirm-trend-of-population-diversity/
http://whiteminority.wordpress.com/links-found-november-2008-on-negative-white-birth-rate/
There’s plenty more “statistical evidence” to be found with a simple Internet search.
Although some people have fertility problems, those problems are not the main reason for the declining birth rates. As Tom McLaughlin said in a column linked above,
“When I’ve asked them why their children are not having children, I hear: They cannot afford them. They want to buy property instead. They want to travel. They don’t want to stretch out their bodies in pregnancy. They want to concentrate on their careers. They’re afraid of what is happening in the world and don’t want to bring children into it. They think the world is over-populated and don’t want to add to it. They think having children will stress the environment. They think there won’t be enough food for everyone, et cetera, et cetera.”
The sources you cited simply document that American birthrates are declining, which no one disputes.
The question is “Why?”
The one source you do cite for a ‘why’ is a columnist — A COLUMNIST — who asked around about why some people are or aren’t having babies.
It’s nothing more than anecdotal information, and you would be laughed out of any elementary statistics class for trying to draw conclusions from it.
On the other hand, the cold hard indisputable numbers of infertility rates are tallied up when couples seek treatment.
In the face of those staggering numbers, how can you continue to assert that Americans aren’t having kids because they want more money? Or they’re selfish? Or something about careers? THEY’RE GOING TO THE DOCTOR SO THEY CAN HAVE KIDS. In droves. In the millions. They’re not having kids because they demonstrably CAN’T.
It’s a popular social meme right now for frustrated couples with children resentful of couples without to attribute a childless state to selfishness about money and careers and such. If you’re going to plant your flag in that camp, you better come with a refutation of the indisputable, quantifiable evidence that belies your premise.
You are awfully edgy about this subject, to the point of hostility. It seems you have a problem seeing the fact that we have selfish generations of younger people who want nothing to do with having babies. To blame it all on infertility is ridiculous, especially when you consider our narcissistic culture of death (environmental nutcases who push the lie of “overpopulation” and the lie that humans are a “cancer” on the planet, for instance).
Maybe you have a problem with infertility, but infertility is not the case with the majority of people who choose not to have babies or choose to abort them.
“You are awfully edgy about this subject, to the point of hostility.”
Yes. So what?
“It seems you have a problem seeing the fact that we have selfish generations of younger people who want nothing to do with having babies.”
I have a problem with unscientific assertions about “selfishness” when one out of five American couples trying to conceive are sitting in fertility doctor waiting rooms. And you keep saying that irrefutable stat doesn’t matter. Doesn’t exist? Or something. Because people are really just “selfish.”
“infertility is not the case with the majority of people who choose not to have babies”
I have cited plenty of numbers that refute what you’re saying. Go argue what you “feel” is going on with the Center for Disease Control.
And here’s some more anecdotal evidence for you, since you value it above stats: lots of infertile couples lie, lie and lie some more about why they don’t have kids. Even to family members. As is their right. Because it’s painful. You’d do well to think about that the next time you accuse a couple of “narcissism” when they get a dog, Judge Judy.
Regardless of the reason for your unwarranted hostility, what I “feel” about this issue does not change the facts that are easily verifiable, even if you do not want to accept a single source (there are plenty more sources than the few quick hits I provided).
Infertility does not explain declining birth rates, or else we would always have had similar birth rates, with perhaps a rise in births with modern medical technology helping infertile couples who wanted babies.
The percentages of infertility rates are too small to account for the decline across America and the West. The CDC will tell you this: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/fertile.htm
In fact (not “feeling”), the fertility rate for the U.S. is the highest it’s been since the 1960s, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.
The BEHAVIOR CHOICES of people in the latest few generations explains the declining birth rates, behavior like abortion (50 million or so in America alone since 1973) and the CHOICE to not have babies when previous generations did not CHOOSE not to have babies like so many do today. That is not what I “feel”; that’s just the way it is in our world today—like it or not.
Anyway, of course we will not agree on this. No biggie. The truth is what it is, regardless of what we “feel” about it.
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