Posted on 11/19/2005 4:45:35 PM PST by ellery
It's the fans.
Ireland also has very good economic growth compared to most of Europe.
The long-term consequence of not having kids is extinction of your race. I don't applaud that.
" The amounts of money involved are substantial. Analysts estimate that a total of $850 billion in annual earnings in the euro zone goes untaxed. While some of the tax-evaders are criminals, most are ordinary Europeans trying to duck the continent's onerous taxes--the counterpart of a generous social safety net. Scofflaws range from parents who pay nannies off the books to contractors who declare only part of workers' income. And they're found across the Continent. With Europe's biggest economy, the Germans hide $268 billion from the tax collector every year. Italians hide $250 billion. In addition, some $759 billion is salted away in foreign bank accounts, much of it for tax reasons."
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" The primary reasons Europeans evade taxes are high marginal tax rates and the choking bureaucracies that monitor tax compliance which make it hard for small businesses to operate, let alone make a profit. Many immigrants have little choice but to join the underground economy because it's so hard to legitimize their status."
Ireland still has birthrates over replacement levels. They also have the highest rate of church attendance in Europe and the lowest unemployment. And the lowest taxes.
Family still matter in Ireland. At least moreso than elsewhere.
This is true, as well. Church plays a vital role in elevating the importance of family and the role that we all have on this earth.
It really is no mistake that our nation's highest birthrates are also in areas with the highest rate of church attendance.
What a bunch of girlie men!
Employee of The Month at Baskin Robins
Flavor of The Month...Fudge
The TFR--total fertility rate--in Ireland is below replacement level.
Birth rates and fertility rates aren't the same thing. Birth rates are a measurement of the # of children born over a time period relative to the entire population. Fertility rates are a measurement of the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime.
IOW's, 'birthrate' can go up while actual fertility rates are decreasing or remain unchanged. Things like wars and the average age of a population can be distorting factors when looking at birthrates. TFR is generally considered to be the more important # to look at in terms of population trends.
Parenthood, like most else in life, is what you make of it. Personally, the most fun I have had to date, was raising my children to be good, productive memebers of society. I loved it.
If you go into ANYTHING with an atitude problem, it's going to make you not happy.
I think I'd like to have kids someday. I'm glad to hear your perspective. I guess it just seems like a lot of people set a goal to get married and have kids, without any question of whether or not it's for them...
People MAKE it not for themselves.
Did you check the stats on out of wedlock birth? When I was in Ireland I was told that they were very high,chuch attendance or not.
I'd do it myself but my search skills are abysmal.
My husband was raised by his Sicilian grandparents...his grandmother spoiled him rotten...if she had her way, he would never have left the house, would never have gotten a job, and would have nevered dared to get married unless she could pick out his wife for him...
His grandmother raised 4 of her own children, and never doted on them in this way...but when she raised my husband, she doted on him in every single way...he could never do any wrong, according to her, he was just the perfect child, according to her...
When he introduced me to her for the first time, her only remark was "well, shes pretty, ,but shes not a Sicilian"...in spite of that, we married, and went on to have our own boys...
But she never thought I could take care of her 'baby', as well as she did...she just had to learn that I could take care of her 'baby', just as well as she did, and even better...
But I know, if he had wanted to live his entire life, leaching off of his grandparents, ,they would have been all too glad to accomodate him...
Italy is, in many ways, a much healthier and open society than it was as recently as 30 years ago. Nevertheless, the fact that one walks the streets of Rome, Palermo, Naples, and Milan without seeing large crowds of children should give one pause.
Ireland? You mean the place where 40% of births are to unwed mothers? Ireland, where the birthrate is rapidly falling as more women enter the workforce? Ireland, where young people see the Church as irrelevant? Have you been to Dublin or Cork lately?
The decline of the Church in Ireland is both good and bad. Good in the sense that the Church promoted a sense of "victimhood" and parochialism that held the Irish back for so long. Bad because without a strong moral code, you have societies like, well, France.
40% of births are out of wedlock, according to an article I read in the Irish Echo about a year ago.
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