but the 15-year old girls may all be staying at Roger Clemens' house!
Posted on 05/07/2008 4:56:43 PM PDT by XR7
TOKYO — Japan celebrated a national holiday on Monday in honor of its children. But Children's Day might just as easily have been a national day of mourning.
For this is the land of a slow-motion demographic catastrophe that is without precedent in the developed world.
The number of children has declined for 27 consecutive years, a government report said over the weekend. Japan now has fewer children who are 14 or younger than at any time since 1908.
The proportion of children in the population fell to an all-time low of 13.5 percent. That number has been falling for 34 straight years. In the United States, children account for about 20 percent of the population.
Japan also has a surfeit of the elderly. About 22 percent of the population is 65 or older, the highest proportion in the world. And that number is on the rise. By 2020, the elderly will outnumber children by nearly 3 to 1, the government report predicted. By 2040, they will outnumber them by nearly 4 to 1.
Japan, now the world's second-largest economy, will lose 70 percent of its workforce by 2050 and economic growth will slow to zero, according to a report by the nonprofit Japan Center for Economic Research.
Population shrinkage began three years ago and is gathering pace. Within 50 years, the population, now 127 million, will fall by a third, the government projects. Within a century, two-thirds of the population will be gone...
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
And if not for the illegals flooding over our borders unchecked, wouldn't we be in the same boat?
Within a century, two-thirds of the population will be gone...
And what then?
The Japanese will be able to spread their wings.
Read: “America Alone” - Mark Steyn. He sums up the effects nicely.
Nice headline, Slimes. So are they shrinking to nothingness, or are they fading into the woodwork?
too expensive to raise children
ping.
but the 15-year old girls may all be staying at Roger Clemens' house!
I remember when mom stayed at home and raised kids while dad worked. How do you raise kids when you need two incomes?
Before you know it they will say too much radiation damaged the reproductive organs.
That’s the key. The working people in this world support so many who don’t. Gets to the point where having a bunch of kids becomes prohibitively expensive, at least for those who intend to support those kids, and unlike the lousy Mexicans who freeload off our system and raise their kids with our money and our infrastructure.
Get rid of the restrictions on farm land being turned into development, and housing will be built and housing costs will come down - and the boom will bring jobs.
I knew a ham operator from Japan who joked he was rich - he could afford an apartment large enough for a wife AND a radio workbench.
How do you raise kids when you need two incomes?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Haven’t you heard? Real incomes are at an all time high! Didn’t you get the memo?
And taxes, unfunded mandates, "fees" and other items passed on to the end user saps every stinkin' penny of those "high wages".
If government will not shrink and become "smaller", it must die.
Japan’s solution: technology. They have the highest population of people alive past the age of 100, and they live longer than any other group of people on the planet.
This might sound nuts, but they are desperately trying to develop technology that will fuse artificial and natural life. They may pull it off............ as they don’t really have a choice.
Yeah; the headline is pretty stupid. I thought it was about abductions or something. Anyway, the report itself could have been interesting, but I don’t know about the “catastrophe” part. Japan is incredibly over-populated in proportion to the available housing. It could easily lose half of its population and do fine. Also, although the article said they were declining in population, I’d like to see the actual numbers. Newspapers are notoriously bad at reporting statistics; it’s just as likely that they would mistake a decline in the population growth (i.e., still increasing, but at a decreasing rate) with a decline in absolute population.
If Japan is actually declining in absolute population, that is pretty significant. Historically, the more advanced civilizations start to decline in population, but this has not yet happened to any of the major 20th century powers other than through deaths in war. The US is likely to go through the same thing in about 20 or 30 years. I don’t personally see it as a bad thing.
Alright!
I say get the U.S. to force birth control makers to generate trillions of pills to give to everyone everywhere and stop all humanitarian shipments of food.
We’ve lost 50 million children in the US in the last 30 years to abortion. By now some of those would have grown up and be having children of their own, making the total loss more than 50 million.
We’ve gained about 15 million (?) illegals in the same period.
I support many kids through my taxes. If I did not have to pay such high taxes, I may have some of my own.
Who would want to bring kids into this crummy world anyway?
I would agree with you that "need" is certainly a subjective concept. As might be priorities.
Personally, I get a bit defensive when when people imply that a two income family is a bad thing as a base premise. Of course I wouldn't want to imply that you held such a position.
I would be the first to admit that my family could certainly survive on less. The priorities that my wife and I have for our family are safety, education, opportunity, and security.
Each and every one of these priorities is dependent on an income level that is capable of achieving them. Only a fool would dismiss that notion. As a result sacrifices must happen. Which sacrifices are best is probably a debate without end.
Tradeoffs certainly exist, and as with any other critical life decision; a married couple with kids must choose. Choosing a two income family does not have to be an inferred misalignment of priorities.
You forgot to mention the hordes of lousy Americans who do the same thing.
Most of the time for a two income family the single largest budget item is taxes. That's a "priority" that they can do little or nothing about.
Agreed. Great book. hits it right on the head.
My wife and I had our daughter in Japan, and then quickly moved to the U.S. My wife, who is Japanese, realizes that Japan is dieing, but I think the speculation on the population change is a little wrong. Japan’s country side is making a lot of children, while the city overworks it’s people and makes none. Japan needs to:
1. Adopt a solid 40 hr. work week.
2. Give universal tax breaks for children. Make public school ABSOLUTELY free.
3. Discourage abortion. I met a girl who had THREE abortions in her life - she was 21.
4. Stop using hospitals as nursing homes - give tax breaks for three generation homes.
Since WWII, the Japanese have been experiencing a total shift between generations. Right after the war they were inundatd with Western tech, values, etc. Before WWII the Japanese had an emporer that they believed was God and almost zero western influence. Losing face after the war resulted in the younger generation being subjected (literally overnight) with Western materialism.
this is very evident today. Very few Japanese get married anymore (or even date). Most of the young women prefer to live with their parents and buy Prada bags, hang out with their girlfriends and really are not interested in marriage or kids.
You go on a train in the morning (totally packed) and all you hear is fingers pecking on phones. Nobody says a word, but they are ALL totally glued to their phones.
I go there twice a year on business. It is weird to watch. You’ll see masses of women and masses of men, but rarely are they mingling together. Quite sad.
I was in Japan recently and the general consensus is that most Japanese only want one or two children at most.
They generally like sending them to private schools where the schools are all boys or all girl schools until they graduate from High School. The children all must speak English as a second language, all wear school uniforms and all are very polite to adults and one another.
They then all go on to University or very sophisticated Technical Schools.
IMHO, QUALITY IS CHILDREN IS BETTER THAN QUANTITY!
I believe Japan is cultivating a generation that will prove to be Leaders of one of the worlds best democracies.
BTW, they do have very strong immigration laws. I really didn’t spot any “illegals”.
Possibly, but maybe it’s more that people are too self centered to have & raise children.
They ARE messy, they’re little savages that have to be civilized, and how the heck can you get in all the TV, video games, and internet when they’re constantly wanting your attention?
The mom pretty much has to work to pay the taxes on the first income. Sad.
We could decrease our lifestyles, as some have. But the tax situation is a real burden and drag on families.
It IS a bad thing.
The Islamists and other third worlders are going to out-reproduce us and turn US into the third worlders or slaves.
Most of the time a married couple with kids doesn’t need two incomes. What they often need is to take a good, hard look at their priorities.
-——————————————————————>
Ditto, too many parents want to be their kids “best friend” or just an “ATM Machine” to keep the kids out of their hair from pursuing “their careers”!
I’ve seem more “mothers” working because they want tummy tucks, plastic surgery, $300 designer shoes and whatever makes them feel good. They need to think twice before having kids.
IMHO, some of these kind of parents are child abusers by simply being so self-absorbed in their own “needs”.
why, the welfare queens would!
Nothing is absolutely free, someone, somewhere, pays. And even if it were free, why force a horribly failing model on yet another population. Public schools deserve a merciful death, and not to be grafted elsewhere.
For starters they can stop helping to put Democrats into office, if they have done so in the past.
I agree that some people are too self centered to have children. However, Japan is a truly expensive place to live. I’m going on my sister’s word. She lived there for a year on a study abroad program. I suppose people can adapt. I always say you’ll never be able to afford kids so you might as well have them.
That’s a very interesting take!
Where will they grow their food??
Out-reproducing the US will not, by itself, lead to Islamic dominance without wilful acquiescence on our part. The US has been out-populated by islamicists for quite a few decades. It hasn’t mattered.
If there’s one thing that historically has been more important geopolitically than population, it is military technology. We have it, they don’t. Even if they get nukes, they’ll have a handful to our 30,000 missiles, countless tactical nukes, stealth fighters and bombers, depleted uranium rounds, fuel-air explosives, etc., etc. The fact is, the US could kill every man, woman, and child in the Islamic world in about five days if we really had to. Doubling or tripling their population would only lower their standard of living and increase the suffering if and when the west decides to turn the entire Islamic world into a charnel house.
Personally, as much as I like kids, I just can't see raising kids in today's world. I, being in my late 20's, can't justify to myself bringing a kid into this world simply because it isn't the kind of world in which I want to raise my child. I don't see much of a future for myself let alone my child(ren) and why should I leave them to fight for the remainder of what's left of this country after the statists have destroyed it? Maybe if I (and others like me) can get this country back on it's feet, I'll reconsider, but until then, the answer is "no" for me.
part of the problem too is that the people that should be producing large families aren’t while the ones that shouldn’t be are.....welfare moms, absent dads, a culture of failure YET those are the people that don’t pay taxes and get everything free...
our choice was for me to work part-time, and that is what I have done for 30 yrs.....
Is there some peace-corps like group I can join to go over and “fix” the problem? ;)
Their manga and anime comics show that private school world.
later
Well, if a "priority" is to be able to qualify for a mortgage to buy a house - that is impossible in most areas of the United States if you have less than a six-figure income. Not many households can qualify unless both spouses work full-time. Sad reality.
I know a lot of working mons, and not one of them fits your stereotype. The ones I know are just trying as best they know how to supplement the husband's income and stay afloat. One or two cars, a modest house, utilities, taxes, groceries, gas - it ads up, and there's nothing left over for tummy tucks, plastic surgery, designer shoes or Gucci luggage. You cannot really raise a family and be buying a home in most urban areas in the US without a combined income of six figures.
...which is why I used the word often, and I stand firmly by the assertion.
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