Posted on 05/23/2010 4:27:15 PM PDT by C19fan
Germany is shrinking — and fast. New figures released on May 17 show the birth rate in Europe's biggest economy has plummeted to a historic low, dropping to a level not seen since 1946. As demographers warn of the consequences of not making enough babies to replace and support an ageing population, the latest figures have triggered a bout of national soul-searching and cast a harsh light on Chancellor Angela Merkel's family policies.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
Unexpected
W's fault.
I’m more interested in knowing why Germans do not want families anymore?
I would firstly speculate that it is because both adults have to work to support themselves adequately due to a high taxation rate. It takes time and effort to bear and rear children correctly, so families with one child predominate. Combine that with the propaganda about the environment and there is additional cultural pressure to have one-child families.
Socialism and environmentalism look like the culprits to me. The same situation holds true for other nations where socialism and the enviromental craze have taken root.
Pinging Mark Steyn.
Unexpected
W's fault.
Although with precedent it's expected and with no help from Dubya', you have pegged it with true savvy Paladin2.
: )
Helloooooo!!! "Supporting an aging population" isn't a reason people should be having babies. Human society isn't supposed to be a pyramid scheme. The aged population should have worked hard and made large contributions to their society's physical and intellectual capital, sufficient to support themselves in their old age, and preferably with surplus to enhance the lives of the younger generations as well.
The first full generation of Germans to spend their lives as wards of a socialist welfare state are now hitting what they imagine should be retirement-at-leisure age. It takes some serious audacity for them (and others purporting to speak on their behalf) to complain that the cash-strapped, tax-crushed current generation of young adults is failing to do their patriotic duty of making enough babies to support the elderly. The current elderly generation is the one that allowed the pyramid scheme of socialism to take hold in the first place, and they sure aren't offering to give up their mountain of government-guaranteed old age benefits so that the younger generation can afford to have more children.
Social engineering via tax codes is ALWAYS bad and ALWAYS antithetical to freedom. Just slash the tax rates, period, and let people make their own choices about what to do with their own money. Many of them will have more children, but others won’t. That’s called freedom.
And the budget cuts to compensate for the initial drop in tax revenue from slashed rates need to hit the generation that’s responsible for this mess, namely those now hitting retirement age, who presided over a massive expansion of socialist welfare programs because they wanted hand-outs for themselves.
It’s just too much work to make a baby nowadays.
Populations with high birth rates are populations for whom children are profitable to the parents. Some or all of them are earning their food by age 10 or 12 and adding income to the family shortly thereafter. They are also the social security for the parents. Social Security is probably the largest single contributor to the birth dearth. Parents don’t have to rely on their children to support them in their old age. Consequently also, respect foe old folks declines with social security because the kids don’t have to take care of Mom and Pop and thus don’t live with them.
Bingo.
“Helloooooo!!! “Supporting an aging population” isn’t a reason people should be having babies. Human society isn’t supposed to be a pyramid scheme. The aged population should have worked hard and made large contributions to their society’s physical and intellectual capital, sufficient to support themselves in their old age, and preferably with surplus to enhance the lives of the younger generations as well.”
That is a modern/western perspective, but families were stronger when the younger did help care for the older.
PSST, don't spread it around but socialism makes it way too expensive for anyone to take the initiative to risk financial "change" and add burden to maintaining financial survival as a family.
Europe is gone...
See the following from another post of mine...
That evil and oppressive governmental idealogy of Islam and the way of implementing it by Sharia law is already making inroads right here in this country — the good ole USA. We’re about to see a “takeover” of the U.S. by the evil and oppressive idealogy of the government of Islam (that is aiming for world-wide conquest and has stated that the U.S. is *on its list* to take over...)
And for those people who need some additional facts about what the evil and oppressive governmental idealogy of Islam is doing, look at some of the following.
There’s no question about it... the enemy is *Islam* itself and the evil and oppressive and false idealogy that it perpetrates. Some say the problem is “fascism” (instead of the basic oppressive governmental idealogy of Islam, itself). But, that is to engage in “political correctness” and nothing more... and sidetracks people from the *true enemy* in this war.
In one generation we’ll see, right here in the United States that “Islam” is the enemy and not “fascism”...
Muslim Demographics...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-3X5hIFXYU
and also, this...
Islam: What the West Needs to Know - FULL LENGTH ENGLISH VERSION
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-871902797772997781
and then, looking at this...
“The Third Jihad” (video - abridged version of film)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2271522/posts
This is the allowance of “false gods” to take over this nation because of the ignorance of the people of the land in regards to the true God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob...
And so, we see that we’re going to have the “false god of Islam” ruling over the USA and running the USA in just one generation from now.
Socialism and environmentalism look like the culprits to me. The same situation holds true for other nations where socialism and the enviromental craze have taken root.
What I've read about it in the past, is that the more advanced and successful the country (you know like third world countries and/or Western nations) the fewer kids they have. So, as people themselves become more succesful, the birth rate goes down. There might be some exceptions for some religious preferences (a couple of groups I can think of).
But, Muslims... they just take over by sheer numbers and they're due to take over this country in a generation or two.
“Social engineering via tax codes is ALWAYS bad and ALWAYS antithetical to freedom. Just slash the tax rates, period, and let people make their own choices about what to do with their own money. Many of them will have more children, but others won’t. That’s called freedom.”
The social engineering was done decades ago with the invention of the Pill, legalization of abortion, and the mainstreaming of women into college and into the workplace. Put another way - children get in the way.
So the question is whether we let this social engineering run its course and DESTROY Western Society, which it’s well on its way to doing - or does the West take REAL steps to address the problem? I doubt you want that outcome - but it WILL happen, probably in a couple of decades in Europe, and then later here.
As to tax cuts, fine - but they won’t do crap for this problem - it simply isn’t the issue.
Also note that cultures that did not and have not participated in this social engineering experiment decades ago (i.e., Islamic countries) do not have the population issues that we are dealing with.
In a classic case of confusing cause and effect, I give you the following text from a hotlink in the article: “See why the recssion is causing women to have fewer kids.”
There are other doozies in the article, like blaming the quality of government child care. As if civil society has always had government child care, but the quality of it has just now declined to the point where it is impacting the birth rate.
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