Posted on 06/21/2011 12:39:41 PM PDT by wagglebee
WASHINGTON DC, June 21, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Given the precipitous decline in the birthrates of European countries, all anti-natal programs funded by the United States should immediately be replaced by pro-natal programs, one top population expert recently told the U.S. Senate.
“It doesn’t matter whether we call them reproductive health programs, family planning programs, or population control programs,” said Stephen Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute (PRI). “They all have the same effect: they force down the birth rate in countries that are already dying. Such programs are only making a bad problem worse.”
The hearing before the Senate Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe focused on the implications for the security, as well as the economic and social developments in Europe, due to demographic decline marked by diminishing and rapidly aging populations, in most of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s (OSCE) 56 participating states.
Commission Chairman, Rep. Chris Smith noted that the member states - every country of Europe and the former Soviet Union, as well as the U.S. and Canada - are already seeing dramatic demographic changes that are “sure to have dramatic consequences for the security, economic, and human dimensions of the OSCE.”
“The fact is that most OSCE countries are in demographic decline, many of them in rapid decline. Only a handful of the OSCE’s 56 member states are at or above replacement level,” Smith observed.
Mosher agreed. “Five centuries after the Black Plague devastated Europe, a White Pestilence is now decimating that same continent,” he said. “Many nations, especially in Europe, are already in a death spiral, losing a significant number of people each year. Listen closely, and you will hear the muffled sound of populations crashing.”
The commission heard that the pattern of demographic decline will likely have significant social, economic and security consequences for countries throughout the region. States will become increasingly dependent upon foreign workers in the coming decades, while there will be a dramatic decrease in the pool of potential recruits for military service, resulting in mounting social tensions “as demonstrated by clashes in some participating States in recent years,” according to Smith.
“It is alarming and sad to see xenophobic and ultranationalist violence fueled by one nation’s perceptions of long-term decline vis-a-vis another group,” Smith said.
“Likewise with the economy,” Smith continued. “It is far from clear how, in many of the most rapidly declining countries, how economic growth can be sustained by a declining population - or, to touch on the most pressing specific, how the numerically smaller younger generations will even begin to provide for the larger older generations.”
Steven Mosher, whose presentation to the Commission concluded that the downward spiral of fertility decline and resulting demographic collapse is almost beyond reversal, began his address with a quote from ancient Greece:
“One remarks nowadays all over Greece such a diminution in natality and in general manner such depopulation that the towns are deserted and the fields lie fallow. Although this country has not been ravaged by wars or epidemics, the cause of the harm is evident: by avarice or cowardice the people, if they marry, will not bring up the children they ought to have. At most they bring up one or two. It is in this way that the scourge before it is noticed is rapidly developed. The remedy is in ourselves; we have but to change our morals.” (Polybius, 204-122 B.C.)
A transcript of the Commission hearing titled, “2050: Implications of Demographic Trends in the OSCE Region” is available here.
Your response is very concise and accurate. One of my sisters married in 1957, and she and her husband had 9 children born between 1958-1970. Yes, they were close together; yes, they had to skimp and save and grow lots of food in their backyard garden. All the kids had jobs like paperboys/girls, and then worked at the fast food places, etc. The kids were taught to save for their college education; they got extra bonus gifts from the local newspaper at Christmas time, like snow boots, etc.
When the kids reached senior in HS status, they applied for government loans, etc. They were rejected because they “had too much money” in their bank accounts, hence did not qualify for a loan. Yet, neighbor families’ children were getting loans even though they only had two children, plus a summer place on a lake, a huge boat for the lake, and lots of other toys. You see, these folks lived high and spend their money, so they did not have enough saved for the kid’s education. So, families who spent their money frivolously got the government aid, while my sister’s children did not.
Seven of her children graduated from college. They are mostly conservatives.
The youngest was more of a goof off. He works for the local school district as a custodian. He is more liberal than any of the others, and may actually be a Democrat. He’s a nice enough fellow, but just does not have the wisdom or work ethic of his siblings.
“The summer sounds were sweet.. now we have silent summers.. kids in day care or camp.. sooo sad wag”
Agreed.
See my tagline.
It stinks on ice that such responsible behavior is not rewarded.
Maybe the government should get out of the loan business and stop subsidizing bastardy.
In fact, maybe the government should get out of about 90% of the business it IS in...
You are so right. The government tries to fix things, yet manages to make everything it touches worse.
My sister’s children have given her 25 grandchildren; 23 of them are from the eight who are conservatives; 3 are from the youngest who is more liberal. That’s a pretty good ratio for the conservative side!
The muslims are coming, and breeding.
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but the report specifically said that wasn’t true.
talk about denial...
Britain goes from a few hundred thousand to 2 million in a decade... and they hide that in the stats.
10 million now, in the land Charles Martel once proudly defended from an army of 50,000 of them...
Pro death policies are hand in glove with global communism.
My grandmother’s funeral was much sadder. She had three girls and died at 103, but there were only five great-grandchildren!
Very sad. Partly my fault, I’m afraid.
“Isolationism” never existed.
The Death of the West will be by suicide.
I am doing my job. I have four kids, raising them to be conservatives.
Because they start earlier. Late 30’s is to late to start a family.
We have extended adolesence into the early 30’s. That isn’t healthy.
We are trying for more, but having issues.
Would love to have four, but I suspect we will not pull that off.
I hope it works out for you.
Just a note to others out there if you want big families start young and try often.
The Moslems will take over Europe without having to win one war. The Chinese absorbed their conquerors by simply outbreeding them. Maybe we should spend more money encouraging a healthy birthrate instead of sending our soldiers to die for ungratetful countries?
***It is white Christian Europe that is dying.****
National suicide.
Well, I disagree. I do agree that say, 30 or 45 years ago when the life expectancy for the average American male was like 66. But advances in medicine, & nutrition, acknowledgement of the dangers of smoking, better economies, higher standards of living, abundance of healthy food, etc. has and will increase life expectancy for all Americans. At 50, I just had my first child 4 years ago (a boy) and another last year at 53. I strength train, stay healthy, eat well. At 54 people tell me I look like man in his mid 30s. I plan to be around for my son’s college graduation and the birth of my grandson or daughter. Age is just a number. It’s all about how well you live. My grampa lived to be 92 my grandma lived to 98. I think I’ll be around for a while.
In this country we have outsourced our child bearing to the “professional uterus” class of welfare queens from Latin America.
Somewhere an elite liberal is smiling...
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