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Italy is a 'dying country' says minister as birth rate plummets
Guardian UK ^ | 12 February 2015

Posted on 02/16/2015 2:44:28 PM PST by Lorianne

Fewer babies were born in Italy in 2014 than in any other year since the modern Italian state was formed in 1861, new data show, highlighting the demographic challenge faced by the country’s chronically sluggish economy.

National statistics office ISTAT said on Thursday the number of live births last year was 509,000, or 5,000 fewer than in 2013, rounding off half a century of decline.

The number of babies born to both natives and foreigners living in Italy dropped as immigration, which used to support the overall birth rate, tumbled to its lowest level for five years.

The mortality rate also declined last year, stretching life expectancy for Italian men to 80.2 years, and to 84.9 years for women.

“We are very close to the threshold of non-renewal where the people dying are not replaced by new-borns. That means we are a dying country,” Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin said.

“This situation has enormous implications for every sector: the economy, society, health, pensions, just to give a few examples,” Lorenzin said.

Developed countries the world over are counting the costs of an ageing population, such as rising pension payouts and healthcare costs, but Italy, mired in its third recession in six years, is particularly vulnerable.

The government of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is scrambling to give the economy a boost by reforming the sclerotic labour market and persuading the country’s youth not to migrate and work abroad.

The demographic picture varies wildly between Italy’s regions, with the autonomous northern area of Trentino-Alto Adige enjoying a total fertility rate of 1.65, higher than euro zone peer Germany.

But the population is shrinking in most of the poorer south, where per-capita gross domestic product is about half that in the centre and north.

(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Foreign Affairs; Government
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1 posted on 02/16/2015 2:44:28 PM PST by Lorianne
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To: Lorianne

Yet there is no way ever that they will make birth control andor abortion illegal. Stuck on stupid trapped in a cult of death.


2 posted on 02/16/2015 2:47:57 PM PST by WMarshal (Free citizen, never a subject or a civilian)
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To: Lorianne

I’m not into eugenics.
I’m not into death panels.

But I think we are heading toward a world where there is little need for human labor. Automation and technology are affecting agriculture and industrial work and office work.

Embrace it.

Imagine a nation with only a quarter of its current population, but with all the food and goods that it needs.

Imagine robotic servants, and each person living on a small estate. A country could make that happen, if it planned for it and put resources toward it.

Or, you could just create a massive welfare society and send everyone a check until you go bankrupt.


3 posted on 02/16/2015 2:48:26 PM PST by ClearCase_guy (The dog days are over /The dog days are done/Can you hear the horses? /'Cause here they come)
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To: ClearCase_guy; GOPsterinMA

I will volunteer my services in to help the Italian people


4 posted on 02/16/2015 2:49:16 PM PST by Perdogg (I'm on a no Carb diet- NO Christie Ayotte Romney or Bush - stay outta da Bushes)
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To: WMarshal

Once the older people die of the younger and smaller generations will not have to struggle so hard for resources as there will be a surplus of housing jobs etc.


5 posted on 02/16/2015 2:49:24 PM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Lorianne

This is and was to be expected, same here in the US. When Women are required to work in order to pay the government, they generally cannot afford to have children. Throw in Abortion and Birth Control and it is a disaster in the making. We started Welfare in 1964 for this specific purpose, DESTROY THE FAMILY.

Maybe I am not the norm anymore, but My Wife has NEVER worked outside the Home. Her job at HOME is by far more important than any paycheck she could ever bring in.


6 posted on 02/16/2015 2:51:54 PM PST by eyeamok
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To: Lorianne

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “The Wages of Sin is Death.”


7 posted on 02/16/2015 2:52:20 PM PST by Little Ray (How did I end up in this hand-basket, and why is it getting so hot?)
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To: Lorianne

The same is true in other countries from which Civilization sprung.
Countries that gave us art, music, literature and science.
Meanwhile bearded savages are breeding like rabbits, spreading a reptilian world-view which includes head chopping, rape, destruction, burning alive and screaming in a pre-human language


8 posted on 02/16/2015 2:53:50 PM PST by I want the USA back (Media: completely irresponsible. Complicit in the destruction of this country.)
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To: Perdogg

9 posted on 02/16/2015 2:55:54 PM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Lorianne

They can blame their statist financial and economic system

Socialist slaves can’t afford to have children and usually don’t


10 posted on 02/16/2015 2:56:22 PM PST by PGR88
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To: Lorianne

Birth rates could bounce back again if “We the people” wouldn’t be so over-taxed to pay for the welfare system.


11 posted on 02/16/2015 2:56:46 PM PST by EvilCapitalist (It's better to die free than live as a slave)
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To: Lorianne

Is euthanasia legal in Italy? If not, I suspect it soon will be.


12 posted on 02/16/2015 2:57:33 PM PST by workerbee (The President of the United States is PUBLIC ENEMY #1)
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To: central_va

Not guilty of anything!


13 posted on 02/16/2015 2:59:21 PM PST by Labyrinthos
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To: central_va

“Once the older people die of the younger and smaller generations will not have to struggle so hard for resources as there will be a surplus of housing jobs etc.”

Yeah, right, that might have been the plan back in the 70’s, but while eliminating their own future descendants, some have been vaccinating and feeding those around the world who still live a 6th century, just enough to make them well enough to breed excessively and of course then they have to import them to replace in the work force their missing descendants. Which of course means resources will still be stretched thin for their descendants who will be living among the 6th century attitude immigrants.


14 posted on 02/16/2015 3:00:23 PM PST by This I Wonder32460
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To: I want the USA back

That’s right breeding like rabbits that have been vaccinated against disease and fed just enough to keep them breeding and bringing more half starved children into the world. So very compassionate of them.


15 posted on 02/16/2015 3:01:58 PM PST by This I Wonder32460
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To: Perdogg

Such self sacrifice is seldom appreciated.


16 posted on 02/16/2015 3:02:18 PM PST by Neoliberalnot (Marxism works well only with the uneducated and the unarmed.)
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To: eyeamok
When Women are required to work in order to pay the government, they generally cannot afford to have children. Throw in Abortion and Birth Control and it is a disaster in the making. We started Welfare in 1964 for this specific purpose, DESTROY THE FAMILY.

Worth repeating. The wages of socialism is death.

17 posted on 02/16/2015 3:07:50 PM PST by St_Thomas_Aquinas ( Isaiah 22:22, Matthew 16:19, Revelation 3:7)
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To: Lorianne

Multiple tax breaks for every ITALIAN family who has at least 1 kid, with bonuses for each additional.


18 posted on 02/16/2015 3:07:58 PM PST by Captainpaintball (Immigration without assimilation is the death of a nation -- FUJB!!!)
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To: eyeamok

My wife never worked outside when the kids were home. So, I am with you there. However, welfare was started by the demrats as a government funded breeding program of future demrat voters.


19 posted on 02/16/2015 3:10:51 PM PST by Neoliberalnot (Marxism works well only with the uneducated and the unarmed.)
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To: I want the USA back
CIA Factbook Country Comparison of fertility rate
20 posted on 02/16/2015 3:12:32 PM PST by Ben Ficklin
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