Posted on 11/03/2023 9:36:09 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Humanity has never had it better.
Especially the couple of billion lucky folks who live in the United States and Canada, Western Europe, and East Asia (including, now, much of China).
The details of the miracle that is modern life are worth repeating, since they are the water we swim in and easy to forget.
Deaths in childbirth and childhood are nearly nonexistent. People live longer than ever and can expect to be (physically) healthy into their seventies, not stooped by hard farm, industrial, or household labor. War and conscription have largely ended. In Europe and East Asia, all deaths of violence are stunningly rare.
Formerly unthinkable material luxuries are not merely common but expected. Inexpensive, nutritious food is available everywhere. After facing the prospect of famine for all of human existence, we suddenly must deal with obesity.
Cars and airplanes have made movement easy. Once exhausting and risky, travel is now so cheap the biggest problem is the crowds it creates - of tourists and migrants.
Free schooling through adolescence has turned literacy from a luxury of the rich into a basic right. More recently information technology has opened the deepest banks of knowledge to anyone with an Internet connection, which is everyone.
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In the face of this unprecedented bounty of knowledge, health, and abundance, more and more humans have responded by —
Refusing our most basic biological drive and failing to have children.
This depressing reality hit me again recently, after the wedding of a couple I know. Husband and wife are in their early thirties, stable, employed, apparently happy and in love - and insisting they will not have children.
Of course, they could change their minds. But they have been together for several years and have always agreed they want to be childless. I find that choice even more depressing and confounding than people who are childless because they cannot find a partner. These are heterosexuals who have decided to pair for life (theoretically, anyway), yet they do not believe having children is their natural next step.
They are far from alone.
The “replacement rate” - the number of children a woman must have on average to keep population stable - is about 2.1. Birthrates have been below that level in many wealthy countries for decades.
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(With 23 million people, Taiwan will have about 130,000 babies this year - not even half as many as it needs to keep its population steady. The country is erasing itself.)
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You are probably aware of the baby bust. But you may not know how bad it has gotten. Since Covid, birth rates have fallen off a cliff.
Women in Asian countries like South Korea and Taiwan are now expected to have fewer than 1 child on average. Men do not have children (despite what the LGBTQIABCDEFGH+-* crew sometimes pretend), so you don’t need a degree in statistics to figure out that birthrate translates into demographic catastrophe.
Fertility disruption from mRNA Covid jabs may be contributing, but it is not the primary factor. The baby bust is occurring in countries that did not use the shots, too.
This choice represents individual tragedy and societal failure on an unprecedented scale.The American left pretends the baby bust is economically driven, blaming a lack of subsidized child care for young kids and the overall expense of raising children in the United States. As one feminist author said in September:
I had really been talking about a lot of these issues like paid leave, lack of childcare, and how they affected parents, primarily in the United States… People are not having their ideal number of children, even when they become parents, because they just can't make it work.
The only problem with this theory is that births are lower across Europe and Asia than the United States. And Northern European countries, which have much less income inequality than the United States, as well as the parental leave policies, heavily subsidized childcare, and national health insurance that the left demands, have seen some of the biggest recent declines.
No, whatever is happening cannot reasonably be viewed as economically driven. It is a cultural trend. And it is phenomenally powerful, because it is happening all over the world, across ethnicities, in countries and societies that are otherwise vastly different.
And it is overcoming basic human biology.
So what is it?
I don’t know if that question has an obvious answer, but I intend to explore it in the months to come. And I hope you will contribute your own views on the subject in the comments.
I’m not exaggerating when I write that nothing less than the future of humanity is at stake.
All of us have made decisions about how to live our lives.
Many people make decisions , which do not put marriage and family , and having children, as a priority.
How many people have put off the idea of marriage and family, because they were finishing school , going to graduate school , serving in the military , or for some other reason just could not see themselves in any family situation?
How many people, even if they are married at a young age, are using birth control? Even if such couples eventually do have children ,they will likely have fewer children in their lifetime than if they have not used birth control.
How many people want to live a life without encumberences?
How many people look at issues such as the cost of living and cost of housing, and decide to have fewer children than they might otherwise?
How many people like their freedom so much, that they don’t even want to get married, much less think about having children.?
Latin America, China, Slavic nations will all have to ally to fight the Islamic World. Africa might be the battleground in the second part of the 21st Century.
I forgot India. Yes, add India to the list of the Allies.
We’ve already conceded Africa by demanding they accept sodomy.
after having one they think having two is twice as hard and another three times as hard etc.
When people have simply forgotten that it actually gets easier with each additional child. Having older ones help with younger ones is like having a free baby sitter. All the large purchases have already been made, you simply have to set things aside for the next one in line.
It’s really easy to have a big family until college, where you had better have a plan.
Glorification of selfishness.
Unquestioning obeisance to the notion that humans are bad for Mother Gaia.
Plus you have the hand-me-down clothes.
Also people have forgotten that children are who take care of your when your old and sick. The more you have the greater the chances at least one will help with you when you need it.
All these idiots with no children will have a come to Jesus moment eventually when they realize what a mistake they made
that’s what i meant by set things aside, clothes, crib, cradles, blankets, baby beds, toys, bottles and on and on. All can be reused over and over.
Meanwhile, during covid, over 20 million more dogs were added to US households. Dog worship has become epidemic all over the western world.
We are literally replacing human babies with dogs.
* PS many here on FR are dog nutters and are fine with this because “dogs are better than people” or something
I personally dont want the government being the only one taking care of me when I am old since they think I am part of the surplus population driving the world towards global warming. I suspect I wouldn’t get quality care from them.
The Orthodox Christian wedding service includes prayers for many, many children!
It’s hard to live up to for many of us, but there it is!!
The choice is between having America become an Orthodox Christian country full of native born citizens, or being invaded by millions of Third World immigrants! Yikes!!
I had 6 children, 5 survived to adulthood. I married in ‘74 and had no problem feeding and purchasing a house. I was a construction worker, non union hanging sheetrock. It actually paid more than the Carpenter apprentice job I left to take it.
If I were to jump back into the job market, I could not purchase a house or afford to have children. My last job paid $35 an hour. My first home cost $64K, a house now that is equivalent would be around $350K. The house was a 3 bedroom 1 bath with a single car garage on a 1/4 acre lot. Decent used cars were under 1K, and of course we know the groceries were much much less.
You can want children with all of your heart, but the wife must work. With both people working, one of them is paying for daycare. The children don’t even know their mother. THAT is why people are choosing not to have children, or as many.
That's the difference. People want more AND have higher taxes so it forced the Mother into the workforce.
I always wondered, if you took women out of the workforce, this would reduce the available supply of labor, which should in theory, drive wages up. Would it be feasible?
Also, consider all the extra costs you incur in order to support both spouses working: extra transportation costs, daycare costs, clothing, etc. And do you really get all that much out of that second salary?
My plan for College was to force kids to finance it themselves. Get good grades, apply for scholarships, and work and save money. CC education saves a lot of money, as does living at home while in University. When you don’t go to Spring Break, or Thanksgiving break to a foreign beach, you save. When you buy used books, and sacrifice yourself, you live differently. The oldest graduated with an Engineer degree, with zero debt.
It depends on how much the wife makes.
In my case, my wife was a well paid RN. She made more money than me for many years of our life together.
Her working made the difference in us being able to afford a house and make the mortgage. Without her income, we would not have had the house we raised our children in.
Everyone’s situation is different, of course. If the wife makes only minimum wage, is not trained or qualified for better paying jobs, then her working may not make sense.
As to dogs, it’s really fun to go out in the cold and the rain several times a day to watch a dog urinate and defecate.
Thanks for offering that information. Traditional Catholics approach the issue very similarly.
I totally agree with you. Seems our very educated professional class has no real purpose* and has to create one from thin air. (See Critical Theory).
They attempt to seize the moral authority over society with their whim of the day and do not consider human nature which hasn’t changed since way back.
*(David Brooks-The creative class was supposed to foster progressive values and economic growth. Instead we got resentment, alienation, and endless political dysfunction.)
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