Now the statisticians are saying we’re not making enough
babies to keep the population going. We’re moving toward a situation where we
have way more old people than young and nobody to take care of those old
people.
An article called “Where Have All the Babies Gone?” appeared
in Newsweek earlier this week. The authors suggest that choosing to be childless is bad for America. My favorite line: “Crudely put, the lack of productive screwing could
further be screwing the screwed generation.”
So next time you're arguing about whether or not to have children, suggest you should have a few for the good of the country.
As I’m sure I have mentioned here before, the percentage of
people not having children is going up all over the developed world. Already, in
the U.S. we
have doubled the number of women who never have children from 10 percent in 1970 to 20
percent now, and the numbers are similar elsewhere. What’s going to happen in
another 40 years? The article quotes a sociologist who says that more than one
in three women in Japan
will never marry or have children. That’s a little scary.
Even more frightening to me are the mean-spirited comments
that follow the Newsweek article. Check them out. Prepare to be outraged and worried by some of the commenters who claim they're working so hard to keep their careers afloat that marriage and children are out of the question.
In response to the Newsweek article, J.R. Bruns published a piece
titled “Going Childless” at psychologytoday.com. The problem is people who
can’t make a commit to marriage or children, he says. Men and women need help
building healthy relationships into which they can feel good about bringing
children.
It’s all a little mind-boggling. We all have our own individual reasons why we may not be having children. I
doubt that any of us are thinking about how it affects the population as a
whole.
What do you think about all this?
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2013/02/18/why-the-choice-to-be-childless-is-bad-for-america.html
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