Re: It's no wonder the Dumbocrats keep losing...

Many idiots are not better than a few educated ones ...
In Bush's world though, that seems to hold true ...

<awthrawthr@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1142483211.469294.128230@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
From USAToday.com via healthytalkradio.com

By Phillip Longman

What's the difference between Seattle and Salt Lake City? There are
many differences, of course, but here's one you might not know. In
Seattle, there are nearly 45% more dogs than children. In Salt Lake
City, there are nearly 19% more kids than dogs.

This curious fact might at first seem trivial, but it reflects a much
broader and little-noticed demographic trend that has deep implications

for the future of global culture and politics. It's not that people in
a progressive city such as Seattle are so much fonder of dogs than are
people in a conservative city such as Salt Lake City. It's that
progressives are so much less likely to have children.

It's a pattern found throughout the world, and it augers a far more
conservative future - one in which patriarchy and other traditional
values make a comeback, if only by default. Childlessness and small
families are increasingly the norm today among progressive secularists.

As a consequence, an increasing share of all children born into the
world are descended from a share of the population whose conservative
values have led them to raise large families.

Today, fertility correlates strongly with a wide range of political,
cultural and religious attitudes. In the USA, for example, 47% of
people who attend church weekly say their ideal family size is three or

more children. By contrast, 27% of those who seldom attend church want
that many kids.

In Utah, where more than two-thirds of residents are members of The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 92 children are born each
year for every 1,000 women, the highest fertility rate in the nation.
By contrast Vermont - the first to embrace gay unions - has the
nation's lowest rate, producing 51 children per 1,000 women.

Similarly, in Europe today, the people least likely to have children
are those most likely to hold progressive views of the world. For
instance, do you distrust the army and other institutions and are you
prone to demonstrate against them? Then, according to polling data
assembled by demographers Ron Lesthaeghe and Johan Surkyn, you are less

likely to be married and have kids or ever to get married and have
kids. Do you find soft drugs, homosexuality and euthanasia acceptable?
Do you seldom, if ever, attend church? Europeans who answer
affirmatively to such questions are far more likely to live alone or be

in childless, cohabiting unions than are those who answer negatively.

This correlation between secularism, individualism and low fertility
portends a vast change in modern societies. In the USA, for example,
nearly 20% of women born in the late 1950s are reaching the end of
their reproductive lives without having children. The greatly expanded
childless segment of contemporary society, whose members are drawn
disproportionately from the feminist and countercultural movements of
the 1960s and '70s, will leave no genetic legacy. Nor will their
emotional or psychological influence on the next generation compare
with that of people who did raise children.

Meanwhile, single-child families are prone to extinction. A single
child replaces one of his or her parents, but not both. Consequently, a

segment of society in which single-child families are the norm will
decline in population by at least 50% per generation and quite quickly
disappear. In the USA, the 17.4% of baby boomer women who had one child

account for a mere 9.2% of kids produced by their generation. But among

children of the baby boom, nearly a quarter descend from the mere 10%
of baby boomer women who had four or more kids.

This dynamic helps explain the gradual drift of American culture toward

religious fundamentalism and social conservatism. Among states that
voted for President Bush in 2004, the average fertility rate is more
than 11% higher than the rate of states for Sen. John Kerry.

It might also help to explain the popular resistance among
rank-and-file Europeans to such crown jewels of secular liberalism as
the European Union. It turns out that Europeans who are most likely to
identify themselves as "world citizens" are also less likely to
have children.

Why couldn't tomorrow's Americans and Europeans, even if they are
disproportionately raised in patriarchal, religiously minded
households, turn out to be another generation of '68? The key
difference is that during the post-World War II era, nearly all
segments of society married and had children. Some had more than
others, but there was much more conformity in family size between the
religious and the secular. Meanwhile, thanks mostly to improvements in
social conditions, there is no longer much difference in survival rates

for children born into large families and those who have few if any
siblings.

Tomorrow's children, therefore, unlike members of the postwar baby boom

generation, will be for the most part descendants of a comparatively
narrow and culturally conservative segment of society. To be sure, some

members of the rising generation may reject their parents' values, as
often happens. But when they look for fellow secularists with whom to
make common cause, they will find that most of their would-be fellow
travelers were quite literally never born.

Many will celebrate these developments. Others will view them as the
death of the Enlightenment. Either way, they will find themselves
living through another great cycle of history.
*******************************************************************
Phillip Longman is a fellow at the New America Foundation and the
author of The Empty Cradle: How Falling Birthrates Threaten World
Prosperity and What to Do About It. This essay is adapted from his
cover story in the current issue of Foreign Policy magazine.



.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Its no wonder the Dumbocrats keep losing...
    ... there are nearly 19% more kids than dogs. ... Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 92 children are born each ... segment of society in which single-child families are the norm will ... rank-and-file Europeans to such crown jewels of secular liberalism as ...
    (alt.politics)
  • Its no wonder the Dumbocrats keep losing...
    ... What's the difference between Seattle and Salt Lake City? ... there are nearly 19% more kids than dogs. ... segment of society in which single-child families are the norm will ... rank-and-file Europeans to such crown jewels of secular liberalism as ...
    (alt.politics)
  • Katherine Dawn Thompson - January 9th 1983
    ... The parents were born on days and in months and years adding to ... The first two kids are separated by 415 days. ... their years, it's the number of verses in First Samuel, this Bible ...
    (sci.math)
  • Judy Garland - June 10th 1922
    ... The Gumm kids were born in years adding to 54. ... Bible Books differ in length by the 113 verses of Bible Book 54. ... it's the 211th non-prime (211 verses in Bible Book ...
    (sci.math)
  • Judy Garland - June 10th 1922
    ... The Gumm parents were born an average of 54% into their years. ... The Gumm kids were born in years adding to 54. ... these Bible Books contain an average of 254 verses. ... it's the 211th non-prime (211 verses in Bible Book ...
    (sci.math)
Loading