Re: "The Only Thing They Learn" -- does anyone else find it irritating?

On Jun 27, 9:09 am, Charlton Wilbur <cwil...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The low birth rate is brought about by three things: (a)
reliable, safe, socially acceptable birth control; (b) women empowered
enough to insist on birth control, refuse sex, or have abortions; and
(c) industrialization and a social safety net, or the illusion of one,
that makes having lots of children unnecessary for unpaid labor or for
support in one's old age.

Yes, there is such a thing as a demographic transition, but Europe's
_current_ birth rates are too low to be accounted for by that alone,
since they're much lower than the birth rate of the United States.

Children may be "expensive and a lot of work to raise", but if the
birth rate is lowered further because people are forced by economic
constraint to live in apartments instead of owning their own homes,
because both adults in a married couple need to work to pay the rent
and have a bit left over, then this is a limitation on reproduction
*caused by environmental constraint*. The population is hitting a
physical limit, whether on available food or on urban sprawl.

If the economy is in such a state that an ordinary working man - not a
highly-paid professional, but, say, a coal miner - can't earn enough
money to pay the mortage on a house in the suburbs while his wife
stays home and looks after the children, this is a dysfunctionality -
as opposed to the positive thing of a working old age security system.

John Savard
.

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