"A Day Without A Mexican"
Chuck Colson writes (Breakpoint, 6-11-08):
This assumption may be wrong. Mexico is having an unprecedented decline in birthrates. It has dropped from 7 children per woman in 1965 to 2.1 today - the same as in the U.S. It is expected that in a few more decades, Mexico's population will be older than ours.
Already, around half of the world's population lives in countries with below-replacement birth rates. Not only Japan, but also Korea, Thailand, Burma, Sri Lanka. China's government-enforced low birthrate and its rapidly-aging population threaten to undo its newly-achieved prosperity.
Iran, with only 1.7 births per woman, has one of the world's most rapidly aging populations. "Spengler" thinks that Iran's aggressive behavior may be related to the need to act while "it still has the manpower to do so."
Soon the West may face the prospect of fewer immigrants, resulting in a lower standard of living.
The population decline worldwide does not come from illness or lack of fertility, but by choice.
As Spengler and others have pointed out, the root of the problem is the decline of religious faith.
It also makes it all the more urgent to share our faith with others.
A few years ago, a film called A Day Without a Mexican took an amusing look at our dependence on Mexican labor...both sides of the immigration debate share one assumption: There is virtually an endless supply of people from Mexico - and the rest of Latin America - who are ready to come here and work.
This assumption may be wrong. Mexico is having an unprecedented decline in birthrates. It has dropped from 7 children per woman in 1965 to 2.1 today - the same as in the U.S. It is expected that in a few more decades, Mexico's population will be older than ours.
Already, around half of the world's population lives in countries with below-replacement birth rates. Not only Japan, but also Korea, Thailand, Burma, Sri Lanka. China's government-enforced low birthrate and its rapidly-aging population threaten to undo its newly-achieved prosperity.
Iran, with only 1.7 births per woman, has one of the world's most rapidly aging populations. "Spengler" thinks that Iran's aggressive behavior may be related to the need to act while "it still has the manpower to do so."
Soon the West may face the prospect of fewer immigrants, resulting in a lower standard of living.
The population decline worldwide does not come from illness or lack of fertility, but by choice.
Any society that devalues marriage, that encourages people to place career above family, that embraces abortion will see birthrates plummet.
As Spengler and others have pointed out, the root of the problem is the decline of religious faith.
Loss of faith in the world to come leaves us grasping for everything we can get in this one, even at the expense of future generations.
Not surprisingly, the exception to these demographic changes is among religious believers, who take seriously the command to be fruitful and multiply - who believe in the family and see children as a gift from God. Their belief in the world come come makes them fruitful in this one.
It also makes it all the more urgent to share our faith with others.
posted by Old Neocon at 7:56 AM
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