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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]C9BL, thanks for the link to the alarmist publication you provided. Nevertheless, US Census figures show that we have 14 births per 1000 people annually in the US, with 8 deaths per thousand.  It's been that way for years. So the idea that we are below replacement rate is false. Do the math, don't just buy into Christian Right misleading, blatantly false reporting.[/quote]

Oh my goodness!  I've never been one to use text-speak, but I did laugh out loud over the characterization of USA Today as an "alarmist, "Christian Right" publication!  That just happened to be the first article that popped up on Google when I searched for "US birth rate below replacement.". This is not some secret conspiracy theory--it was a big news story this past fall.

Population growth is not a simple "birth rate versus death rate" formula.  I am not a social scientist, but I find demographics particularly fascinating, especially as most of the world does not seem to be paying much attention.

There are so many interrelated problems.  Welfare states require young, healthy workers to support the elderly and the frail.  Due to a combination of longer (but not exactly healthier) life spans with a very sharp drop in birth rates, most first world countries have an unsustainable ratio progression that will soon come to 1:1, or one worker for one dependent.

Some people have said (on this thread) so what?  So we have too many old people for about 20 years.  We will come out leaner and better.

It's a huge understatement to say it's not that simple.

National Geographic had a really extensive cover story about this issue not too long ago--maybe a year?  Don't take my word for these concerns.  Why do you think European countries pay women to have children?  The Japanese have coined a new word to describe a lonely death.  China just created a new law requiring children to take care of their elderly parents.

Children are our greatest natural resource.  Individually and collectively, we have tampered with reproduction in such a way as to alter civilization.  No human civilization has ever done well with a declining, elderly-majority population.  The gender imbalance currently in place in Asia has also never been seen on such a large scale, and societies with even small male-dominated imbalances tend to violence, disorder, and oppression of women.  There are no guarantees for success, and we are currently going astray according to all of human history.[/quote]

Little secret:

These folk are trying to paint you as ignorant because you are Christian. In fact, you are obviously quite intelligent and well-spoken, and they are having issues with that.[/quote]

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