Or the impact of unintended consequences?
You guys — and I do mean people of the male persuasion who still seem to be the ones making most policy decisions in most countries — are something else. Who knew you had it in you to derail the almost unstoppable human drive to procreate? But you seem to have done precisely that.
Kudos!
According to The World Economic Forum global birth rates are declining. Five years after reversing their long-held policy of one child per family, the men in charge in China have upped the limit to three children per family thinking that will do the trick. For those who want all the stats from all the countries, there’s the link above. Go for it. I read it and now you can, too.
Or you can settle for my spoiler: Fewer people = bad.
Bad for who exactly?
Think of it, World Leaders. Here is the result of your decades of fiddling with — or simply neglecting — laws and policies. Fewer people mean fewer taxpayers = bad. Fewer consumers = very bad. Fewer soldiers = uh oh.
Fewer voters = hmmmmm.
The decline in birth rates is a fairly global phenomenon according to our friends at The World Economic Forum. But one country, in particular, stands out for its decades-long assault on providing for the basic human needs of its citizens: yes, folks, that would be the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. The toxic combination of turning everything into a profit-making venture for voracious capitalists — shelter, food, healthcare, education, social services — and decimating any safety nets meant to keep at least most of the people fed, sheltered, and reasonably secure has blossomed into the stinkiest pile of garbage on the planet.
Who but the wealthiest would even consider putting themselves into the untenable position of trying to raise new human beings in this nightmare?
Sadly, there aren’t enough of the ultra-wealthy to procreate at the pace needed by World Leaders to replenish the ranks of taxpayers, consumers, and soldiers. What to do? What to do?
From my comfortable armchair on the sidelines, the answer is clear: Provide real support to the people who want to breed your next generation of taxpayers, consumers, soldiers, tinkers, tailors, and spies. That means the men who like to think of themselves as leaders will have to divert multiple millions of dollars from developing bigger and better ways to kill each other's populations and instead focus on providing food, shelter, and healthcare to — wait for it — families. Women specifically.
They won’t do it. They’ll blame everything and everyone else including the very people who can’t possibly afford to have children in a collapsing society. Additionally, they've gutted one of the primary alternatives women had to having children they couldn't afford to raise. Buh-bye Roe v Wade.
Insider tip to Men-in-Positions-of-Power: This will not solve the problem.
Also from my comfortable armchair on the sidelines, I have to ask: Isn’t this what environmentalists have been carping about for decades? We all remember the population explosion, don’t we? There was a reason for China’s draconian one-child rule. There are too many of us and the scientists have been telling us that since I got the Weekly Reader in second grade.
So which is it? Good news or bad news?
In the short term for anyone who hates vast social upheaval — ok, that would pretty much be all of us who are alive right now — it’s likely to get real scary. Take one small(ish) example: Social Security which is basically a vast pyramid scheme is looking unworkable in the long run. You'll recall that it requires a huge and ongoing increase in strong, young, working bodies at the base to support all us old farts who did our time in the salt mines supporting the generations who went to their heavenly rewards ahead of us.
What happens now?
We don’t know. We won’t know until it all starts crumbling. Well, friends, that crumbling has begun.
So let’s hear it for the short-sightedness of our “leaders” who have done the environmentalists' work for them. Yes, guys, by your ineptitude, greed, and general stupidity you have managed to do what no amount of National Geographic articles or dire PBS specials could do: you have convinced people not to have babies.
What the hell do you have as an encore?
Maybe….we don’t want to know.
Comments / 0