Birds Do It, Bees Do It

Germans don't do it:

Empty Maternity Wards Imperil a Dwindling Germany

...Germany's falling birthrate, like that in much of Western Europe, is entering its second generation. This means not only that mothers continue to have one or at most two children - too few to reproduce the population - but also that the number of potential mothers has dwindled. Germany, like several of its neighbors, is running out of the people it needs to sustain its advanced social systems and public infrastructure. "There will be 10 million fewer young people in my lifetime," observed Frank Schirrmacher, an editor at the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, who has written a best-selling book about population trends in Germany. "Our whole infrastructure is designed for a bigger population."

No, I have no idea why this is news.

Comments

[Maggie]

Germany is going to find itself in the same position the Netherlands is in now ... between of immigration and reproductive numbers of certain societal segements..... the majority of youth under the age of 18 will be MUSLIMS in a few short years.

They need to keep up with the Euronews. Then they will realize how really BIG their problems are going to be.

[Towering Barbarian]

True. But let's not forget that population implosion is an issue with Western Civ. from Japan to Russia as well. We, Canada, Israel and Australia feel it less than others because we're immigration based societies who are used to assimulating others as long as political correctness doesn't get in the way. But there comes a point where this may be an issue for us as well if those immigration rates should drop. To say that with a reproduction rate of 1.9 we are among the most fertile of the modern countries is a bit like saying we're the healthiest patient in the cancer ward. One legitimate question would have to be, in all these nations how many more births would there have been if abortion had not been legal? o_O

[Shrugs]

Mind you, from the Malthusian viewpoint these low birthrates are a feature rather than a bug. Believe as much of that as you want. :P

[Attila]

Who says they don't "do it"? They're just not successful at it. And shouldn't we be happy about that?

[RJGatorEsq.]

Well, not so long ago, Germany was very adept at reducing its own population.

Then along came the U.S. military, and helped reduce it further.
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[Crank]

No more need for Lebensraum, eh? We are rapidly approaching the point at which Poland could kick Germany's tail in a fight.

Perhaps we can enlist former President Clinton as ambassador to Germany to remedy this problem . . .

[Julie]

It's news because of the doom and gloom, overpopulation alarmists who have been feeding our school kids a load of love-mother-earth garbage that graduates them from school with the firm conviction that having children is immoral.

Or was that just me?

No. I meet too many people who seem to think that the choice not to "breed" makes them morally superior and who think that my four (not six, not eight) children are an appalling display of pure selfishness. So it's not just me. (I also meet people who simply choose not to have children *without* the moral superiority aspect, which is a decision I respect.)

It's not just Moslems who are going to out-produce the rest of the population... it's Christians, too. I imagine that nothing makes the tree huggers quite so nervous as the fact that the most seriously religious types, fundamentalist Christians, are also the ones having large families, homeschooling, and teaching their kids to be politically active. They make my four child family look downright restrained.

[TM]

That's an interesting point, Julie. And others have noted that pro-lifers tend to reproduce a bit less. All very gloomy for proper libs.

[Brennan Stout]

Young people that I meet in the United States tend to treat children as a career ostacle. In their 20s I suppose they just haven't quite hit their phase to settle down and think about their long term futures. Obviously, I would hope that Germany is different. But technology is connecting people in ways that are changing our futures.

The other thing I notice is the stark contrast of responses from young women and young men. The men seem much more interested in eventually having children where the women seem almost entirely disinterested in it. I suspect that is a result of the influence of their female college professors. Maybe a few of their male professors, but I think they more closely align with the thoughts of academia of their own gender.

[Attila]

Julie, the same is true among Jews, where the Orthodox (and I don't mean the "modern" Orthodox, for whom having 3 kids is typical) are having by far the most children.

Though I doubt the tree huggers are quite as concerned about the "black hats" as they are about the fundamentalist Christians.

Tom, I think you may have meant to say that pro-lifers reproduce a bit MORE.