One topic that keeps rearing its ugly head in the news is that of declining birth rates in Europe and the USA. The concern in these articles always seems to be economic. Essentially, the concern is that the USA and Europe will not be able to support their welfare states without enough new citizens being born. More over without new consumers, who will buy the products of the future? This annoys me on many levels. The rest of this post will be about why this annoys me.
Firstly, the complaint that the first world won't be able to support its welfare state if not enough new workers are born seems to let the cat out of the bag that the welfare state is really just a self perpetuating ponzi scheme. For those who are unaware, ponzi schemes are fraudulent investment plans that pay returns or interest with investors' own money or the investment principal of others. Social Security is a government program started during the great depressing designed to stave off the effects of poverty on the elderly. It is funded (now partially, but originally the intent was total funding) through a payroll tax on all earners. The money is then entrusted to the Social Security Trust Fund which, when revenues exceed expenditures, invests the money in government bonds. So, it is a fund run by the government that pays returns or interest out of investors' own money. I.E. a ponzi scheme. That any interest paid into the fund is off government bonds whose interest is also paid out of general government revenue, i.e. tax revenue, i.e. investors' (tax payers') money.
Second, the complaint implies that the only reason the government cares about their population not reproducing is that it will lower future tax revenue that it can use to buy votes from the elderly. It sounds like they are saying: "How can we be masters of the universe when our subjects choose extinction over living under our rules?" Never mind that it implies a deep level of dissatisfaction with the modern first world dystopia that we (first worlders who apparently don't want to reproduce) all live in. Never mind that it implies that society has made it too big a pain in the ass to have kids. And never mind that it implies a deep seated pessimism about the world's future. No, lets worry about the fact that our bloated government won't have a new set of slave labor to exploit and support the festering corpse that is first world government.
If government was really concerned about people reproducing it would provide government funded daycare so that working couples wouldn't be bankrupted with childcare costs. But no, instead we waste hundreds of billions of dollars supporting unproductive members of society with programs like social security and welfare. At least in Europe they allow for paternity care, time off and child tax credits/stipends so working people can have families if they want them. Though it is important to point out that birth rates are even lower in Europe than they are in the USA. In the USA though, we do nothing to support working parents and we wonder why people are opting not become parents. Once upon a time it was possible for a middle class family to live on one income so that one parent could stay home and raise children. But thanks to global competition this is no longer possible. How do you pay a living first world wage and benefits to a blue collar worker in the USA and not get killed in the marketplace by companies using third world forced labor in sweatshop conditions? The answer is you can't. So instead we have had 50 years of downward pressure on wages for the middle class. We like to blame "corporations" but the reality is that consumers won't support non-competitively priced products or the companies that make them. It's so bad that "fair trade" products are viewed as a gimmick. If "made in the USA" (or other first world country) didn't imply high prices, low quality and bad products, maybe we could still support a family of 4 or more on one income.
So the next time the news or some government think tank starts complaining about the falling US birthrate, note the resounding silence on the subject of what to do about it. Because what that means is that the forces that be are out of ideas and trying to simply guilt people into reproducing. Just another solid idea from our intellectually bankrupt leaders.
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