Why isn't pro-life a matter of national security?

I am traditionally pro-choice. There are a variety of reasons, but none of them have to do with national security. They have primarily to do with "back-alley" abortions, and other rather democratic principles.

However, when I think of pro-life as a matter of national security, it makes more sense to me. You see, the birth rate is falling like nuts in America and Europe. Europe, without immigration, currently has a negative growth rate.

The USAmerica is almost in the same boat. From this perspective, incentivizing births financially should be a matter of national security. A mayor in Italy has already done this with remarkable results. It would also have a dramatic effect on Abortion rates in America.

We need to put the funding behind the pro-life ideology to do the following:

1. Introduce a Federal Ban on all Executions.
2. Financially incentivize births. This should follow the Italian model of $15k, paid in increments, with the final installment when the child enrolls in Kindergarten. The key here is that you have larger incentives for areas with the lowest birth rates.


We need to do something, because the lack of birth rate will be our undoing if we don't.



[edit on 27-7-2008 by Quazga]

Originally posted by Quazga
We need to do something, because the lack of birth rate will be our undoing if we don't.

This thread is a joke right? Or some form of sarcasm that I'm missing?

The world population has been going steadily up for my entire life and I really don't think that is going to change. Humans enjoy sex, there will always be another generation.

Vas

That's ridiculous.

Europe and America's birth rates are declining so much because we are heavily developed countries entering the late post-industrial age. The same thing is happening in Japan, where there are an abundance of senior citizens and a low birth rate.

Populations work in curves. Early on there are many children to each adult. As society advances, the curve evens, then eventually skews so that there are more adults than children. Then the population declines, as there are fewer children to replace the seniors. It's a rise and fall mechanic that can be observed in every population in the biosphere.

The global population is rising at an unprecedented rate, as more and more countries are entering the industrial age. We are reaching the breaking point, and are probably going to see a dramatic population drop-off during the next few hundred years.

Originally posted by drwizardphd
That's ridiculous.

Europe and America's birth rates are declining so much because we are heavily developed countries entering the late post-industrial age. The same thing is happening in Japan, where there are an abundance of senior citizens and a low birth rate.

Populations work in curves. Early on there are many children to each adult. As society advances, the curve evens, then eventually skews so that there are more adults than children. Then the population declines, as there are fewer children to replace the seniors. It's a rise and fall mechanic that can be observed in every population in the biosphere.

The global population is rising at an unprecedented rate, as more and more countries are entering the industrial age. We are reaching the breaking point, and are probably going to see a dramatic population drop-off during the next few hundred years.

Yep, Globally we are increasing. More domestically though we are at an all time low in the US. Now given your points of boom and bust cycles in populations, I tend to agree, which is why I am concerned greatly from a national perspective.

Birth rates may be low, but our population is still increasing. Thanks to both better health care and immigration. So, where's the problem again?

Originally posted by Vasilis Azoth

Originally posted by Quazga
We need to do something, because the lack of birth rate will be our undoing if we don't.

This thread is a joke right? Or some form of sarcasm that I'm missing?

The world population has been going steadily up for my entire life and I really don't think that is going to change. Humans enjoy sex, there will always be another generation.

Vas

Nope... It's the real deal.

You are right... Humans enjoy sex, but educated humans in developed countries enjoy the sex more than the reproduction evidently, because birthrates in the US and Europe are at historical lows. As a matter of fact, South Korea is also suffering from this problem and are creating incentives for would-be mothers.

Here is a blog post which comments on this NYTimes article titled "No Babies?"

This is a cultural problem we are facing. And another poster pointed out, that this is what happens with population cycles in any system.

Which is why, I believe, that it should be a matter of national security.


Here is a quote from the NYTimes article

The spiritual concerns aside, though, the main threats to Europe are economic. Alongside birthrate, the other operative factor in the economic equation is lifespan. People everywhere are living longer than ever, and lifespan is continuing to increase beyond what was once considered a natural limit. Policy makers fear that, taken together, these trends forecast a perfect demographic storm. According to a paper by Jonathan Grant and Stijn Hoorens of the Rand Europe research group: “Demographers and economists foresee that 30 million Europeans of working age will ‘disappear’ by 2050. At the same time, retirement will be lasting decades as the number of people in their 80s and 90s increases dramatically.” The crisis, they argue, will come from a “triple whammy of increasing demand on the welfare state and health-care systems, with a decline in tax contributions from an ever-smaller work force.” That is to say, there won’t be enough workers to pay for the pensions of all those long-living retirees. What’s more, there will be a smaller working-age population compared with other parts of the world; the U.S. Census Bureau’s International Database projects that in 2025, 42 percent of the people living in India will be 24 or younger, while only 22 percent of Spain’s population will be in that age group. This, in the wording of a Demographic Fitness Survey by the Adecco Institute, a London-based research group, will result in a “war for talent.” And the troubles for Europe are magnified by other factors in the existing welfare states of many of its countries. Europeans are used to early retirement — according to the Adecco survey, only 60 percent of men in France between the ages of 50 and 64 are still working.

Then there is the matter of what kind of society “lowest low” will bring. How will the predominance of one- and two-child families affect family cohesion, sibling relationships, care for elderly parents? Imagine a society in which family reunions consist of three people, in which nearly all of a child’s relatives are in their 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s. Laviano’s empty streets echo with something strange and seemingly new. As the social scientists Billari, Kohler and Ortega put it, Europe is entering “an uncharted territory in demographic history.”

[edit on 28-7-2008 by Quazga]