OJ:



I saw a report today (in the Detroit Free Press) that the UN has reduced its 2050 population estimates (for about the sixth year running--take that, Paul Ehrlich), down about 400 million from the previous estimate.



Having visited Russia--well, the USSR, I was there the week before the coup--I think the non-infertility reason couples aren't having kids is that Communism turned what should be a wealthy country into a bloody awful place to live.



A generation or two down the road, with the worst after effects (hopefully) gone, fertility rates may rebound.



Regards,

Jeff Guinn

Japan is one of the wealthiest countries on Earth and has more abortions than live births and a negative population growth rate. The problem is secularism/materialism/statism, not communism.

I thought Orthodox Christianity was making a big comeback in Russia?

OJ:



I think Italy is still overwhelmingly Catholic, and has one of the lowest birth rates in the world. The US, with apparently the most widespread religious belief among wealthy nations would be looking forward to population decline in the absence of immigration.



The problem is something gave women the ability to do cost-benefit analyses, and the ability to do something about their conclusions. So what the heck was your intelligent designer thinking when he gave women brains?



Regards,

Jeff Guinn

JG:



Italy is nominally Catholic but truly post-Christian.



The US native population reproduces at replacement rate: population grew more rapidly than predicted in this last census because of immigration.



Obviously women haven't done the cost benefit analysis or they'd wonder who's going to care for them in their twilight years in the absence of children or taxpayers to fund social services.

Ali:



That's what makes demographics so frightening is that when your population starts to fall it goes so rapidly that a resurgence of religion isn't likely to counteract the decline. That's why the PLO should just demand a one state solution and wait till reproduction hands them control of Israel.

Quick comment re some of the stats given ... about 20 years ago a large study of infertility in England found that about 11 percent of couples could not conceive a child. About 6 percent of men and 6 percent of women were "sterile". (How do 6 and 6 add to 11? Because sometimes both spouses have fertility problems.) Just giving a little perspective -- strongly agree with the other posters that the reality of crashing birthrates is a far more important development than anyone in mainstream media seems to think.

OJ:



Lemme see--If a woman decides to forego the cost of raising one additional child, and invests that money instead, then she can prevent having to depend on that Ponzi scheme we call Social Security.



Doesn't that qualify as a cost-benefit analysis? Besides, just because the results don't agree with yours doesn't mean it didn't happen.



Regards,

Jeff Guinn

Jeff:



I realize that part of your support for abortion is the need to believe that the decision improves the lives of all concerned, but the thought that the money that would have been spent raising the child is instead being banked is truly laughable. If you're so irresponsible you use abortion as boirth control there's little chance you've planned for when you're 65.



Moreover, that kind os selfish reasoning--the baby needs to die so I can be a little more comfortable--is abominable.

oj:



I think JG was referring to the decision not to conceive not aborting a foetus.

You also failed to put in these three sentences.



Despite Moscow's ambivalence over family planning, the rate of abortions in Russia dived by 45 percent from 1992 to 2001.



With no access to decent contraceptives, Russian women came to view abortion as a routine procedure, doctors say, comparable almost to a tooth extraction.



Serov predicts abortions will continue to decline as contraceptives become more accepted, even without a federal program. "It will just take more time," he said, to reverse a decades-old predilection.

Ali:



And that will raise birthrates how?

Well hopefully as botched abortions are phased out, there will be more fertile women around willing to have babies.

And, as Communism's appalling economic legacy fades, more women may elect
to become pregnant.



BTW, the Russians are, or at least so I have read, uniquely fond of children.



JG

JG:



The US is the only Western nation defying the rule that the more affluent a nation becomes the less willing its people are to be troubled by child-rearing responsibilities.

"What is man...?" God asks - and answers!



Many problems in human experience are the

result of false and inaccurate definitions

of humankind - premised in man-made religions

and humanistic philosophies. For better or

worse, the way we define 'human' determines

our view of self, others, relationships,

institutions, life, - and future.



"What is man...?" Only the Creator, who asks

the question and made us in His own image,

is qualified to accurately define us.



Man is earth's CHOICEMAKER Psalm 25:12 He

is, by nature and nature's God, a creature

of Choice - and of CRITERIA Psalm 119:30,173

His unique and definitive characteristic is,

and of Right ought to be, the foundation of

his environments, institutions, and respect-

ful relations to his fellow-man. Thus, he

is oriented to a FREEDOM whose roots are in

the Order of the universe.



Biblical principles are still today the

foundation under America and Western Civil-

ization. Let us proclaim it! Let's roll.

Behold! The SEASON of Generation-Choicemaker

JOEL 3:14 selah



The complete article is at:

httv://www.geocities.com/James-Baxter/



Semper Fidelis

Jim Baxter



"Envy thou not the oppressor and choose none

of his ways." Proverbs 3:31 KJV