DINKY people and Europe's negative birth rate

[green-man-2010.livejournal.com]

All over Europe, people are using contraception.
Well, smart people are. Instead of having half a dozen kids or more, smart couples are having just a couple of kids - sometimes , no kids at all, and spending the money that would have gone on kiddy clothes and baby food on consumer durables and ski trips in Switzerland.

And now, the neocons are worried.
see, my wife and I are both DINKYs - a DINKY is like a Yuppy, but stands for Double Income , No Kids Yet. And seeing as we are both in our 50s, I think the Yet is permanent in our case.

So, when we retire, there are no kids to take our place in the workforce.
OMG! the Neocons wail - hhow can you abandon us? how can you walk away and leave the wheels of industry unmanned? Who will provide the cannon fodder for our next bloody and imperialst war?
Who will work in our factories, clean our cars and do our dirty work for the crap wages we are willing to pay?

And we answer " you told us that you never owed us a living. We therefore think that we don't owe it to you to have any kids. I dunno who will, but just be certain that we won't."

And, as birthrates plummet, and smart women see to it that they don't have kids that the capitalists need to keep the system going, the neocons reach for the panic button. they will import immigrants, they will shout about the joys of motherhood. And smart women will laugh and go on ski trips to switzerland instead of plodding behind a pram through Tescos.

I bet that Mrs Thatcher wishes she had never said ' there is no such thing as society. i bet she wishes she had laid on creches, championed the Welfare state and made motherhood a lot easier and desireable, instead of sneering at the poor. But it's too late Mrs T. Your system kicked us in the face, so we took the Child Free option. Enjoy your bleak and child free future while it lasts.

Comments

[ex-restless.livejournal.com]

No, that's no what overpopulation means. Overpopulation means that there are too many people in a given area to be supported by the resources available. What evidence is there that the number of people in Europe needs to be reduced in order for there to be sufficient resources to support the population of the world? What evidence is there that Europe actually growing their population will result in there not being enough resources to support the population of the world?

Are people just going to keep making baseless claims, or are they going to back up their assertions with factual evidence?

[peamasii.livejournal.com]

There is plenty of evidence of the stress and drain on ecosystems, if you care to look. It's not just the EU but all areas which are densely populated. Take deforestation for example, the rate of destruction is globally ~16 million hectares per year. We've already cleared 78% of old growth forests. This is only so that we can build more crap for more people to live and work in. It takes 100+ years for a forest to recover.

[ex-restless.livejournal.com]

Deforestation has nothing to do with being overpopulated, it has to do with being careless and wasteful.

[peamasii.livejournal.com]

o rly

[ex-restless.livejournal.com]

Yep. Any more questions?

[peamasii.livejournal.com]

Why, you have any answers?