Oh, Baby! US Fertility Rate Hits Replacement Levels!
Hooray for us!
The US fertility rate has reached 2.1, which means that demographic balance point of replacement rate. This also means that the US is unique among industrialized, First World nations. Almost every other nation is in demographic decline.
I like this little quote from the news article (I boldfaced the part):
While the rising fertility rate was unwelcome news to some environmentalists, the "replacement rate" is generally considered desirable by demographers and sociologists because it means a country is producing enough young people to replace and support aging workers without population growth being so high it taxes national resources. "This is a noteworthy event," said John Bongaarts of the Population Council, a New York-based think tank. "This is a sign of demographic health. Many countries would like to be at this level."
Europe, Japan and other industrialized countries have long had fertility rates far below the replacement level, creating the prospect of labor shortages and loss of cultural identity as the proportion of native-born residents shrinks in relation to immigrant populations. In contrast, many developing nations' birthrates far exceed the replacement rate, fueling poverty and social unrest.
|
Well, OBVIOUSLY! Both great population booms and great population busts are bad news. Replacement rate is a GOOD thing.
MM, for the record, doesn't care what apocalyptic enviro-fanatics have to say. Some of them are all for taxing babies for carbon emissions, for goodness sake. One particular dimwit even sterilized herself -- though I will sarcastically say that if she wants to leave her crazy genes out of the gene pool, then good -- we don't need more crazy genes.
Someday MM would indeed like to join the game and have some tiny Minervas of her own . . . though, as always, she's unsure how to have 2.1 kids. *grin*