In recent news we see what it is happening in Greece, but why does a financial melt down for a country have to do with marriage/raising families? Well, look at Greece's demographics, its fertility rate is 1.51 per a woman.
You can't have a growing economy or support pensions/retirement with an rapidly aging population, or pay off your debt without a workforce. Workforces are relatively easy to create, all you need to do is have sex. Of course there is more to that- a lot more. Workforces start off very dependent and needy and take up a lot of resources in their developmental stages prior to adulthood. There's sacrifice of physical, emotional, and financial resources for anyone who engages in copulating activity to help create a future workforce ready and able.
Women take on this sacrifice disproportionately to men, so what's the answer? It can't be not having children, because apparently things tend to fall apart easily. In terms of ideals and public policy how can we make men just as obligated to their offspring to as women and create a balance.
In NPR today, there was a note lowering Greece's bond rating to junk, and other countries like Spain (fertility rate 1.46) and Portugal(fertility rate 1.37) in financial problems. But how does S&P rate a country?
It's not an idle question — just ask Greece, Spain or Portugal, all of which have been downgraded by big ratings agencies recently as Europe's debt crisis intensified. So: To start with, S&P sends two analysts to the country that's being rated. It seems like a small number for a whole country. But Joydeep Mukherji, who is one of the people who rates countries for S&P, says it's enough. "What we're looking at is fairly narrow," he says. "Can you pay your debt fully and on time? What's your ability and willingness to do so?" ... Still, some critics say the very act of downgrading a country to junk status is harmful. Mukherji disagrees."It's not the rating which caused the problem," he says. "The problem was there."
I've often thought that socialism could never have made the inroads into our country, that it has, had our nation's marriages and family values been much stronger. A nation is only as strong as its families.
ReplyDeleteIt's really awkward to see Greeks in their 20s and 30s refusing to make sacrifices, to pay up on debt accrued for the government pensions and benefits. I read one quote by a politician that the Greeks owed no one anything.
ReplyDeleteBy some measures, the Greeks might have stronger families than the U.S. For instance, I'd wager that their rate of out-of-wedlock births are below the U.S. rate.
ReplyDeleteYou're right Greece does have a low out of wedlock birth rate, of 2.9% according to Marriage and the economy: theory and evidence from advanced industrial societies By Shoshana Grossbard-Shechtman page 42 Or we could also argue that out of wedlock births may be what in the end helps America in a comparative sense down the road, at least we have a workforce to work with.
ReplyDeleteSlightly dated, but a journal from The European Journal of Contraception and Reproductive Health Care- Fertility and contraception in Europe: the case of low fertility in Southern Europe (1997) lists in their abstract
"Some explanations of the dramatic fertility decline in Southern Europe are:
(1) The emancipation of women and their increased participation in the labor force;
(2) Economic aspects such as costs for child care and education; and
(3) The couple's motivation for low fertility because of the expanded choices for travel and leisure and their concerns for improving their standard of living.
Social pressures on childbearing outside marriage remain quite strong; cohabitation and extramarital births in Southern Europe are not as prevalent as in other European regions and there is a trend toward delaying the birth of the first child rather than foregoing childbearing."
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Later on I think I'll expand upon #3.
Greece also has the highest abortion rate in Europe,
ReplyDelete"More than 250,000 abortions take place every year in Greece, of which 40,000 are on underage girls younger than 16. Also, a third of them are performed on married women who would avoid them if they could afford a larger family.
This information was announced by Gynecology Professor of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Ioannis Bodis, speaking at the 2nd day of the 17th Northern Greece Medical Conference, organized by the Thessaloniki Medical Company.
In the 1980-1999 periods, stressed Mr. Bodis, Greece exhibited a decrease of 41% in fertility, twice as much (in percentage) as in the rest of Europe, while the US showed an increase in the fertility factor of 14%."