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Demographic Winter: A Brief Summary

It is curious to me why the degeneration of the typical human family is seen as progress, simply because it has not happened before. Humans have survived for many years, and it's no coincidence that every culture in history has used it as a basic unit. Differing from a clearly established and well proven stratagem is dangerous, if not outright stupid.

Of course, most people don't understand that aspect. The media has quite the impact on perception, especially on such a uselessly "controversial" topic. That being said, the purpose of this blog is not to insult or degrade other's opinions and intelligence. It is to provide an well-articulated base for those who are sincerely curious and pondering on this topic.

Though I will be sharing many of my personal philosophies (Platonic in nature), I will also be referencing the Family Studies class that I am currently in, partly to articulate it for myself to better understand the topic.

First off, I would like to discuss the issue of demographic winter in regards to climate change. Robert Ehrlich started the climate change propaganda with his book The Population Bomb. By his predictions, mass starvation and pollution would abound in disastrous quantities, leaving millions dead - by 1980.

Obviously, that didn't happen. It could be argued (ineffectively) that such things would have occurred if not for the changes humankind made in response. But that is not what matters.

Over the past fifty or so years, we have decreased the average carbon emission from American's by nearly ninety percent, a staggering number. A major number of pollution stems from major manufacturing companies, not from the use and destruction of fossil fuels and other such products by the average citizen. 

Climate change is an issue, but it is mostly unclear as to when it will cause nigh irreversible damage. Not in the foreseeable future, more than likely.

Which brings us to the demographic winter. Climate change may be not so big a deal anymore, but the political and social effects of the climate panic have had catastrophic consequences. In the documentary, it is discussed that falling birth rates have gone below the replacement rate, resulting in dropping populations within many developed countries.

Nothing good has ever been predicted by descending fertility, for any country. Descending births has been correlated in countries such as Japan with disastrous consequences to the economy, as well as other important aspects of human prosperity.

The rising proportion of the elderly compared to the young is a very overlooked aspect. Since the proportion of working people to needy people has decreased, those workers are left worse off than the generation before them. This leads to the current generation not having kids as a general rule, because they need to work harder to make sure they survive, and kids are (and always have been) and economic liability.

Thus, the newer population continues to be smaller than the generation before. It's a cycle. In order to keep the major effects of this from happening, immigration will need to play a major role. Considering recent policy changes, this seems dubitable. 

Even if immigrants were allowed in to assist the declining developed countries, it would take quite a few to restore equilibrium, leaving the not-as-developed countries with fewer workers, and, thus, a high proportion of workers to needy, causing the same issues there.

This can be easily remedied if the populace were fully aware of this, and desired to help. But alas, the declining fertility is an ingrained aspect of western culture. In countries such as China and Russia, the government is paying quite heftily for people to have children, which has had little effect. The culture is too ingrained.

Education is the best bet for prevention of disaster - history teaches us that. 

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