Home
In this issue
Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 30, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Secret to Immortality
Caroline B. Glick Silencing dissent in America
Oct. 29, 2009
Lini S. Kadaba: Do tactics avert flu or reduce humanity?
JWisdom.com We Must Revamp our Religious Vocabulary With Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 28, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Atheists in Bubbleland
JWisdom.com Why what we wear impacts who we are With Rabbis Mordechai Becher, Menachem Golberger and Aliza Bulow ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 27, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The United Nations Is Outraged Again, Or: Department of Mideast Static
JWisdom.com The Science of Love With Rabbi Jonathan Rietti ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 26, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Damaging disclosures with a twist
JWisdom.com Wisdom and Wonks With Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 23, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Are you ready for the ultimate pleasure?
JWisdom.com Watermark and oneness with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick Stop using limited powers in a way that expands our enemies' advantages over us
Oct. 22, 2009
Steven Emerson: Terror Cases Share Desire to Kill Americans
JWisdom.com No More More Family Fights --- Really? By Sarah Chana Radcliffe ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 21, 2009
Tonya Alanez: Holocaust denier sues survivor, calling Auschwitz memoir 'vicious lies'
JWisdom.com Meditating Jewishly: A Panacea for Success by Sarah Yoheved Rigler ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 20, 2009
Dennis Prager: Obama and Dalai Lama: Why Israel Worries about U.S. President
JWisdom.com Abraham was not religious By Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer ( 6 minutes)
Oct. 19, 2009
JWisdom.comWhy Good People Do Bad Things By Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 16, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Perfect Number
JWisdom.com Hearing Voices By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick How Turkey was lost
Oct. 15, 2009
Jeff Jacoby: Peace vs. the 'peace process'
JWisdom.com: Former MTV producer and stand-up comedian Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff: Taming a Control Freak (A VERY fast 15 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review April 12, 2006 / 14 Nissan, 5766

Let's Have More Babies!

By Paul Johnson


Printer Friendly Version
Email this article

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | One of the nightmare visions that has faded away in recent years is the "population explosion." Even in the Third World rates of increase are rapidly slowing down. The danger now lies in the opposite direction. Europe in particular is producing fewer and fewer children, with a high percentage of those who are born coming from immigrant families.


Italy is a sad case. As recently as the 1930s it had one of the world's highest birthrates. This was reflected in Mussolini's plans to colonize Africa and encourage migration to Argentina. Today Italy has one of the lowest birthrates. You can go into villages in northern Italy, whose inhabitants enjoy living standards their grandparents wouldn't have believed possible, and look in vain for children. The Italians are rich in all material things — save life.


Germany is just as sterile. In France things are marginally better, but that's almost entirely owing to the country's huge Muslim minority, now making up about 10% of the population.


Last month I spoke with a woman who, a generation ago, conducted a detailed survey of British families. She recently returned to those same families and was dismayed by her findings. Whereas 30 years ago it was common for the families to have two to four children, the same families now had only one or two grandchildren or sometimes none at all. (I have four children and, so far, eight grandchildren. But some of my contemporaries have no grandchildren and little prospect of any.)

DECLINE IN MARRIAGE
Particular groups in society once noted for their philoprogenitive urges seem largely to have stifled them. During my childhood Catholics in Britain often had six to ten children. Now two is more likely.


Around 1900 Jews who had immigrated to Britain and the U.S. from eastern Europe often had huge families, with up to 16 children. Indeed, during this period Ashkenazi Jews probably had the highest birthrate in recorded history. Hollywood, for instance, was largely created by the offspring of such vast immigrant families. Now Jewish communities in America and Britain have birthrates well below the replacement rate, which constitutes a threat to their future.


Why is it that so many intelligent, well-educated, well-to-do people in the West are ceasing to reproduce?


One factor, clearly, is the decline of marriage as an institution. Young people marry later, or not at all. They often cohabit, with the vague intention of marrying "eventually," but don't have children. Then they quarrel and split up. Many a woman thus finds herself childless at 40 and must — with the clock ticking — start the relationship process over again or give up on the idea of having children.


Nearly everyone knows some horror story of a friend's failed marriage, involving acrimonious custody battles over the children. Why have them? Children are expensive. Whereas, in general, it used to take one income to raise a family, it now takes two. Then there is the claim of career. Whatever the law may provide, and however accommodating companies may be, having children is bound to hamper a woman's climb up the ladder of success.


Governments in Europe occasionally express dismay at low birthrates. But they do little or nothing about it. Indeed, what can they do? As far back as the mid-19th century the French began to worry about their low birthrate. In the 1930s the government introduced family allowances to try, through financial inducements, to persuade married couples to have more children. This device was copied elsewhere in Europe and became part of the welfare state. It doesn't seem to have had much effect anywhere and certainly not in France. Charles de Gaulle, when he was in power, used to boast that he would lay the foundation for "a nation of 100 million French people." That goal remains a fantasy. And if ever the French population hits the 100 million mark, half of it will consist of Muslims of North African origin.


The decline in religious practice may also be a factor. In western Europe many medieval churches and cathedrals are little more than museums. The new pope, Benedict XVI, is said to have chosen for his primary task the re-evangelization of Europe and its eventual repopulation. How he will bring this about I don't know. All the forces of modern society are against him, not least the European Union. In its proposed constitution the role of Christianity in the creation of European civilization was not merely omitted, it was deliberately excluded.


Yet while it is right to be concerned about this subject and discuss it frankly, we must not become despondent over it. We know from experience that demographic projections are notoriously subject to error. Birthrates can go up as well as down. Social fashions change. If there is a perceived "shortage of babies" or of young people entering the market, "an invisible hand," to use Adam Smith's phrase, may come into play. Supply rises to meet demand even in the most intimate aspects of life.


Then again the experience of having children — however irksome, expensive, wearying and career-hampering it may be — is also thrilling and delightful and full of continually changing fascinations. A child lifts the heart and gives meaning to life. Not to have a family is to deprive yourself of half the joys and interest of existence. These undoubted facts, true throughout the ages, will eventually reassert themselves, and the thrust of nature will return.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.


BUY THE BOOK

Click HERE to purchase it at a discount. (Sales help fund JWR.).

Eminent British historian and author Paul Johnson's latest book is "American Presidents Eminent Lives Boxed Set: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ulysses S. Grant". Comment by clicking here.



Previously:

04/05/06: For the love of trains
03/29/06: Lincoln and the Compensation Culture
03/22/06: Bottle-beauties and the globalised blond beast
03/15/06: Europe's utopian hangover
03/08/06: Kindly write on only one side of the paper
02/28/06: Creators versus critics
02/21/06: The Rhino Principle

© 2006, Paul Johnson

Insight (Our Columnists)

 Arnold Ahlert
 Mitch Albom
 Michael Barone
  Dave Barry
 Tony Blankley
 Andy Borowitz
 David Broder
 Stratfor Briefing
 Mona Charen
 Linda Chavez
 Ann Coulter
 Greg Crosby
 Larry Elder
 Suzanne Fields
 John Fund
 Frank J. Gaffney
 Lloyd Garver
 Jonah Goldberg
 Julia Gorin
 Jonathan Gurwitz
 Paul Greenberg
 Lewis Grossberger
 Victor Davis Hanson
 Betsy Hart
 Nat Hentoff
 David Horowitz
 Laura Ingraham
 Cheri Jacobus
Jeff Jacoby
 Paul Johnson
 Jack Kelly
 Ed Koch
 Ch. Krauthammer
 Michael Ledeen
 John Leo
 David Limbaugh
 Kathryn Lopez
 Rich Lowry
 Michelle Malkin
 Jackie Mason
 Dick Morris
 Bill O'Reilly
 Jim Mullen
 Clarence Page
 Kathleen Parker
 Dennis Prager
 Wesley Pruden
 Tom Purcell
 Jonathan Rauch
 Celia Rivenbark
 Robert Robb
 Cokie & Steve Roberts
 Pat Sajak
 Debra J. Saunders
 Culture Shlock
 Roger Simon
 Michael Smerconish
 Thomas Sowell
 Mark Steyn
 John Stossel
 Cal Thomas
 Bob Tyrrell
 Diana West
 Dave Weinbaum
 George Will
 Walter Williams
 Byron York
 Mort Zuckerman

'Toons
 Robert Arial
 Chuck Asay
 Baloo
 Chip Bok
 Dry Bones
  Lisa Benson
 John Branch
 Gary Brookins
 John Cole
 J. D. Crowe
 John Deering
 Brian Duffy
 Everything's Relative
 Mallard Fillmore
 Jake Fuller
 Bob Gorrel
 Joe Heller
 David Hitch
 Jerry Holber
 Steve Kelley
 Jeff Koterba
 Dick Locher
 Chan Lowe
 Ranan R. Lurie
 Jimmy Margulies
 Rick McKee
 Michael Ramirez
 Kevin Siers
 Jeff Stahler
 Ed Stein
 Danna Summers
 John Trever
 Gary Varvel
 Kirk Walters

Lifestyles
 How 2
 Lori Borgman
 The Savvy Consumer
 Elder matters
 Fixit
 Dr. Peter Gott
 GET A JOB! by Marty Nemko
 Richard Lederer
 Tech Maven
 Every Monday Matters
 Nutrition Myths
 Bookmark These
 Bruce Williams
 How Stuff Works