The End of the Old World

Melissa sees this as a sign of the apocalypse.

I'm more inclined to be worried about this statistic: no civilization has ever recovered from a birth rate being lower than 1.3 children per woman. That is to say, in the course of human history, any civilization whose birthrate got lower than 1.3, has never had a demographic recovery and been able to replace itself. Over time, the math works itself out and the population ceases to exist when people don't replace themselves with children.

Right now, in 17 European nations, the birthrate has dipped to below this rate.

Now, I am not a europhile. I mock the French, didn't have a great experience in England, got mugged in Prague, found Spanish food gross, and don't like the sound of German. But I'm not so sure I'm excited about a future without any French people. Sure, France, the landmass will exist...but France is more than that, it is a culture with a history. These people invented brie for chrissake. Brie. And fellatio. I've yet to see similar accomplishments from a Muslim country. And right now, on the streets of France at nighttime, it is the young Muslims who populate. This is the future. Now, this wouldn't be an inherent problem if it wasn't for the trouble with Muslim assimilation in Europe and if we didn't care about French culture.

And maybe it's a little embarassing to admit being a freedom fry lover and all, but I don't want to see the French go away. I like Paris, dammit. And this country produced Jean Renior, Andre Bazin, and Jean Luc Godard.

So if you need a reason to have children...here it is: to preserve Western Civilization.

Thanks Alice and Kevin for beginning to do your part.

Update: In the Netherlands, native Dutch people have a net emigration rate. That is, more native dutch are leaving the country than being born. Of course, they can't come to the US because our legal immigration process doesn't work, so they go to New Zealand and Australia.