This week my mind has been blown. Lots of myths were debunked with the most notable one being that the earth is being over populated. As we dove into the social science and demographic research I was astonished to learn how low fertility rates are currently around the world. When we talk about fertility rates we mean the average number of children a woman will have in her lifetime. Another term is the replacement fertility rate which means the fertility rate necessary for a population to maintain its current number. The fertility rate is 2.13 children per woman and I was shocked to find out that America is the ONLY nation in the world that is higher than 2.13. Most European nations are somewhere between 1 and 2. What this means is that as the European population ages there are not enough children being born to replace the ones that die. As we learned more about the negative and unintended consequences that will occur because of this I was blown away. The economic and social implications are staggering. Economically speaking for instance if 50 million baby boomers leave the workforce and only 30 million come in, then those 30 million will have to work longer and harder and taxes will increase as we try to support those 50 million people who retired. Socially speaking because nations aren't having the necessary children to maintain the status quo, immigrants are coming into those countries. This means that eventually the natives of a country could cease to exist and then you would only have the immigrants who had moved there. Ok, enough for the doomsday scientific stuff, now for the optimistic stuff. As I am a man of deep faith in God I believe He sent us here to earth for specific purposes. The first purpose was to receive a physical body, anyone reading this has already accomplished that step. The next purpose is to form families. The trends of the last 30-40 years have led us to this point where a majority no longer want to have many children or even have them at all. We like to think that this is a personal choice and it has no implications on anyone else but ourselves. Based on the things we learned this week I don't believe that is true. I believe we will see severe repercussions for our choices to have fewer or no children. Yes, I realize that having children in this wicked world today can cause people to be afraid to do so. But this is where we must turn to our faith in God and show that faith by heeding the commandment to "Multiply and replenish the earth." (Genesis 1:28) Now these are just my opinions based on the evidence that was presented to me this week. I want to share with all who read this the link to watch the videos we watched this week which have shaped my opinions thus far. That way each of you can decide for yourself what you think the evidence is saying to you. Would love to hear everyone's comments!
http://www.byutv.org/show/5e819b00-5e99-4bf4-931e-c154d3c2dc8d/new-economic-reality-demographic-winter
That is the link to the first video, this is the link to the second one. They are each about an hour long, but I promise it is worth the time.
http://www.byutv.org/watch/b3dfa9f3-6e20-4d64-af96-fbf3fd64670a/new-economic-reality-demographic-winter-part-2
