Life, the Gift We Treasure Most, Yet Refuse to Bestow on Others
THE TELEGRAPH: Why does an educated, prosperous society choose not to reproduce itself, asks Charles Moore.

Our village is unusual in having a mainline railway station. Each day, a small number of people walk up from the station and past our house on their way to work. It is quite a long walk – perhaps a mile and a half – but I imagine they walk because they do not earn enough to own cars. They are virtually all foreign. They are on their way to serve as carers and nurses in an old people's home, whose inmates are virtually all British.

This procession is a daily visual illustration of what happens to a country when it lives and, increasingly, dies, under an illusion.

If you raise the subject of population with British people, most will tell you that the problem is overpopulation. There are too many people in the world, they say, and our own island is overcrowded.

Certainly, population growth causes problems, of which the greatest is the contest for resources, which can lead to war. But, as we are rediscovering with the recession, something frightening happens when what promised to go up, goes down.

Even quite marginal change has big effects. If you are getting 2 or 3 per cent richer each year, you can see a path of widening opportunity ahead. If you are getting 2 or 3 per cent poorer (let alone, as is currently the case, nearly 5 per cent), the future prospect narrows.

So it is with population; and the change is not marginal, but drastic. In 1960, OECD countries had a fertility rate of 3.2 children. Today, they have one of 1.6, well below the "replacement rate" of 2.1. So the rate has halved in my lifetime, moving from fast increase to steady decline. We in the West are collectively deciding not to bestow on others the gift which we most value for ourselves – life. >>> Charles Moore | Friday, July 03, 2009

Australia: Children a Rare Luxury as Couples Count Cost of Loving
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: GROWING financial uncertainty and an ageing population mean families are now just as likely to be made up of a couple with no dependent children as a couple with children living at home.

By 2026 the couples without children at home will have overtaken those with children as the most common type of family in Australia, a new report on family composition shows. But this is likely to accelerate should the economic turmoil worsen.

The report, by the Federal Government and to be published today, suggests financial concerns such as big mortgages and job uncertainty are among the main reasons couples delay having children or have fewer than they would like.

"There are more younger couples delaying having children or not having children at all," says the report, Australian Families 2008.

An ageing population also means there are more "empty nesters" than in the past.

People aged between 30 and 34 are now more likely to have children than those aged between 25 and 29. Those with children say they are having fewer than they would like.

"Although the number of women having only one child or no children is increasing, more Australians would prefer to have four or more children than to have no children or only one child," the report says.

Whether someone can afford to have children is as common a consideration as whether their partner would make a good parent.

The Government uses information on the changing composition of families to plan for schools, hospitals, community centres and other infrastructure.

And fewer children means fewer family members to care for ageing parents. >>> Stephanie Peatling | December 10. 2008

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Go Home Early and Multiply, Japanese Told
THE GUARDIAN: Japan's workers are being urged to switch off their laptops, go home early and use what little energy they have left on procreation, in an attempt to avert demographic disaster.

The drive to persuade employers that their staff would be better off at home than staying late at the office comes amid warnings from health experts that many couples are simply too tired to have sex.

A survey of married couples under 50 found that more than a third had not had sex in the previous month. Many couples said they didn't have the energy. A study by Durex found that the average couple has sex 45 times a year, less than half the global average of 103 times. >>> Justin McCurry in Tokyo | November 29, 2008

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