The liberal baby bust

[DaveColorado]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20060314/cm_usatoday/theliberalbabybust;_ylt=Am6nNeCfG7QMisMK6Me5AEis0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3YWFzYnA2BHNlYwM3NDI-

The liberal baby bust

What's the difference between Seattle and Salt Lake City? There are many differences, of course, but here's one you might not know. In Seattle, there are nearly 45% more dogs than children. In Salt Lake City, there are nearly 19% more kids than dogs.

This curious fact might at first seem trivial, but it reflects a much broader and little-noticed demographic trend that has deep implications for the future of global culture and politics. It's not that people in a progressive city such as Seattle are so much fonder of dogs than are people in a conservative city such as Salt Lake City. It's that progressives are so much less likely to have children.


It's a pattern found throughout the world, and it augers a far more conservative future - one in which patriarchy and other traditional values make a comeback, if only by default. Childlessness and small families are increasingly the norm today among progressive secularists. As a consequence, an increasing share of all children born into the world are descended from a share of the population whose conservative values have led them to raise large families.

This correlation between secularism, individualism and low fertility portends a vast change in modern societies. In the USA, for example, nearly 20% of women born in the late 1950s are reaching the end of their reproductive lives without having children. The greatly expanded childless segment of contemporary society, whose members are drawn disproportionately from the feminist and countercultural movements of the 1960s and '70s, will leave no genetic legacy. Nor will their emotional or psychological influence on the next generation compare with that of people who did raise children.

-more

[MercutioATC]

1. Screw you liberals...

No, I meant "Screw, you liberals!"

[kerstin]

3. Cute. n/t

[MercutioATC]

7. Amazing, how much power the lowly comma has...

:)

[Erika]

2. Utah represents a minor sector of Americans

To equate SLC with Seattle or NYC, is so stupid.

The increase in births is prevelant in Hispanics here.

[DaveColorado]

4. I think this is a serious issue worth noting

Fundies will win in the end by their sheer numbers of children that they have, dismantle the constitution.

[loyalsister]

5. hmmmmm

Interesting how five of us managed to escape a fundie background with strong liberal credentials.
I am a little shocked by lack of thought given to the broad premise that the role models these kids will be have access to will be limited to their parents and internal circles and that because they come from good Christian homes they will not rebel, and most assuredly these kids are naturally incapable of thinking for themselves.
This seems to be an ideological assesment that assumes kids are stupid, and that good people prevent any liberal influences.

[Erika]

6. The premise was laughable

How many kids did Laura and W have? How many did Bobby Kennedy have?

[otohara]

8. My Concern Was For The Environment

over population, all those nasty diapers - and oh, the cost of raising a child.

[lapfog_1]

9. This also makes the assumption

that you are destined to follow your fundie parents.

Fortunately, I don't believe that to be the case.

[RB TexLa]

10. this has been posted, I'm still not willing to give up my time and life to

raise children.

[REP]

14. Same Here

Mostly, I just don't want to have children, but trying to outbreed the opposition is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard. Today.

[Dogmudgeon]

11. It's just getting too expensive to have children

I like kids, and I'd like to get married and reproduce. However, I'm poor right now, which also reduces the chances for marriage, and I am strongly committed to NOT making babies until I can provide for them. I also don't idolize marriage or look down on unmarried parents, but it's usually better for parents to be married.

I guess it's my damned libbrul mindset at work.

I can well understand that some people are inclined toward children, and some aren't, but this is yet ANOTHER instance where money has become the major factor in a deep part of human existence.

--p!

[Untermonkey]

12. Yes, children are expensive but...

Educated, independent thinking, open minded children are the one legacy we can leave behind that will mean a damn thing once we are gone.

[Clark2008]

17. Why does being poor reduce the chance for marriage?

I understand that in the aspect of having children, but, quite honestly, two people working and eating and consuming is cheaper than one.

Or do you think no one wants to marry you because you're poor? If people like that are around you, you're not meeting the right people. How shallow of them!!

[Dogmudgeon]

20. I probably misspoke to some extent

That wasn't supposed to be a "boo-hoo, nobody loves me" post. I actually don't make much of an effort to meet people -- my main "problem" now is poor health, and poverty is an inescapable part of it. (Well, actually I do hope to escape it, but it's been difficult.)

I'm also not motivated at all to get married and/or have kids just to get married and/or have kids; it's a part of life I would like to experience before I get too old to do it easily.

I am by no means an old, frail man, but this is just a difficult period of life I'm going through. Still, it makes it difficult to have children, and it makes me think about people for whom poverty and despair are permanent, not temporary, situations.

--p!

[NewJeffCT]

13. I've been saying this for a while here on DU

The fundies want to breed us out of existence, or at least into an impotent minority. One thing they are good at is taking the long-term view of things.

Take a look at their numbers 25 years ago compared with now, and you will see they are much greater now. Extrapolate that into changes over the next 25 years, and things really get worrisome.

[AlienGirl]

18. That'd only work if all their kids automatically became fundies

Even supposing the parents and their close friends are fundies/right-wingers, the kids can still be influenced by other people, by books, TV, the Internet--heck, all kinds of places! Right-wing ideology is not coded for in genes, and many children grow up to be very different from their parents.

We don't need to try to "outbreed" them. It's not a race. We just need to make our ideas clear enough and attractive enough for their children when they come of voting age. This isn't a war of the gene-pools; it is the competition of ideals in the marketplace of ideas, and we just need to be darned good vendors.

Tucker

[NewJeffCT]

19. The problem is

They have 12 children who are all indoctrinated with the fundie way of thinking. If one of them slips & becomes a moderate or liberal, it is still only 1 of 12.

And, we are being squeezed out of the marketplace of ideas... the RW has been gaining more & more control of the media over the past 30 years. The position of Democrats are often represented by the likes of Joe Lieberman or Joe Biden in the MSM, while true progressives are hardly ever heard.

And, we have the intimidation of judges who don't vote RW. We're seeing college professors black listed...

[EFerrari]

15. This article makes no sense to me and reads like a prop piece

for the right wing.

How does this author explain that we get our votes in large urban centers WITH BIG POPULATIONS?

[KyuzoGator]

16. Liberals are dying off because we believe in family planning.

That's the gist of this trash article. We don't have eight kids running around barefoot through Wal-Mart.