[extropy-chat] [SALT] The DEpopulation Problem, this Friday (for forwarding)

[Mike Lorrey]

--- Emlyn <emlynoregan at gmail.com> wrote:

> Do you think this (depopulation caused by people choosing to have
> less children) is a function of the cost of having children? 

This is not a foregone conclusion. China has over a billion people, all
living under a one child law, allowing no choice to mothers, and that
one child rate seriously skews the worldwide average.

I would instead say that a woman's tendency to reproduce is
proportional to how expensive *governments* make child rearing, via
either statutory limitations on child bearing, or indirectly via
burdensome tax regiemes that raise the cost of living to excessively
high levels. Germany, for instance, has one of the most costly tax
regiemes, and a terrible reproductive rate. Here in the US, outside of
immigration, the population growth is better because our tax regieme
isn't as severe, though that varies from state to state. It would be
interesting to study reproductive rates in US states relative to their
state and local tax burden....

=====
Mike Lorrey
Chairman, Free Town Land Development
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
                                         -William Pitt (1759-1806) 
Blog: http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=Sadomikeyism


		
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