European Union Forums

[Aeneas]

Just like advancing glaciers (yes! some glaciers are actually advancing), the latest statistics buck commonly accepted notions that rich nations have decreasing birth rates.
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/08/0 ... -boom.html

Most of the two dozen nations that have passed this tipping point -- including Australia, Sweden, France, the United States and Britain -- are enjoying modest baby booms, breaking a pattern of declining fertility that has held for decades if not longer.

[Big_Becka]

I don't think we can call it "enjoying" - in the UK the baby boom is due to the recession.

At my local Job Centre, there are leaflets on the benefits you can claim if you have a baby right next to the job-search computers. They seem to be encouraging unemployed women to have children! I suspect this is to manipulate the unemployment statistics

Even if you are not married, the Job Centre will try to assess you as being "living as if married" to your boyfriend: this restricts the benefits you can claim, because they assume your boyfriend will pay the rent and look after you So being unemployed forces you into a traditional-style relationship before you are ready. Most men will want something in return for all that money!

It is also a good time to have a career break, if you were considering having children and you are going to be unemployed anyway...

[Peach]

means that the crisis and recession still have a positive influence.

[tricker]

In the end the scientists, doctors and the authorities will not wail as young families not born children and that we are in danger of extinction. It is a beneficial result of the crisis

[Benn]

means that the crisis and recession still have a positive influence.

are good news. Until now the question arises as birth rate is less than the death rate. So how is Peach said something good in the financial-economic crisis.

[Big_Becka]

Perhaps in the shorter term - more babies means more young people to pay taxes and look after the ageing population.

But there is also a very serious population crisis in this country. We are quite literally running out of room! This is partly why house prices are so insanely expensive. We have also run out of room in our prisons, and schools are becoming overcrowded. We are now one of the most densely populated countries in Europe (I'm not sure if we've overtaken the Netherlands yet...) We simply cannot carry on like this!

Besides, what kind of life does a child have if it's parents were forced together, and only had children to claim the money? I know plenty of people who blame their children for wrecking their lives, and many women are made to feel like failures for sacrificing their careers (you are an immature freak if you don't have children, and a lazy, stupid failure if you do! ) I think the next generation will have very serious psychological problems!

[Faw_Peter]

Future generation will be very different from ours! They do not grow as we grew, playing games with friends and neighbors.They are raised by computer, internet, video games etc.. They give so much money to those young people for having a baby? Maybe the authorities should remember to young parents that to bring a baby is not so camplicated but to raise and to educate is enormous work.

[hellodear]

Maybe the authorities should remember to young parents that to bring a baby is not so camplicated but to raise and to educate is enormous work.

Yes to educate is an enormous work. But it depends on parent's example.... and on their development before to become parents