This Demography Business is No Joke
I'm in the departure lounge at Sea-Tac. (Sorry, friends in Seattle, I know I didn't call--I was only here for 24 hours.) I'm looking around me. Almost everyone in eyesight is old. I have seen exactly two children in this entire airport. The visual difference between Sea-Tac and Atatürk airport, in this regard, is stunning. It's visually obvious across America, but for some reason especially pronounced in Seattle.
Clearly, and you can see this just watching these confused elderly people trying to figure out how to get through airport security, these people are not going to be dynamic contributors to the American economy ever again. (From a purely personal standpoint, I'm not sure what's worse--being in line behind two dozen slow-moving, bewildered old people, or confronting the prospect of sitting next to a crying baby on a long-haul flight. I think the latter, but it's a hard call.) Clearly again, it is going to cost a lot to keep these people in good health, and just as clearly, they're going to be around for a long time: They're not dying, they're just old. And there simply aren't enough kids--not that I can see--who are going to be making enough money to pay for their health care and their pensions.
I'm not exactly the solution to this problem, I know. In fact, I am the problem; I'm one of the legions of Western women who had a lot of other exciting things going on and somehow never managed to apply myself to the problem of perpetuating the human race. But that doesn't stop me from recognizing, immediately, that the West has a problem on its hands. A really, really big problem.
Just as an aside, a country is a sadder place when there are so few good-looking young men around. I saw one, back near the ticket counter, but he was notable as the demographic exception.
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May '10
Re: This Demography Business is No Joke
Duane -- Thought you might find this interesting:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/09/AR2010090903350.html
May '10
Re: This Demography Business is No Joke
Thanks, Trace. Both of our kids had more than 10 years after HS, and finished with no loans, so we agree with the idea that you don't borrow big dough for college.
I just figured out, though, why Claire had here Seattle experience. She was living Robert Ferrigno's Seattle (Prayers for the Assassin and sequels) which was, indeed, a bit of a ruined ghost town.
Jul '10
Re: This Demography Business is No Joke
Sorry Claire, but that young man you saw by the ticket counter, in Seattle, probably plays for the other team. That may also explain the lack of children.
Aug '10
Re: This Demography Business is No Joke
My wife and I started at 35 (we're in our 40s now) and have had five kids so far. One of the amazing things we've experienced is moving from a place where we often received ignorant (and worse) comments about our family size -- suburban D.C. -- to almost exclusively Hispanic South Texas, where we receive nothing but warm, supportive comments from strangers.
In a nutshell, culture matters.