Even the socialists are starting to get "it"

How the baby shortage threatens our future. Read this article from the Guardian which is Britain's premier socialist rag. (Socialist is not a perjoritve term, it is what Democrats in the United States are.)

The article has all sorts of tidbits that more and more Generation X women are starting to understand:

"It's just that the problems of juggling motherhood and a career are becoming intolerable."

Motherhood is a career. Women can have two careers, just not two at the same time. I am a quality assurance analyst at a manufacturing company. I cannot be a a financial analyst at a bank, too.

"The couple started trying when she was 30 and by 36, after years of struggling to conceive, had embarked on IVF. Two painful attempts later, they conceded defeat. Childless at 47, Kendall now hugely regrets focusing on her career: 'It's not worth giving up something like having children for the sake of a job. My advice to any woman or man is to put having a family first.' "

Sage advice, honey. If you had had children in your twenties and then done a little grad school as the youngest went off to kindergarden, you could have slid nicely back into the work force at 30. At 40, you'd be a great manager because you had kids and your employees would respect you and you'd be a great example for young men and women. At 50, you'd make quite a general Manager as you looked back and laughed at your worries when you were 24 and pregnant. Your kids would be going off to college and you'd be young enough to take up a new sport, sell the big house and buy that place by the sea shore for romantic weekends with your hubby.

The article goes off course by arguing that there may be financial wisdom in delaying having children but maybe IVF in Britian is cheap, maybe incurring the higher rates of birth defects is acceptable to Britains. How much does that breast cancer cost after years on the "Pill"...hmm somebody forgot to add that up.

Middle-class mothers in France get a £675-a-month tax break for a third child, Italian parliamentarians recently debated paying women not to have abortions, and in Singapore married couples who have children before the age of 28 get a £7,000 tax break. The Japanese government, fearful of its workaholic culture killing romance, funds a dating service for singles.....

George Bush introduced a $1000 per child tax credit for people who make less than $60,000. Guess who voted against it? Senator John Kerry, who did not let his support for the culture of death get trumped by relief for working class families. (In New England, <$60,000 is working class money.)

There may be some natural selection is all this. Liberals, athiests, careerists and abortion supporters tend to have fewer children. Conservatives, the religiously inclined and the poor tend to have more children. I expect more people like me in the future.