Reply #84: K&R

[varelse]

I'd like to add two other points:

1)Where the working class (aka poor) population begins to age and/or drop off due to (even voluntary) lowering of the birth rate, a vacuum is created in the work force that is filled by immigration - this is happening in Europe now - or by outsourcing (as is happening in the US now). If by some miracle, the drop in birth rate among us poor folks were to be universal and synchronized worldwide, we would see an upsurge in investment in technologies aimed at permanently replacing the working class (ie robotics and other automation). Any middle class person who thinks that would be good either for them or for the planet is going to be sadly disillusioned if they live to see it come to pass.

2)Not everyone who is currently unable to fully support their children was in that financial condition when they *had* the children - marriages fail, businesses fail, and sometimes, people get very, very sick. Poverty is an economic status, not a congenital condition. Nearly anyone can become poor - although so often those currently living in comfort and "within their means" find this fact easy to forget or dismiss.