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WORLD ECONOMY COLLAPSING DUE TO POPULATION LOSSES

For years, dire warnings were given about the dangers of overpopulation. To curb births, vast amounts of money flooded into developing countries, supported by environmentalists, radical feminists and certain wealthy elites in our western society, such as the Rockefeller family.

The UN, through its agency, the UN Family Planning Fund (UNFPF), has been no slouch, along with International Planned Parenthood in pushing contraception, sterilization and abortion, by fair means or foul, onto innocent individuals in third world countries, for population control reasons. This battle, in effect, is a drive for god-like power over life and death, and to determine who should be allowed to "breed" and who should not. It was the overwhelming dissemination of population propaganda that led to the legalization of abortion in many countries. Mr. Justice Blackmun of the United States Supreme Court, in Roe vs. Wade, bluntly stated that population growth was a factor in that court decision. Abortion, then, is not only a moral issue, but also, an important economic issue, since it involves the destruction of invaluable amounts of human capital.

Anti-Life Policies Undermined by Population Losses

The support for anti-life policies, however, has recently been undermined by demographers, who are now warning of the dangers of under population and of the dark years that lie ahead because of population decline. The experts warn of a coming demographic winter because of the severe decline in population in 79 countries, representing 40% of the world's population, in which fertility rates are below replacement level. The demographers warn that this will lead to severe economic hardship. The developed countries have been hardest hit. Fifteen of them, including Russia, Germany, France and Italy, already fill more coffins than cradles. For example, for every 1,000 Russians, there are 16 deaths and only 10.6 births. Further, there are more abortions than births in Russia. About 1.6 million Russian women had abortions last year, while about only 1.5 million gave birth. Russian president Vladimir Putin has acknowledged this problem, referring to his nation's low birth rate as a "national problem" in his annual address in April, 2005.

But the low birth rate has also spread to 27 developing countries, such as Sri Lanka, Thailand and South Korea. The latter country aggressively promoted family planning in the 1960's, with the government covering the costs of sterilizations. However, it is now desperately covering the costs of reversing vasectomies and tubal ligations because the birth rate has fallen to 1.19, a rate lower than Japan's birth rate of 1.28 and comparable to Taiwan's 1.22, although still higher than Hong Kong's shockingly low rate of 0.9. Japan currently has a population of 127 million, which will be little more than 100 million in 2050. This will have a catastrophic effect on Japan's economy, which is currently the second largest in the world. At present, more than 70% of Japan's welfare payments goes toward age-related benefits for the 20% of the population over 65 years of age, and this percentage will grow to 35% in 2050.

Faltering Populations Undermine World Economy

The non-partisan Population Reference Bureau, which correlates population, health and environmental trends world-wide, warned in August that the world's faltering population will create imbalances which threaten the economic strength of nations. Ironically, the Population Bureau is funded by the Ford Foundation and Bill Gates Foundation, which have both acquired a well deserved reputation for zealotry in their support of global population control measures.

Population growth is the engine of economic progress, providing the people necessary to develop new knowledge and technology to create expanding markets, to solve environmental problems, to produce greater savings, and to increase labour-force flexibility. Most important, population growth both stimulates and reflects faith in the future, an intangible, yet absolutely necessary precondition for economic advancement. In contrast, countries with shrinking populations stagnate economically, intellectually, and militarily. Canada falls into this latter category with a birthrate of only 1.53 children. According to Alain Bélanger of Statistics Canada (National Post, July 13, 2005):

We are going to see deaths outnumber births in 15 to 25 years, as the Baby Boomers get older and their mortality rates increase.

US To Remain an Economic Power

Significantly, the US is the only major economic power in the world with fertility rates high enough to keep the size of its work force relatively constant as its population ages. This portends continued prosperity for the US. In contrast, China, which is seen as a threat to US economic and military might, is facing a serious aging problem, according to the Population Bureau's report. China's population problems are due to both the government's enforced limits on family size and rapid industrialization. By 2040, China will have a higher percentage of people over 60 years of age and labour shortages, which, the Population Bureau states, will result in China having acquired the distinction of being the first major economy to grow old before growing rich!

China's population problems have resulted in India now becoming the potential great superpower of the future, matching the US. India's slower pace of development, plus a comfortable fertility rate of three children per woman, has guaranteed economic stability for that country. With its over a billion population, the economy in India is growing at an amazing 7% each year. Although some individual states in India have enacted laws that disallow families with two or more children from receiving government jobs, or gaining admission to public schools, these laws are now frowned upon by federal government leaders. That has now prompted the state governments to begin to reverse themselves on population control measures. As a result, India has a bright future with its growing and mostly well educated population. Already, India is taking a leading international role in the development of new technologies.

Those nations that resent and are envious of the power of the US today, such as France, Germany, Russia and Canada owe their own weakening positions as world powers to their declining populations. The US will continue to grow stronger and more powerful over the next century because of its population growth. As a result, it will be able to remain the world's superpower, matched only possibly by India.

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