I have seen this before, but where exactly has any culture 'died off' because people did not have enough children?

Where did this idea come from? Those are very specific numbers. I call shenanigans.

I think this, like much of the social "sciences" is simply made up.

Eric,

I'd say the problem is most acute in socialist cradle to grave states.

As to cultures dying off? Maybe one of our other readers can chime in.

BTW I post things that are interesting. i.e. challenge current thinking. Some times I just put them up without checking deeper.

An interesting look at culture and demographics:

http://www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/3431156.html

I think it is fairly certain that the people who are having children determine who will be influencing the next generation.

Also, may want to check to make sure you don't have the Turkish flag backward throughout the entire film. The poor attention to detail severely undercuts the persuasiveness of the film. How can one put any faith in the statistics when simple facts are confused?

Well, the Greatest Generation- the generation in the U.S. that overcame the Great Depression and won WW2- had the Baby Boomers, probably the largest next generation this country has ever seen.
The Baby Boomers spent thirty years loudly rejecting most of their parent's culture and instituting vast changes in both law and society, NOT preserving their parent's culture.
Just sayin'.

But what about the future all you hedonists? What kind of world do you want to live in?

What about those of us who figure the country can't be saved and don't want to donate meat to the grinder?

Aside from the fact that plenty of hedonists have children (paid for with my tax dollars), I'm not much given over to communitarian arguments about the future. I'm no more responsible for underpopulation if I don't have kids than I would be for overpopulation if I did.

The video makes many unsupported claims, and this link (while left-wing) does identify numerous statistical errors:

http://tinyfrog.wordpress.com/2009/05/03/muslim-demographics/

And what's with the film's conclusion with an appeal to "believers"?

Believers in what?

.What about those of us who figure the country can't be saved and don't want to donate meat to the grinder?

Nothing like giving up before a fight. The 1776ers would be proud.

Before???

Look around you, man. The fight's over, and the statists won. The anti-statists never showed up.

If history is any guide, next comes the crash, the inevitable feudal dictatorship, and the eventual revolt. None of which are going to happen in my lifetime, God willing.

brian,

It sure looked that way in 1776 too.

"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquillity of servitude than the animating contest of freedom — go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!" Samuel Adams

Aw, c'mon don't go quoting farking Sam Adams at me.

Are you going to pick up the gun? (Not that Sam Adams did that, unless you buy the story that his was that first shot Lexington) but that is what "1776ers" did.

I'll bet cash money you won't.

Eric,

I'm doing what Tom Paine did. I'm picking up a pen.

THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. - Tom Paine

I serve where I can.

And in fact I have done what I suggested. Have more children. Four. How are you doing in that dept.?

Simon -

You'll note that what Tom Paine did ultimately led to a long and bloody war. Do you honestly think that the population of the US stands a chance against the U.S. Army?

The only options left to us are to either bankrupt the government, or kill it. And they've got more weapons.

If you can come up with a way to get every company and self-employed person in America to stop sending income tax withholding to the IRS, I'm all ears.

Until then, I'm just going to sit back and wait for it all to collapse.

I sincerely hope your children survive the hell that is to come.

If ye love wealth better than liberty

Well, there's the rub. I don't have either wealth OR liberty. My wealth is confiscated in large part at gunpoint, and my liberty has been getting eroded steadily since before I was born.

People who believe in liberty don't gain political power any more. People want their bread and circuses. This is how a republic dies.

Get used to it and start planning for what happens after.

Brian,

Yes. If enough Americans want to fight the US Army it can be defeated. Oner reason is that a lot of Liberty lovers are military vets.

Brian,

The government will change AFTER the people do. And I'm not hopeful. Socialism has set in big time and it will take wreck and ruin to reverse that. The only consolation is that most of the rest of the developed and developing (read China) world is in worse shape.

So I keep writing. About half the hits on the various blogs I post at are from searches so I'm not always preaching to the choir.

The whole you need 2.11 to sustain a culture thing smells like bs. What if there was less than that but no immigration? What would absorb the culture to make it disappear, unless of course the downward trend continues until there simply aren't any people left but that is extremely unlikely.

Also these statistics make the assumption that every single child born to a Muslim family will remain Muslim. This is unlikely. More now than ever in the Western World religious children of any background are likely to become nonreligious adults.

The whole demographic transition thing is actually good news. As the overpopulated rest of the world starts becoming more industrialized they'll have less babies too and the world population will stabilize.

The only answer is to have many, many Christian babies. Forget deferring child rearing for advanced training in science and engineering: if we outbreed the Muslims, all our problems are solved.

deep,

#1 son is a practicing artist

#2 son graduated with honors in Russian from U Chicago and is now a quant for a consulting firm.

#3 Son is studying Electronics Engineering

#1 Daughter is going in to Engineering (chemical is her current preference) in September.

Quantity AND quality.

And they are all Jewish. Go figure.