Some interesting statistics from the US, relevant here as many 'western' countries are following the same trends.
Longer life expectancy, delayed marriage and childbearing, and increased childlessness add up to a longer life without kids, says Barbara Dafoe Whitehead in a new report released by the nonpartisan National Marriage Project at Rutgers University.
Looking through U.S. Census data as well as cultural and social research, Whitehead found:
* In 1970, 73.6 percent of women ages 25-29 had at least 1 minor child at home; 30 years later, only 48.7 percent did.
* In 1990, the most common household type was married couples with children. Now, single-parent, childless households are the most prevalent.
* Today, more women in their 40s are childless, the report says. Only 1 in 10 were childless in 1976; while in 2004, it was about 1 in 5.
It's ironic that welfare states in developed countries have actually reduced the number of children produced yet the life-blood of welfare states is an adequate supply of budding taxpayers. There is no way that current demographic trends will allow our welfare state to continue as we know it.
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3 comments:
So the radical lesbian feminists we encountered at Uni in the late 60s early 70s have won their
As welfare is one of the main topics on your blog, I hope you won't mind my going off topic, on this post, to talk about the decreasing benefit numbers. According to a recent Herald article http://subs.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=1039012 "Overall since 1999 the combined number of people receiving unemployment, sickness, invalid and domestic purposes benefits (DPB) had fallen from 372,000 to 280,000."
Good news. I find it's hard to talk about the welfare system without coming across as heartless mercenary. David Benson-Pope claims Labour's policies are supportive and not punitive policies and that they are working. Maybe, but along with the welfare system needs to be the unequivocal message that getting a benefit is not a lifestyle choice.
Gloira
Trouble is Gloria, it's the life-stylers who haven't moved into work. And they are still feeding into the system as teenage newcomers guaranteeing a future caseload that will be extremely hard to shift.
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