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P AGE 10
PAS TOR GEN ERAL'S REPORT, NOVEMBER 8, 1985
the author writes, but the drastic impact upon the white birthrate of
state taxation and social policies, the decline in the central role of
the family, feminism, abortion and widespread material affluence.
Canada may need to go on the fertility pill.... Canada has
one of the lowest fertility rates in the world. We reproduce
at the rate of 1.4 children per family. In order to maintain
the existing population level, families need to average 2.2
children--to allow for babies or children who don't survive
to adulthood. Why are Canadians having fewer children?•••
The relative affluence of developed society has made the
family� of g liability than
g11
asset. Once upon a time,
children could be sent out to work at an early age and later
in life would support their parents.
Today, the state
provides pensions, health insurance, home care and other
social services for the elderly•••• At the same time, it has
become increasingly difficult to accumulate real wealth
within a family•••• [Exorbitant inheritance taxes play a role
in stripping away this wealth.J
Ordinary families don't
think of themselves as an extended economic unit, all helping
to build up the family's worth••••
What industrialized societies around the world have are a lot
of people who can best be described as "affluent poor." They
live on decent salaries but own very little real property••••
What is left for the affluent poor?
The family has been
whittled away by the state. 'lbere is little hope of building
[family] empires. Understandably, these affluent poor turn
away from procreation and embrace hedonism. 'Ibey save up for
a charter trip to the Caribbean or a laser compact disc.
They would rather spend their money on a new car than on new
unnecessary children. '!be exceptions are the very poor, who
tend to have large families, and the very rich, who have
pride in bloodlines and something tangible to pass on which
would otherwise go to strangers--and who can afford the
liability of children.
'Ibis situation existed before women's lib and statism, but
those two impulses certainly aggravated it•••• The feminists
have told people to stop centering their lives around the
"slavery" of the womb•••• People should� become patriarchs
and matriarchs anymore--they should become g "senior citizen"
instead. The result of this has been the population decline.
If the trend continues unaltered, speeded up by abortion and
the growing medical problems of infertility, certain groups
in industrialized society will disappear. In Canada, while
our geographical space would obviously be filled by some
other people, most likely from the overpopulated areas of the
world, Canadians--as we know ourselves--may be an endangered
people in a few centuries••••
AIDS: Now a Financial Worry The spread of AIDS--resulting from the
condoning of perversion--is not merely a public health problem. It now
represents a threat to the financial health of society.
The health
insurance industry, which controls multiple billions of dollars of