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Have more children? I don't think that is the answer. The only ones here that can afford more than 1 or 2 children are on public assistance and the farmers in the county mostly just scrape by as it is. If we had jobs in these smaller communities, jobs farmed outside the US, the children would be staying in the communities. Having more children is not the answer to any question I can think of except "How can I get additional public assistance?"
No kidding. The only people in my small town in Indiana who can afford large families are the ones on welfare. There just isn't any work in this town. Young people are leaving for job opportunities. Really, can you support a family on $9.00 an hour?? Most people can't.
Everyone I know who has left my small town has left for two reasons. 1) Gas prices are making it impossible for them to commute to larger cities for jobs. 2) They found a job in a large city(i.e. Indianapolis).
I have provided a straightforward, common-sense, economic argument that no one has refuted. The decline of rural America is inextricably tied to declining birthrates, and the revival of rural America will require increasing birthrates. People are the only essential resource of any economy and rural America is no exception.
The argument is strong enough on a purely natural level. What God says about procreation is even more convincing, but if you don't want to listen to God that's your business.
Declining birth rates are because everyone is leaving. 80% of the graduating classes leave for 5 years in a row, your young population is gone, and what you're left with, well isn't exactly the cream of the evolutionary crop, so to speak.
50 year olds can have children, but when they are barely paying the bills, well.....
I have provided a straightforward, common-sense, economic argument that no one has refuted.
I am not convinced.
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The decline of rural America is inextricably tied to declining birthrates, and the revival of rural America will require increasing birthrates.
Urbanization started in the 18th century. Increase or decrease birthrates, it doesn't matter. If the rural lifestyle becomes an attractive alternative, people will stay in rural communities.
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People are the only essential resource of any economy and rural America is no exception.
That's oversimplifying. No economy can run without people, but a glut of people doesn't solve anything in and of itself. There's an excess of workers at the moment, so the rural communities have every chance of attracting people to come join them - but people don't want to.
You have failed to respond to the issues of taxes, decreasing availability of farmland, financial issues surrounding rural communities. People will live anywhere they can work and provide for themselves and their families. Your answer appears to be: have the babies and they will make jobs. That's not reality.
My religious view are not up for discussion in this forum. Come on down to the religion/philosophy forum, and we'll have a go.
Taxes? We need more taxpayers, not fewer.
Farmland? Over 1 billion acres of once productive farmland is now abandoned worldwide. In my own rural county thousands of fertile acres (some of which I happen to own) are sitting fallow because food is too cheap and it doesn't pay to farm.
Financial? As I said, most small towns have more money than they can spend at home. The problem is the markets are elsewhere.
Farmland? Over 1 billion acres of once productive farmland is now abandoned worldwide. In my own rural county thousands of fertile acres (some of which I happen to own) are sitting fallow because food is too cheap and it doesn't pay to farm.
Financial? As I said, most small towns have more money than they can spend at home. The problem is the markets are elsewhere.
1. With the proper tax structure, you inspire small business and attract larger employers to rural areas. Many of these counties are 30 or 40 miles wide and about the same or more tall, so there are a lot of people that drive to a central city area to work.
2. We aren't talking about world wide farmland, we are talking about American farmland. And Farmers are continually burying old drainage ditches and cleaning out woods to try and get more farmland.
3. Small towns HAD more money then they can spend. It all left. The people that had it died or are dying. Their healthcare expenses have rendered many of them to relative poverty, and the ones that die before they lose their money? Their kids who moved away a decade ago takes that money to where they are. Then there goes another cheap house on the market, that no one can afford, that falls apart or is rented to meth heads.
If you can't tell, I'm from a small town, rural farming region. i know a little bit about it, and you are delusional if you think population is the problem.
It takes young kids to really have kids the right way, and there aren't that many young kids that are worth a damn. Instead we have a bunch of welfare cases on meth.
1. With the proper tax structure, you inspire small business and attract larger employers to rural areas. Many of these counties are 30 or 40 miles wide and about the same or more tall, so there are a lot of people that drive to a central city area to work.
2. We aren't talking about world wide farmland, we are talking about American farmland. And Farmers are continually burying old drainage ditches and cleaning out woods to try and get more farmland.
3. Small towns HAD more money then they can spend. It all left. The people that had it died or are dying. Their healthcare expenses have rendered many of them to relative poverty, and the ones that die before they lose their money? Their kids who moved away a decade ago takes that money to where they are. Then there goes another cheap house on the market, that no one can afford, that falls apart or is rented to meth heads.
If you can't tell, I'm from a small town, rural farming region. i know a little bit about it, and you are delusional if you think population is the problem.
It takes young kids to really have kids the right way, and there aren't that many young kids that are worth a damn. Instead we have a bunch of welfare cases on meth.
Taxes incentives aren't going to fix it. A big problem we have out here is a lack of infrastructure. We don't even have broadband outside of the cities. When gas prices go up, no one wants to transport product out to the boonies, the roads need repair...the list goes on.
In case the OP hasn't noticed, given the choice between having 2 or 3 or 9 or 10 children MOST women would much prefer the former and not the latter. Good luck talking most women into birthing and caring for a big family these days. LOL
My sense is that most women today are fairly miserable apart from a traditional marriage with children. Nothing gives meaning and purpose to one's life like family and children. Of course, girls today are lectured from kindergarten that getting married and raising children is an impediment to their quest for "fulfillment" in the world. Every woman a CEO! If they must marry, they "protect" themselves from the natural fruits of marriage via contraception and abortion. It's a constant battle against babies. What a life! Yes, women are profoundly unhappy and they don't know why.
Last edited by WesternPilgrim; 01-18-2012 at 06:34 PM..
My sense is that most women today are fairly miserable apart from a traditional marriage with children. Nothing gives meaning and purpose to one's life like family and children. Of course, girls today are lectured from kindergarten that getting married and raising children is an impediment to their quest for "fulfillment" in the world. Every woman a CEO! If they must marry, they "protect" themselves from the natural fruits of marriage via contraception and abortion. It's a constant battle against babies. What a life! Yes, women are profoundly unhappy and they don't know why.
1. With the proper tax structure, you inspire small business and attract larger employers to rural areas. Many of these counties are 30 or 40 miles wide and about the same or more tall, so there are a lot of people that drive to a central city area to work.
2. We aren't talking about world wide farmland, we are talking about American farmland. And Farmers are continually burying old drainage ditches and cleaning out woods to try and get more farmland.
3. Small towns HAD more money then they can spend. It all left. The people that had it died or are dying. Their healthcare expenses have rendered many of them to relative poverty, and the ones that die before they lose their money? Their kids who moved away a decade ago takes that money to where they are. Then there goes another cheap house on the market, that no one can afford, that falls apart or is rented to meth heads.
If you can't tell, I'm from a small town, rural farming region. i know a little bit about it, and you are delusional if you think population is the problem.
It takes young kids to really have kids the right way, and there aren't that many young kids that are worth a damn. Instead we have a bunch of welfare cases on meth.
You're doing a much better job explaining these issues than I am/can. My mom is on the city board of our very small town (not the one I went to school in, the one in which we actually lived). There is no money. The older generation is dying, and no one is moving out there. It's too far from places of employment. There is no farm land anymore - lots of wetlands. Most of our town is also 16th section land, meaning no one other than the government will ever really own it. There are lots of factors at play in our town.
In my parents' hometown in the Midwest, folks who can afford it are buying up the land, but they aren't farming it. Fifty acres isn't enough to farm peanuts or soybeans. There's too much competition from Monsanto. It's not enough land to compete with the big chicken or beef producers either. That's usually all that comes available in their old hometown.
Farmland? Over 1 billion acres of once productive farmland is now abandoned worldwide. In my own rural county thousands of fertile acres (some of which I happen to own) are sitting fallow because food is too cheap and it doesn't pay to farm.
Financial? As I said, most small towns have more money than they can spend at home. The problem is the markets are elsewhere.
Memphis1979 has restated the earlier points so I don't feel the need to elaborate or add to it.
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Originally Posted by WesternPilgrim
My sense is that most women today are fairly miserable apart from a traditional marriage with children. Nothing gives meaning and purpose to one's life like family and children. Of course, girls today are lectured from kindergarten that getting married and raising children is an impediment to their quest for "fulfillment" in the world. Every woman a CEO! If they must marry, they "protect" themselves from the natural fruits of marriage via contraception and abortion. It's a constant battle against babies. What a life!
It's unbelievable to me that someone in 2012 can actually believe this! I am one of the childless women who is supposedly "fairly miserable". I didn't get that email though so I'm feeling pretty content with my childfree living. I was absolutely never lectured not to have kids, but I was told "you can be anything you want to be". That's not a good lesson?
I can't say any more without being rude or caustically sarcastic. This level of thinking was more appropriate in my great grandma's era.
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When gas prices go up, no one wants to transport product out to the boonies, the roads need repair...the list goes on.
