On the Failure of Population Schemes

What follows is a blog post that I wrote a few days ago for a (very minor) side project of mine, Statecraft & Security. I thought the readers of The Guild Review might enjoy it.

This blog usually discusses matters of security, but statecraft has other aspects as well. An article which caught my attention this morning underlined that point: "Shanghai calls on chosen couples to exceed China's one child limit".

The gist of the article is quite simple: China has too many old people and not enough young people, which will make taking care of the elderly a nightmare. "Shanghai is taking the dramatic step of actively encouraging residents to exceed China's famed 'one child' limit, citing concerns about the aging of its population and a potentially shrinking workforce," the Financial Times writes.

The only thing that prevents me from saying, "I told you so," is the fact that I wasn't around when the "one child" policy was first put in place in 1979. The problems that China is now or soon will be facing are the obvious consequences of their actions. "Shanghai's initiative follows campaigns to encourage more child bearing in other crowded Asian cities such as Hong Kong and Singapore, which had previously worked to promote small families only to see birth rates trail off..." Well, yes, contraception and abortion campaigns tend to have that effect.

In addition to creating a demographic and economic disaster, "China's decades-old one-child policy... remains a significant intrusion into private life." An added bonus.

What particularly tickles me about this story is that plenty of people pointed out the fact that these kinds of policies will backfire. In 1968 Pope Paul VI issued his highly controversial encyclical Humanae vitae, which articulated the argument that contraception runs contrary to the natural order. If that sounds a bit too philosophic for a statesman to worry about, let me point out that the true statesman must understand the order of nature before he can operate effectively within it. It is a basic test the Chinese leadership have failed.

Life: Imagine the Potential - Take Three

Coinciding with the recent anniversary of the first lunar landings, Catholic Vote released a third video.

Life: Imagine the Potential - Take Two

The good folks at CatholicVote.org have produced another great video: clear, to the point and aesthetically pleasing:

Life: Imagine the Potential

In light of the recent inauguration and today's March for Life, this seemed fitting.

A Tale of Two Tshirts

The other day I saw a tshirt that read, "I got ninety nine problems but a BABY ain't one!" At the bottom some sex ed program proudly declared its sponsorship of this apparel. My heart sunk. If you consider babies a problem, let me suggest that your issues may run far deeper than the mere mechanics of procreation (or the inhibiting thereof).

But my moral and sartorial spirits were lifted on Sunday when a visiting priest told a story about being at the local park with his parish's youth minister, who pointed out a parish family across the way. It was a fairly young couple, with husband and wife both about thirty years old. With them were five children. The wife and children all wore matching tshirts which read, "No, we're not done. We're just getting started." Awesome!

Not having seen the young family myself, I cannot venture much of a guess, but it would not surprise me if the young parents were far happier people than the wearer of the sex ed tshirt (who did not seem a particularly happy gal). It is a situation almost universally observed at pro- and anti-abortion rallies, where the people who support baby killing just seem like bitter people. The selfishness and loneliness inherent in viewing the lives of others as problems will catch up to you sooner or later.

Just another reason I'm glad I'm Catholic.