Population decline

By Rhiannonw

Mon, 02 Jun 2025
  • 1364 reads
13 comments
 

Where have all the babies gone?
Some grieve they cannot bear a child,
and some now choose a future free;
and many slain before they’re born,
before they see their birthday morn.
Mothers pressed and pressurised:
emotions, health, mind vandalised.

Maybe immigrants will fill
the dwindling pool of future skill
and army for defence
enable aging population
to still receive a reasonable pension?

 

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Comments

Submitted by Turlough on

If I was of child-bearing age I would be very reluctant to bring offspring into the world that's in the mess that it's in today. I worry myself sick about the future that my grown up children have to look forward to and even more about their babies, one of which isn't even due to be born until October. It will reach the age I am now in 2092, hopefully.

I think pension provisions are pretty low on the list of problems these kids will be faced with.

Turlough

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Thank you for your comment. It isn't the babies' generation that will be needing the pensions, it is their parents' generation that will need a volume of younger workers paying taxes, and providing defence etc.

But the bigger problem of lack of children being born has deeper issues. Who knows what a child may gain or do to help others if born into this world, as well as having eternal prospects. And pushing for abortion is yet another issue, denying the right to be born, and with unseen hurt to many women. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by HarryC on

With you on that, Turlough. It was behind my decision not to have children, in the end.  With AI being predicted to wipe out many white-collar jobs soon, too, children today face a future more uncertain than at any time in our lifetimes.  We often hear that the 'boomers' had the best of it, and that's true to a large extent, I think.  Not that I was one to ever take advantage of those supposed abundances and opportunities.  I've just retired, don't have much to live on, and feel blessed to have got here in some ways.  In that sense, I suppose, I've done alright.  It remains to be seen if the colossal amounts of wealth that are stacking up in the bank accounts of the tech giants will be redistributed to fund the necessary basic incomes future generations will probably need.  Not under the current system, it won't.

Submitted by Turlough on

Well said Harry. For civilisation to survive, something has to change. Nationalism, greed and pollution which all feed off each other, are destroying humanity. 

Turlough

Submitted by HarryC on

Promoted and disseminated by social media - which I think, for all the good it can offer, is a very dangerous dynamic in society.  Or rather, not social media in itself, but the incentives of the few who control it.

Submitted by HarryC on

Strange and difficult times, Rhiannon.  I speak to many young people, just starting out, who struggle to see beyond the next few years in terms of jobs, income, stability in their lives. I understand why parents would want a child who is 'their own'.  But I wish there were more who would consider adopting rather than going down the route of expensive fertility treatment.  No child should feel or be unwanted.

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Interestingly, Harry, there seem to be more and more young people questioning their parents' generation's atheism and cynicism, and reading to see what the Bible actually says for themselves. I wish more babies could be born for adoption rather than be aborted - and maybe that would even be an alternative to fertility treatement then as you say. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by HarryC on

In many ways, I think I have more in common with what many young people are saying. What distresses me is to see the generations raised on junk food and junk culture, who seem to think nothing of throwing things away that someone else could use - using the planet as their kind of personal playground and dumping ground.  That kind of entitled, couldn't-care-less attitude.  I was brought up with certain values and principles which I've kept throughout my life - and I am reassured to see a resurgence of that kind of thing now, in some small way, among the young.

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Maybe it's a spin-off from feeling useless and coping with failings. The theory (not fact!) of evolution has devalued people, whereas the Bible values each individual (made with a likeness to God, though failing) and shows how to find usefulness, acceptance and to look after the gifts of creation given us. Rh

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Hoping babies are more treasured, if fewer. Have to say, though, that I don't know any young people who are confident about future prospects. This drive to replace all jobs with machines of some kind, (now even creative opportunities), and at the extra cost of guzzling much needed water and electricity, the declining birth rate seems to me Nature's way of saving future generations from troubles we cannot imagine. If people cannot earn enough to pay taxes to support public services/pensions etc, how is society to function, unless out of a feeling of responsibility, the very richest agree to pay more?

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Hi, Di, I don't see how the declining birth rate can be Nature's way, if it is due to human reluctance to have children, and to abortion. There is the realization that the country is relying on immigration, and maybe that those coming in will be more willing for childbearing, if we are to have a defensive force, and a younger generation paying taxes and National Insurance etc. The question of the richest people paying more doesn't really cover it. It is an extension of our children helping us in our old age, to society's younger generation helping the aging ones.

As I said above to Harry, there seem to be increasing numbers of young people who realise that they have no confidence about the future, and willing to explore spiritual hope and duties. Rh

 

Submitted by Nolan on

In the end such decisions can only be made by the mother-to-be herself, or the couple, unless determined by law and depending on the individual circumstances. These can be terrible decisions to be made and surely, total abstinence and completely avoiding any kind of tempting situation is the most certain and really simplest and easiest precaution. These things happen.

I am the least person to judge, being a love child myself.

Keep well Rhiannon! Nolan &&

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

The point I was raising though was about the young population becoming smaller that can support the older ones, in the UK, apart from immigration. ie the birthrate has decreased and is not self-replacing. There are many reasons for this, but abortion has greatly affected it , and has become very common and more or less as a form of contraception now.

It is interesting that you are a love child - I'm reminded of those who can testify that they were nearly aborted, or were saved by a botched or incomplete abortion. It is a reminder that despite the problems of our world, many testify that they are glad they were allowed to be born. But these are individual cases. Rhiannon