--- iaamoac <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Anyhow, I could be off-my-rocker on this, but it > seems to me to be at > least a plausible reason as to why America, with its > stronger (albeit > not necessarily Catholic) religious roots has > arrived at birth rate > #2, and Europe has arrrived at birth rate #3, > despite our comparable > levels of development. > > JDG
I think that probably has something to do with it. My best guess, though, is that the main reason is that the US is just so much wealthier than other countries, even other industrialized countries. It's just incredibly expensive to have kids in a modern industrialized society. You can almost track birthrates to how expensive it is - except in the US, which has much less in the way of pro-family government policies to subsidize the cost, yet it still has a birthrate of about 2.0. My best guess is that Americans are sufficiently wealthier than people in other societies that they can afford to have more kids. That's just a guess. ===== Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month! http://sbc.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l