Death of a Nation

[OldCorpse]

Remarkable documentary you can see in its entirety on google video.

Russia is dying, its population is shrinking. What will the future hold?

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9106762987895287402&q=

[Ugg]

I was surprised that he didn't cover the environmental crisis that is causing so many deaths.

While the population in Russia is declining at an alarming rate, Europe is facing the same problem. Will hordes of impoverished Africans and Asians storm the gates?

[DeSnousa]

If I'm correct also, its a problem in Japan. In fact it's a global trend and I believe that it is a result of the standard in living we 'westerners' live in. No need so many children.

[FreeState]

In fact it's a global trend and I believe that it is a result of the standard in living we 'westerners' live in. No need so many children.

Don't tell they US conservatives that. They'll have your head.. its because of the "gays".

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/003/660zypwj.asp?pg=2
These three groupings closely track the movement for gay marriage. In the early nineties, gay marriage came to the Nordic countries, where the out-of-wedlock birthrate was already high. Ten years later, out-of-wedlock birth rates have risen significantly in the middle group of nations. Not coincidentally, nearly every country in that middle group has recently either legalized some form of gay marriage, or is seriously considering doing so. Only in the group with low out-of-wedlock birthrates has the gay marriage movement achieved relatively little success.

Never mind that Gay marriage is not legal in Norway, Sweden or Denmark - but what's a little fib here and there. Or that the state with the lowest divorce rate is also the only state that has legalized gay marriage.

I think its a combination of things that is contributing to the declining population. Gay marriage is not one of them :) Try economics, expanded personal freedoms and the rise of birth control. Im also not convinced that a declining population has to be viewed as a bad thing.

[miloblithe]

This is not even remotely the same thing that is happening in Japan and Europe.

Japan has a positive growth rate of population, 0.02%

https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ja.html#People

Europe (the EU) has a positive growth rate of 0.15%

https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ee.html#People

Russia's population growth rate is -0.37%.

https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/rs.html

This is happening despite Russia's high immigration rate. Japan and the EU face nothing like Russia's problems with HIV/AIDS, XDR and MDR TB, alcoholism, etc., contributing to Russia's extremely low life expectancy. Life expectancy in Europe:

total population: 78.3 years
male: 75.1 years
female: 81.6 years (2006 est.)

Japan:

total population: 81.25 years
male: 77.96 years
female: 84.7 years (2006 est.)

Russia:

total population: 67.08 years
male: 60.45 years
female: 74.1 years (2006 est.)

[Desertrat]

Off and on for the last forty years or so, I've run across commentaries relating birth rates and economics. Any group in any country that becomes wealthier starts having fewer children. In general, poor folks have more kids than rich folks.

While white America is making fewer babies than black America, within the black group those who are better off are themselves having smaller families than poorer blacks. The same holds for Latins...

Japan has long had an "advertising program" aimed at keeping population growth to near zero, just because of the small amount of land that's comfortable for living space.

What happens is that medical advances keep us Old Pharts around longer, and the number of young folks entering the work force is smaller. Ergo, immigration of younger people from other countries.

The amount of immigrants that is needed is a function in part of the amount of welfare, and in part on the amount of services needed for Old Pharts. And the lower strata are desired: IT types aren't gonna do yardwork, haul garbage or work in nursing homes.

Back to Russia: Despair and hopelessness seems to be part of their equation. I say this as a halfway question, because I've seen news reports about "Ivan in the street" without really knowing the validity of the poll.

'Rat