I do not know what to say about this article about Singles, other than it does not exactly work within the Catholic worldview.
Whatever else we can say about the gifts of Singles (and there are many), keeping down the numbers of new babies is not one of them. Chastity among Singles does, of course, prevent children from being conceived in the less-than-ideal circumstances of Single parenthood. But babies are good. Having babies is good. Not having babies should not be rewarded with cash handouts. In fact, how much nicer to have a Baby Bonus (as my mother used to get) than a No-Baby Bonus. If I got a No-Baby Bonus, I would save it up and use the money to adopt a Baby, just to spite the social engineers.
Single people have just as much interest in the next generation being happy, healthy and plentiful as parents do.
4 comments:
I think what should be said is that basing things on Malthusian theory is hopelessly out of date. Look here for criticism of the theory:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12276a.htm
Oh, dear.
Now, I've never had the maternal instinct that other women have - which, as I've gotten older and struggled to form a long-lasting relationship, has been a source of sanity - but this is beyond wrong.
From a scientific perspective, Malthus has been debunked: our technology enables us to exponentially increase the amount of food we produce, reduce pollution, and provide for ourselves. Simultaneously, we have also gotten far too good at not increasing our population: there is a reason why many parts of Europe are in a death spiral. There are actually not enough children to replace their parents and keep the human race going. (This will first hit as a problem with government-run retirement: there will not be enough workers to pay for retirees. It will only get worse from there.)
GRRRRR!
It's a world away from the advice given here. Oh, how greatly everyone needs the Truth!
"If I got a No-Baby Bonus, I would save it up and use the money to adopt a Baby, just to spite the social engineers." Sounds good to me!
This dovetails nicely (or not-so-nicely, I guess) with the conversation I walked into when I entered the hair salon today--that whole, "Well, now that you have two, do you feel 'done'?" That question annoys me. My sister wouldn't exist if everybody went for that "one boy and one girl and then you're done" stuff. It's not the same case for every family.
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