"And Gulliver Returns" Book 1 Reversing Overpopulation--The Planet's Doomsday Threat
Page 35
“In our country, Wreck, you might look at trying to reduce teen births. We have a an extremely high rate of teenage pregnancies. Many seem to be accidental but some are planned among the unmarried. After all what is more adult than for a girl than to be a mother and what is more adult than for a boy than to be a father. I’m facetious, of course, but teenagers so often want what they see as the accouterments of adulthood. Smoking, drinking, impregnating or being impregnated certainly rank right up there with what adults can do.
“Look at the number of teenage births in the West. A few years ago there were 31 births per 1,000 British girls aged between 15 and 19. In the US the figure was 52 per 1,000 births. It then began reducing and last I heard it was half that, about 26 per 1000;
This was the highest rate in the developed world. This is in stark contrast to Korea’s rate of three per thousand, Japan’s rate of four per thousand, and China, Switzerland and the Netherlands with five per thousand. There were countries with even higher rates than US, with Mexico at 64, South Africa at 66 and Nigeria at 233. Of course in Niger nearly 90%
of girls are married by the time they are 18, and over half have given birth by that time. But you can understand that a child growing up in Niger does not need all the social and economic tools that child growing up in a western country needs. So perhaps Commander, your message needs to be different depending on the economic level of the people you are attempting to educate.”
“But an equally alarming fact for us Americans is that the states with the highest number of impoverished people had the highest number of teenage births. New Mexico, Texas, and Mississippi all had over 75 births for every thousand teenage girls. California had 59. On the other hand states with higher incomes and those that had the lowest percentage of people living in poverty had the lowest numbers of teenage births. New Hampshire with 28 births per thousand was second in per capita income.
”Sexual codes have become more relaxed without corresponding changes to prepare teenagers to cope with the new freedoms. In Europe it seems that the young are much better informed about sex. They not only develop healthier attitudes towards it but they also are much more likely to use contraceptives to prevent births. And if that fails,
abortion is generally a possibility. But in our country teenagers are generally aware of how babies are made, but they tend to think that it won’t happen to them. And often the sex seems to come as a surprise, so commonly people are not prepared with contraception.”
“Probably! That’s why I believe it should be should absolutely essential that
teenagers use contraceptives, both to prevent pregnancy and to reduce the chances of picking up sexually transmitted diseases. In continental Europe, on the other hand, they seem to look at the body as good and sexual desires and activities as real, because of this their sex education from parents and schools is realistic. If sex is seen as a desirable
activity and unwanted children are to be prevented, contraceptives and abortions become acceptable. The US and UK ideas of 'sex on a whim' is replaced on the continent with 'sex as a plan'.
“The age at which British youngsters lose their virginity has fallen from 20 for men and 21 for women 40 years ago, to 17 for both sexes today. In the US it is about 18 and for the Scandinavian countries about 16. The age of first sex has been steadily dropping while the age of first marriage has been steadily rising, or should I say persons living together, is occurring later. So there are longer periods of uncommitted relationships or immature relationships that need to be childless. The average age for entering committed relationships for Americans is about 28 and closer to 32 in the Scandinavian countries. So for half of their lives the Scandinavians have been sexually active. For Americans it’s more like a third of their lives.
“Undoubtedly with the pressure from the movies and other media, earlier sex
activities can be expected.
“As you know poverty increases the teenage birth rate. Whether it be an
impoverished country or impoverished people in a richer country, it is true. For example
in the UK 50% of all teenage pregnancies occur in the poorest 30% of the population. But
only 14% of teenage pregnancies occur in the richest 30% of the population.
“Here is another consideration. At all levels of society domestic violence and family problems in childhood are more likely to be present among pregnant teenagers. It's also true of the fathers of the children of teenage mothers. This may indicate that what we
talked of earlier, licensing parents to have children, might not only significantly reduce teenage pregnancy and the unwanted social cycle that it begins but could also reduce other negatives in our family lives. Studies also show that fathers who left their families in a child’s early years had daughters who were more likely to become pregnant as
teenagers. In fact when fathers left early in the lifecycle of the child in the United States
it increased the chance of their daughters being pregnant in their teenage years by five
times. In New Zealand it increased the rate by three times.
“It is obvious that having a child to care for will significantly affect a girl's chances of getting an education-- even finishing high school, and certainly of gettinga college education at a young age. The realities are that they will have to get a low-level job to support themselves and their child. Less than a third of teenage mothers received child-support from the father. And money from the impoverished governments, as welfare, does not come close to meeting the monetary needs of the young mother.
Consequently teenage mothers are commonly required to work at low-level jobs to support their children. Another major consideration is that men are less likely to want to settle down with somebody who already has children that aren’t theirs.”
“When I was at Stanford I saw a study done on birthrates in Northern California. In Marin County, above San Francisco, there was a 5% poverty rate and the birth rate per thousand was five. In Tulare County, near Yosemite, with the non-Hispanic Caucasians the poverty rate was 18% and the birth rate of teenagers was 50 per thousand. In the same county for the Hispanics the poverty rate was 40% and the birth rate was 100 per
thousand for teenagers.
“Did you know that teen pregnancy costs the United States over $7 billion
annually. That could certainly be a reason to require licenses to have babies. Can you
imagine the wails we would hear if abortions were required of all teenage girls who didn’t have licenses? I wonder if the tax protesters would be ‘for’ or ‘against’ saving $7 billion if it required abortions.”
”I didn’t realize that. In my quest to reduce births, it’s hard to know where to begin. In the underdeveloped farming countries the extra hands may be of value, but the extra babies are going to put a strain on the economic hopes for most poor people. Maybe we need to work on increasing education at the same time we are trying to reduce population.
If we look at the West, we can generally see that increased education results in higher economic achievement, more contentment with one’s life, and a reduction in the fertility rates. Still we have too many unloved children, too much juvenile delinquency and to many people imprisoned because of their lack of social concern.
“Should I approach governments to increase their education offerings relative to reducing pregnancy? Should I approach them to reduce or eliminate financial help for unwed mothers? We certainly all feel sympathy for the children born, because it wasn’t their fault. And yet it seems certain that the children of these unwed mothers are highly likely to continue to be financial drains on the society through their lack of educational
achievement, their increased criminal behavior which strains the justice system, and their
propensity to imitate their parents’ lack of concern for parenthood.
“Poverty and lack of education are major reasons for teenage births. In the developed countries, marriage or committed relationships are ofte
n put off into the future because of education needs, a lack of money or a realization that maturity has not yet been achieved. Because of this it seems that ‘play’ is the order of the day. And it's unrealistic to expect teenagers to hold off sex until they're married when that marriage
may not occur until the 30s or 40s. It was one thing to hold off sex until after marriage when you married at 20 to 25. It is quite another when you may never get married or may never be in a committed relationship. It seems that there are too many people trying to fit all teenagers into some sort of an idealized non-sexual society.”
“Poverty is certainly a major factor in teenage births. It may be societal poverty which often includes teenage brides, such as in India, the Mideast, and much of Southeast Asia. This poverty is more likely to be continued when there is a lack of effective
education. And a lack of education begets poverty. So we have a cycle, negative cycle,
poorly educated people indulging in carnal pleasures, and adding to the world more
impoverished and uneducated beings.
”At all levels of society, domestic violence and family problems in childhood are more likely to be present among pregnant teenagers. It's also is true of the fathers of the children of teenage mothers. This may indicate that what we talked of earlier, licensing parents to have children, might well significantly reduce teenage pregnancy and the unwanted social cycle that it begins.
COST OF A CHILD