Thursday, June 21, 2007 at 2:02am
Immigration and 'lifestyle impotence'
Column: Spiritual Psychology
"Dr. Love" is the nickname given to a Singapore physician, Wi Siang Yu, who is producing a reality show that may upstage some of the outrageous American shows. Couples will compete to be the first to conceive. Here's a reality show where everyone is a winner. Even the losers are winners — lots of sex for all — "Honey, we have to do it for the show." In fact, the "losers" may even consider themselves the prime winners - non-stop sex and no babies. Many young people in Singapore simply don't want to have children.
Babies are in short supply in Singapore. Its fertility rate has fallen to 1.2 — far below replacement (2.1 is necessary to keep a population at the same level). Translated into population statistics, that forecasts significant shrinkage. Over the next hundred years the population of Singapore will fall dramatically. No wonder that the government hopes that reality TV, and other desperate measures, will give a boost and encouragement for couples to multiply
Through its Social Development Unit, the government of Singapore is sponsoring a variety of dating schemes, including www.lovebyte.org.sg, to get single people to couple and mate — "no condoms, please." To their dismay, though, the flow of libido is more tame than torrid. They are finding that young people of reproductive age are suffering from an epidemic of "lifestyle impotence" — they're so stressed out by work and career pressures that they have little energy, interest or time for sex. The sperm are swimming upstream against a fierce current of resistance that is preventing them from reaching the eggs. And many women who are postponing having children are fearful that when the sperm arrives, it will be a scavenger hunt to find a fertile egg.
The birth dearth when played out in upcoming decades will predictably produce catastrophic economic consequences. Just do the arithmetic. A rapidly growing elderly population and a diminishing, almost vanishing, young population unable to provide the engine for a robust economy or support for the ever-growing army of elderly retirees with expanding longevity spells crisis, if not disaster.
If you feel distant from this story ("It's their problem, not mine"), you'd better think again. Singapore is not alone. Fertility rates are falling dramatically throughout most of the industrialized world. Italy, Spain and Japan are in the same boat as Singapore, with Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and others as close runners-up. They all will see significant population declines down the road — and it's not easily reversible. When the full impact hits, you can't materialize working-age citizens.
According to the United Nations Population Division, the percentage of elderly in Singapore will triple to over 30 percent by 2050. Other Asian and European countries will show similar growth figures. More alarming will be the drop in the ratio of workers to elderly. Today in Singapore there are about 10 workers for each person over age 65. Within the next 25 years the ratio will shrink to 2.2 to one — and that trend, which typifies most of the industrialized world, will accelerate over succeeding decades.
"Lifestyle impotence" is not the only factor driving birthrates down. In Asia, many woman of childbearing age are shunning marriage to avoid taking on the traditional role of caring for elderly in-laws. More generally throughout the industrialized world, with the corporate and professional corridors increasingly open to women, many are choosing career over marriage and children. Other couples are postponing having children in favor of a higher standard of living, while still others don't reproduce because they are fearful of the mounting costs of raising children.
But there is one tried and true proven method for population growth and stability. America discovered it a long time ago and has profited handsomely. It's called immigration. The United States stands out among the industrialized world for consistently maintaining replacement-level fertility. That's the good news. The bad news is there's a rising tide of anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States.
It's ironic that just as Europe and Asia are desperately trying to emulate our historic welcoming of immigrants (Bring us your tired, your poor ... ), and reverse their historic antipathy toward immigration, we are vacillating. Those who would be quick to pull the plug on immigration should look at the facts. We are at replacement level because of immigrants and minorities. For at least the first two generations, immigrants tend to have large families. Arriving Mexican immigrants, for example, have a birthrate equal to the height of our baby boom year of 1957. But look at the fertility rate of non-Hispanic whites today in America, and fertility is below replacement. Turn your back on immigration, and you may be inviting the same economic crisis in the future that Europe and Asia see staring at them. In the years ahead, don't be surprised if we find countries fiercely competing for immigrants.
If we take the right course now, perhaps we won't have to scramble in the future to prop up a declining birthrate with "Who Will Conceive First" reality shows.
In case you missed last week's column on immigration: A nation of immigrants.
— — —
Bernard Starr, Ph.D., formerly professor of developmental and educational psychology at the City University of New York, now teaches psychology and leads the Spiritual Forum at Marymount Manhattan College. In addition to his work in radio, he is a longtime contributor of commentary and opinion articles to numerous major publications. He is also the main United Nations representative for the Institute of Global Education that founded the Mucherla Global School in Mucherla, India. His book "Escape Your Own Prison: Why We Need Spirituality and Psychology to be Truly Free" will be published by Rowman and Littlefield in October 2007. His email address is {email OmniCns@aol.com}OmniCns@aol.com{/email}. © copyright 2007 by Bernard Starr.
Babies are in short supply in Singapore. Its fertility rate has fallen to 1.2 — far below replacement (2.1 is necessary to keep a population at the same level). Translated into population statistics, that forecasts significant shrinkage. Over the next hundred years the population of Singapore will fall dramatically. No wonder that the government hopes that reality TV, and other desperate measures, will give a boost and encouragement for couples to multiply
Through its Social Development Unit, the government of Singapore is sponsoring a variety of dating schemes, including www.lovebyte.org.sg, to get single people to couple and mate — "no condoms, please." To their dismay, though, the flow of libido is more tame than torrid. They are finding that young people of reproductive age are suffering from an epidemic of "lifestyle impotence" — they're so stressed out by work and career pressures that they have little energy, interest or time for sex. The sperm are swimming upstream against a fierce current of resistance that is preventing them from reaching the eggs. And many women who are postponing having children are fearful that when the sperm arrives, it will be a scavenger hunt to find a fertile egg.
The birth dearth when played out in upcoming decades will predictably produce catastrophic economic consequences. Just do the arithmetic. A rapidly growing elderly population and a diminishing, almost vanishing, young population unable to provide the engine for a robust economy or support for the ever-growing army of elderly retirees with expanding longevity spells crisis, if not disaster.
If you feel distant from this story ("It's their problem, not mine"), you'd better think again. Singapore is not alone. Fertility rates are falling dramatically throughout most of the industrialized world. Italy, Spain and Japan are in the same boat as Singapore, with Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and others as close runners-up. They all will see significant population declines down the road — and it's not easily reversible. When the full impact hits, you can't materialize working-age citizens.
According to the United Nations Population Division, the percentage of elderly in Singapore will triple to over 30 percent by 2050. Other Asian and European countries will show similar growth figures. More alarming will be the drop in the ratio of workers to elderly. Today in Singapore there are about 10 workers for each person over age 65. Within the next 25 years the ratio will shrink to 2.2 to one — and that trend, which typifies most of the industrialized world, will accelerate over succeeding decades.
"Lifestyle impotence" is not the only factor driving birthrates down. In Asia, many woman of childbearing age are shunning marriage to avoid taking on the traditional role of caring for elderly in-laws. More generally throughout the industrialized world, with the corporate and professional corridors increasingly open to women, many are choosing career over marriage and children. Other couples are postponing having children in favor of a higher standard of living, while still others don't reproduce because they are fearful of the mounting costs of raising children.
But there is one tried and true proven method for population growth and stability. America discovered it a long time ago and has profited handsomely. It's called immigration. The United States stands out among the industrialized world for consistently maintaining replacement-level fertility. That's the good news. The bad news is there's a rising tide of anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States.
It's ironic that just as Europe and Asia are desperately trying to emulate our historic welcoming of immigrants (Bring us your tired, your poor ... ), and reverse their historic antipathy toward immigration, we are vacillating. Those who would be quick to pull the plug on immigration should look at the facts. We are at replacement level because of immigrants and minorities. For at least the first two generations, immigrants tend to have large families. Arriving Mexican immigrants, for example, have a birthrate equal to the height of our baby boom year of 1957. But look at the fertility rate of non-Hispanic whites today in America, and fertility is below replacement. Turn your back on immigration, and you may be inviting the same economic crisis in the future that Europe and Asia see staring at them. In the years ahead, don't be surprised if we find countries fiercely competing for immigrants.
If we take the right course now, perhaps we won't have to scramble in the future to prop up a declining birthrate with "Who Will Conceive First" reality shows.
In case you missed last week's column on immigration: A nation of immigrants.
— — —
Bernard Starr, Ph.D., formerly professor of developmental and educational psychology at the City University of New York, now teaches psychology and leads the Spiritual Forum at Marymount Manhattan College. In addition to his work in radio, he is a longtime contributor of commentary and opinion articles to numerous major publications. He is also the main United Nations representative for the Institute of Global Education that founded the Mucherla Global School in Mucherla, India. His book "Escape Your Own Prison: Why We Need Spirituality and Psychology to be Truly Free" will be published by Rowman and Littlefield in October 2007. His email address is {email OmniCns@aol.com}OmniCns@aol.com{/email}. © copyright 2007 by Bernard Starr.