Word from CNN that Canon of Japan has struck upon a novel idea that is actually more insightful than they may know.
In a country where 12-hour workdays are common, the electronics giant has taken to letting its employees leave early twice a week for a rather unusual reason: to encourage them to have more babies.
Japan in the midst of an unprecedented recession, so corporations are being asked to work toward fixing another major problem: the country’s low birthrate. At 1.34, the birthrate is well below the 2.0 needed to maintain Japan’s population, according to the country’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
A baby boom in Japan would actually change the world, and probably for the better. In fact, it will likely be demonstrated that a primary cause for Japan’s decade long recession (a contraction in the economy) is the contraction in the population. With fewer families buying fewer goods and services for themselves and their progeny, the economy could not help but go down. If they were to reverse this population trend, it would likely change their economic fortunes as well.
This is the same problem that the UK and to a lesser extent the US is facing as well. Urban lifestyles do not create an environment conducive the family formation and large numbers of children. This trend has not taken root in the US as much as it has in “old europe” and Japan. Examining the US birth rates, they are in fact bolstered by the huge Latin American influx of the last 20 years, which have brought a large population of new people to this country that are accustomed to having and raising large families.
So to all of you in England, Germany, France, Italy and Russia… Go home and get busy! The world needs your children! To Scotland – good job on keeping the birth rate at 2.1 – but wouldn’t the world be a better place with twice as many Scots?
[Update] I should have known, with a hat tip to the almighty ace of spades, it seems that Granny Pelosi has decided that in order to fix the US, we need fewer children.
STEPHANOPOULOS: We also heard from Congressman Boehner coming out of the meeting today that again a lot of that spending doesn’t even meet the same test you just talked about right now. Hundreds of millions of dollars to expand family planning services. How is that stimulus?
PELOSI: Well, the family planning services reduce cost. They reduce cost. The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now and part of what we do for children’s health, education and some of those elements are to help the states meet their financial needs. One of those – one of the initiatives you mentioned, the contraception, will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government.
America is a big place, and quite a lot of it is empty. Our farmers grow an astonishing amount of food. If there is one thing we would all benefit from, it would be more Americans.