Austerity sets in a couple of generations after below-replacement birth rates have set in. That's 2.1 births per female. But the welfare state discourages the old-time virtues that gave impetus to larger family sizes in the first place. Akin to The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism by Daniel Bell, the middle class civilization is self-defeating for its inability to do what seemingly comes more natural to more primitive and less advanced ones--although the whole world is experiencing a fall in birth rates--have babies.
Or, as Mark Steyn is able to say it so well, even if he is johnny-come-lately to the issue:
Or, as Mark Steyn is able to say it so well, even if he is johnny-come-lately to the issue:
The 20th-century Bismarckian welfare state has run out of
people to stick it to.
UPDATE: Robert J. Samuelson on the welfare states entering a "death spiral."
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