Mark Steyn’s demographics thesis is being proven right by current events

What is Mark’s thesis? It is that the West is undergoing a demographics collapse brought on by its welfare state politics that it has pursued now for over a hundred years. The problem is that the welfare state that everybody in the West lives in, particularly in Western Europe, is dependent on demographic growth to fund all the state’s dependents. This is a vicious cycle. The final stage of the welfare state is when the dearth of new citizens makes the benefits the state has promised its aging citizens unsupportable. And so the welfare state collapses.

This stage is firmly under way in Europe. Check out the current crisis in Greece, which according to this article, is spreading to other weak members of the Eurozone, like Portugal, Spain and Italy. Like dominos, they are all beginning to fall. And the reason why countries like Greece are going first is because they have the lowest birth rate coupled with the most generous benefits. Look for more stories like this in the near future about other European countries. 

An easy way around this problem is to import cheap labour from another country, one with a higher birth rate. Unfortunately, when you rely on this solution too much (especially from one source region), you create all kinds of other societal problems, for instance, like the illegal immigrant situation in the US. This issue is currently bubbling to the surface in Arizona where a new law against illegal aliens was just signed into law by the (now popular) governor. This crisis is not going anywhere as Texas ponders a similar measure.

We are currently in the early stages of the unravelling of the postwar consensus. Except for the collapse of the Soviet Union, the society that developed in the 1950’s after the carnage of World War II is being unravelled by its internal contradictions. Look for more of the same as the welfare state after welfare state goes bust. If things go well, the West will be stronger than ever as it mends its family tradition and relearns self-reliance. If the West is too enfeebled to survive, thanks in no small measure to the challengeg posed by the unassimilatable and overtly anti-west Muslim minority in Western Europe, the result will be a victory for barbarism and a giant step backwards for civilization.

Comments

[dollops]

And just when will the beneficiaries of the state's largesse see the light and vote themselves less money? There is no better example of entrenched entitlement than Native Indians who despair in their dependency but won't take the simple step of getting off the rez. What will it take, a revolution - a Pinochet?

[Powell Lucas]

How true. I'm in the middle of a series of courses on the Middle Ages and the period known as Late Antiquity (from around the time of the collapse of the Western Roman Empire until 500 A.D.) is a perfect template for what is occurring today. The Romans, grown fat and lazy on state handouts would no longer fill the needs of the military and the various other functions of the state so the Roman hierarchy recruited from the very tribes that were threatening their borders. These tribes provided the cheap labour and willing bodies to fill all the roles the Romans had abandoned. Eventually the barbarian influence in Roman society became so great that the entire social structure collapsed. The same thing is happening today in the western democracies. Our lifestyle is on the way out.
As an adjunct to this we see what is taking place in Arizona. Identity papers being checked!! This is an affront to everything the U.S. is supposed to stand for. However, since all the so-called progressives can do is demonstrate against these restrictions while not offering any other practical solutions the state has a choice: impose laws that go against everything they believe in or be swamped by illegal aliens and who bring their drug wars and entitlements with them. If all the protesters would direct their energies toward helping Arizona resolve this mess, rather than just whining and sniveling, perhaps a more reasonable solution might be arrived at. Until they get of their cushy, statist butts and do something to help...then they better learn to live with it.

[WiseGuy]

Hey! In Chinese, "crisis" and "opportunity" are the same word.

The European socialist collapse could just as easily shake Europe in the direction of conservative restraint – where else can they go? Will the immigrants want to stay in a country that no longer gives them free money?

At the same time, it could put the fear of collapse into Americans, who, up until recently were sleepwalking into the same trap.

I'm an optimist. Maybe we just have to bust a few eggs before we can make an omelet. First egg, Greece.