Pave: French Bastardy

Le jour 248 de Sarko

FRANCE SURPASSES 50% OUT-OF-WEDLOCK BIRTHS

PARIS January 16, 2008 (CWN) - In 2006, for the first time in the nation's history, most of the infants born in France were born out of wedlock. ... In Sweden, the latest figures show that 55% of children are born out of wedlock. In Great Britain the figure is 42%; in Poland, 15%.

The latest available figure (2005) for the United States is 36.9%.

Perhaps you find this alarming. Not so the French press. It's all part of a grand revolution.

FRENCH CLAIM EUROPE FERTILITY CROWN --
BUT SHUN MARRIAGE

PARIS, January 15, 2008 - France overtook Ireland as the fertility champion of Europe in 2007... With 1.98 children per woman, France's fertility rate is now ahead of Ireland on 1.90, according to the latest government figures, and well above the European Union average of 1.52.

The lastest available figure (2004) for out-of-wedlock births for Ireland is 31.4% (at the time, the French number was 45.2%).

Babies born to unmarried couples represented 50.5 of all French births in 2007, compared to 48.4 percent the previous year and merely 5.9 percent in 1965, according to the French national statistics institute INSEE.

Sociologist Irène Théry, Le Parisien:

[This is the] logical outcome of a major revolution... Gradually, it's the child who has come to make the family, not the marriage.

Mdm. Théry's breezy remark is so fatuous as to defy serious response, which perhaps is its design. Back in the day when "the child made the family" people took the trouble to marry. Unless of course Mdm. Thery's child here is meant French Peter Pan progenitors, adults, who, abdicating parenting to the state, have more quality time to spent with their navels.

We would gently point out that the classic fascist model is built on parentless children in the care of the state. Children, like everything else, belong to the state and there'll be no holiday trips to mémé et papi.

France's leap back up the fertility table began in 1993, back when its fertility was only 1.66 children per woman, although it still falls just short of the 2.07 children per woman needed for generations to be replaced.

... But despite a high fertility rate, the French population continued to age, with over 65 year-olds making up 16.3 percent of the total, compared to 15 percent in 1994.

France falls short of her replacement rate by 4%. Shortfalls compound year-to-year, which in a socialist paradise will eventually translate to more pensioners than workers. [Pause] Then everyone is screwed.

For a sobering read on the crisis of the greying of Western democracies, we recommend America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It (Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2006) by Mark Steyn.

PFFT (What is this?): Low-birth rate, but not as low 3½ | Rayonnement français 0