Going Down for the Last Time?

The Greek crisis has a dimension that only Mark Steyn is pointing out.

In Greece, the arithmetic is starker. To prop up unsustainable welfare states, most of the Western world isn’t “printing money” but instead printing credit cards and pre-approving our unborn grandchildren. That would be a dodgy proposition at the best of times. But in the Mediterranean those grandchildren are never going to be born. As I pointed out in my bestselling hate crime America Alone four years ago, Greece has one of the lowest fertility rates on the planet—1.3 children per couple, which places it in the “lowest-low” demographic category from which no society has recovered and, according to the UN, 178th out of 195 countries. In practical terms, it means 100 grandparents have 42 grandkids. Greek public sector employees are entitled not only to 14 monthly paycheques per annum during their “working” lives, but also 14 monthly retirement cheques per annum till death. Who’s going to be around to pay for that?

Even assuming the Greeks manage to somehow quell the riots and enact austerity measures, they still won't have any economic growth because they're uncompetitive. And if they manage to do that, they're still screwed because you can't support 100 retirees with 42 workers. Sounds like post-Christian Europe is not the place to be now or in the future.

Maybe they could reverse this whole slide by approving gay marriage. That would solve so very, very much!