More Infantile Behavior

... or, "The Austerity Was Coming Anyway."

Yesterday, we noted Robert Reich's childish worldview as the little fussbudget sputtered about austerity leading to lower growth as if austerity was it's own cause. Reich and so many others in the intelligentsia can't wrap their heads around the concept that if you borrow money now, you won't have it to spend later. In the adult world, borrowing inexorably leads to austerity.

So do low birth rates.

European birth rates. Replacement rate is about 2.05. Image from Der Spiegel.

Robert Reich's beloved social welfare state was created when the worker-to-beneficiary ratio was much higher than it is today. All other factors aside, if you're having fewer babies you must cut your social welfare programs. It's not a choice, it's not "austerity", it's simple mathematics. If you have three workers per beneficiary to pay for socialized medicine, social security and free education, then when you cut that to two workers per beneficiary, you must cut one or more of those benefits.

Infants don't do 8th grade algebra. If mommy usually takes you to the park and gets you an ice cream, but today she needs to spend 4 hours taking care of a sick dog, you still pitch a fit. You don't sit there working out the labor hour calculations, computing just why Rover's vet visit eliminates your yummy treats. You just want what you always got and you're not afraid to let everyone know.

That's Robert Reich and all his buddies. There's no concept of earning things, only of having them.