Numbers are meant to grab your
attention. Here are a few that grabbed mine.
With 20% of its population over 70
years of age and a life expectancy of 87 years for women and 81 for men, Japan
has a big problem: there aren’t enough young workers to sustain the country’s
welfare and health services. To make things worse, the current birth rate in
Japan is 1.43 births for women between the ages of 15 and 44, when a rate of
2.1 is needed to maintain a stable population. This has resulted in 2018 in the
biggest population decline on record.
In the U.S. the fertility rate is
1.729. Yet, the population is growing. The difference? We welcome immigrants,
while Japan traditionally has opposed immigration. Japan’s leaders now realize
this must change. But it may be too late to avoid a financial collapse.
The U.S. has a different problem: our
national debt, which has now topped $23 trillion. And it’s getting worse. The
problem is that Washington doesn’t seem to care. President Trump and Congress
agree to budgets or continuing resolutions that add over $1 trillion to the
debt each year, while aspiring presidential contenders like Elizabeth Warren
and Bernie Sanders advance vote-buying proposals for free stuff that would cost
many trillions more without any conceivable way of paying for them. We’ve
enjoyed low interest rates and low inflation for a long time. What happens when
that trend is reversed and we face interest on our debt that exceeds our gross
national product?
The biggest mistake Harry Reid made
while Senate Majority Leader was to eliminate the filibuster in the appointment
of federal judges. In his three years in office, President Trump has
successfully appointed 48 circuit court appellate judges, and 122 district
court trial judges, a record that far surpasses that of his predecessors for
the same period. As federal judges serve for life, this is bound to have a
long-lasting effect on our nation’s judiciary. Thanks, Harry.
According to analysts with the
Heritage Foundation, tax increases and reductions in private spending for
health insurance and medical care required to pay for Medicare for All would
result in an average reduction $5,670 in a family’s annual disposable income.
It would be worse for households getting employer-paid health benefits: their
annual disposable income would drop by an average of $10,554. Are you paying attention,
Elizabeth?
A recent survey shows that the
number of Americans who say they do not follow any religion has grown from 16%
to 35% in the last ten years. For people aged 18 to 29 that no-religion number
is now 44%. Often cited by dropouts is their opposition to inflexible religious
teachings on sexuality and social issues; they would encourage churches to have
conversations with people who have different experiences and points of view,
rather than to require passive adherence to a fixed set of authoritative positions.
Open Door USA reports in its World Watch List 2019 that 4,135 Christians
were killed for their faith last year in places like Nigeria, Syria, Iran, and
North Korea. I doubt these martyrs were looking for a conversation on social
issues when they faced death.
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