insomnomaniac

Steyn's latest: If you loathe Chirac, READ IT

[Via Right-Thinking]

If you haven't read it already, you simply must read Mark Steyn's latest column. Of course, that could be said about all of them, but this one is particularly uplifting for those of us who fantasize about Karma biting good 'ol Wacko Jacquo Chirac in the derriere:

According to a UN report from last year, for the EU to keep its working population stable till 2050 it would need another 1.58 million immigrants every year. To keep the ratio of workers to retirees at the present level, you'd need 13.5 million immigrants per year. Personally, I've never seen what's so liberal and enlightened about denuding the developing world of their best and brightest. But, even if you can live with it, it won't be an option much longer. The UN's most recent population report has revised the global fertility rate down from 2.1--i.e., replacement rate--to 1.85--i.e., eventual population decline. It will peak in about 2050, and then fall off in a geometric progression. What this means for the Continent is that the fall-back position--use the Third World as your nursery--is also dead. The developing world's fertility rate is 2.9 and falling. The Third Worlders being born now in all but the most psychotic jurisdictions will reach adulthood with a range of options, of which Europe will be the least attractive. If that ratio of workers to retirees keeps heading in the same direction, the EU will have the highest taxes not just in the Western world, but in most of the rest. A middle-class Indian or Singaporean or Chilean already has little incentive to come to the Continent. If the insane Bush-Steyn plan to remake the Middle East comes off, even your wacky Arabs may stay home. If it doesn't, the transformation of Europe into 'Eurabia', as the droller Western Muslims already call their new colony, will continue.

So for Europe this is the perfect storm, with Jacques Chirac in the George Clooney role. Best case scenario: you wind up as Vienna with Swedish tax rates. Don't get me wrong, I love Vienna. I especially like the way you can stroll down their streets and never hear any ghastly rockers and rappers caterwauling. When you go into a record store, the pop category's a couple of bins at the back and there are two floors of operetta. All very pleasant, though not if you're into surfing the cutting edge of the zeitgeist. I quite like Stockholm, too. Well, I like the babes, but they're gonna be a lot wrinklier by 2050. And Sweden's already got a lower standard of living than Mississippi. Its 60 per cent overall tax rate is likely to be the base in the Europe of 2020 and fondly recalled as the good old days by mid-century.

Worst case scenario: Sharia, circa 2070.

Read the rest, it's spot-on and hysterically funny (in that "take THAT you smelly frog" kind of way).

Posted by insomnomaniac at March 15, 2003 12:35 PM | TrackBack