# Parents of Young Children: Do You Worry About Their Future? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 19, 2011, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-of-young-children-do-you-worry-about-their-future/575233 "2011-03-19T05:11:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Quintas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/48db29/32.png) [@Quintas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quintas)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-of-young-children-do-you-worry-about-their-future/575233/41 "2011-03-20T17:16:37Z")
> [@Susanann](#): > > A billion people, a billion jobs. > > Hope this math lesson helps you. You forgot to type in CAPS and use 3 exclamation points. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-of-young-children-do-you-worry-about-their-future/575233/42 "2011-03-20T17:27:09Z")
> [@Susanann](#): > > I said the population of the United States is projected to be a billion by the end of the century. EVERY…SINGLE…ONE… of all those billion people will need a job, and that adds up to a billion jobs around the turn of the century, less than 90 years away now. > > A billion people, a billion jobs. > > Hope this math lesson helps you. I hope you don’t home school your kids, 'cause I can see part of the problem if you do. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-of-young-children-do-you-worry-about-their-future/575233/43 "2011-03-20T17:41:10Z")
> [@Susanann](#): > > whites and Christians will be a small minority and politically insignificant. I’m trying to picture a crying Indian commercial except with a crying white guy. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-of-young-children-do-you-worry-about-their-future/575233/44 "2011-03-20T20:22:04Z")
> [@Susanann](#): > > Not by me. I can take a perspective from 100 years ago as if I was there, and I would not see a weak America in the 1900’s. I know my grandpa in the year 1900 saw a VERY!!! bright future for America and was full of hope and invested in America. I would never see America losing WW2. None of any of my relatives ever had a single doubt about whipping Hitler and Hirohito. I would not see the US dollar be worthless. I would not see running out of fresh water 100 years ago. I would not see any other country being the Arsenal of Democracy" in WW2 except for the USA. The American standard of living/wages/safety/pride/strength rose almost continuously from 1789 up into the late 1900’s. > > The future WAS!!! bright for the USA 100 years ago, it WAS a bright future 150 years ago, it WAS a bright future 200 years ago. > > Very different today. The future of America in the 21st century is doom, bankruptcy, overpopulation, starvation, and becoming a third world primitive country with no energy and no industry. > > Bankruptcy, overpopulation, no industry, not enough energy or water or food, are clearly in today’s future (even a child can see it) and yet nobody today wants to do anything about eliminating deficit spending, nobody wants to pay off our federal debt, nobody wants to bring back our manufacuring jobs and factories, nobody wants to stop immigration. > > Therefore, unlike at ANY! other time in our past, the doom of the USA is inevitable. Here’s the incredible bit of hubris that leads to everything else you say in this thread: You say that IF you had been alive 100 years ago, you would have been able to predict the future (that is, our current situation) with absolute perfect accuracy. So therefore, you are now able to predict our situation 100 years from now with accurate perfect accuracy. I’d like to see some evidence of the former before I can accept the latter. I don’t believe that anybody 100 years ago correctly predicted what life would be like now, and NOBODY can predict what life will be like 100 years from now. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-of-young-children-do-you-worry-about-their-future/575233/45 "2011-03-20T20:42:34Z")
> [@Susanann](#): > > Originally Posted by Susanann > whites and Christians will be a small minority and politically insignificant. > [@NinetyWt](#): > > You say that like it’s a _bad_ thing. > [@Susanann](#): > > Nope! Just a solid projection of current population and immigration trends. > > It is up to the people who will live thru it to judge whether it is a good or a bad thing. Wait, what? Are you trying to claim that you are NOT characterizing it as a bad thing? Piffle. Why else would you give it a place on your list of “Ways in which the USA will have become a third-world shithole by the end of the century?” ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-of-young-children-do-you-worry-about-their-future/575233/46 "2011-03-20T20:46:56Z")
P.S. If the USA _is_ the dystopia you’re projecting, why will you be expecting furriners to continue immigrating to it? ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-of-young-children-do-you-worry-about-their-future/575233/47 "2011-03-20T20:51:46Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > P.S. If the USA _is_ the dystopia you’re projecting, why will you be expecting furriners to continue immigrating to it? Best I can tell, the U.S. is awesome but delicate. Specifically, maintaining the right ratio of righteous white Christians to dirty brown furriners is hard. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-of-young-children-do-you-worry-about-their-future/575233/48 "2011-03-20T21:34:27Z")
> [@Susanann](#): > > my grandpa in the year 1900 saw a VERY!!! bright future for America and was full of hope and invested in America. None of any of my relatives ever had a single doubt about whipping Hitler and Hirohito. gee…it’s so easy have 20/20/ hindsight. So your relatives never doubted whipping Hitler…but most Americans did. They refused to get involved (until Pearl Harbor). Most Americans were so full of doubts about fighting Hitler that they didnt even want to let our allies in England fight for us.(they opposed the lend-lease act) Your grandfather may have seen a VERY!! bright future in1900. But how about in 1929? Most Americans had totally lost hope for the future by then. But they didn’t complain about it on internet message boards 🙂 They just slugged it out, raised loving families, and somehow life went on. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-of-young-children-do-you-worry-about-their-future/575233/49 "2011-03-20T23:05:19Z")
**Tarwater** , I’d like to apologize for my part in this hijack of the thread. I thought your question was a good one. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-of-young-children-do-you-worry-about-their-future/575233/50 "2011-03-21T00:01:44Z")
> [@overlyverbose](#): > > Of course I am. I worry about whether they’ll be healthy, intelligent, successful, happy - all of that. I also worry about the world they’ll grow up in. As a fairly centrist to liberal person, I’m uncomfortable with the seeming direction toward conservatism this country has taken, particularly with respect to social issues. I’m not sure I want my kids to grow up in a country like this one anymore and we’ve given serious thought to leaving the country and taking up residence somewhere else. > > We’ll probably stay, though - middle-class, white-collar jobs are easier to find here for us than anywhere else, though we may retire to a different country. Plus, every country has its challenges; I’m sure if we moved to New Zealand or something, we would still have concerns, albeit different ones than we have here. The grass is always greener and all that. Social conservatism is declining actually, the younger generations are less likely to support it and conservatives are more focussed on economic issues nowadays. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-of-young-children-do-you-worry-about-their-future/575233/51 "2011-03-21T00:17:15Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > Social conservatism is declining actually, the younger generations are less likely to support it and conservatives are more focussed on economic issues nowadays. Someone should tell the ostensible leaders. ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-of-young-children-do-you-worry-about-their-future/575233/52 "2011-03-21T03:52:17Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > Social conservatism is declining actually, the younger generations are less likely to support it and conservatives are more focussed on economic issues nowadays. True - I guess social conservatives are just a lot louder than I remember. Still, the elderly constitute much of the voting bloc and stand to grow far larger as a population in the coming years. Given that many elderly individuals tend to vote republican, that worries me. ---
**Author:** ![Pixiesnix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/898d66/32.png) [@Pixiesnix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixiesnix)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-of-young-children-do-you-worry-about-their-future/575233/53 "2011-03-21T05:43:19Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > The Firebug was born in 2007. He could easily live until A.D. 2101, long enough to hear those dread words, “you have no chance to survive make your time.” 😉 I think **Susanann** is saying that by that time, all our base are not belong to us. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-of-young-children-do-you-worry-about-their-future/575233/54 "2011-03-21T10:04:38Z")
IANAParent, but I have a nephew/godson and a niece, siblings. The nephew takes after me in a ridiculous amount of things, from hobbies (we’re both into jigsaws, which neither of his parents or other uncles liked; both early readers) to physical things (“wonder where did The Kid get that strange bent to his little fingers” - _laying down my hands on the table so the pinkies rest on the ring fingers_ “gee, Mom, I have no idea!” - “:eek:”). I worry that their mother will never forgive my nephew for being born a boy, against her plans (she’s a lot like my own mother, who still hasn’t forgiven me for being a girl and I’m 43). I worry that being smart and thus faster at many things than many of his peers will combine with the perfectionism he’s learned from both parents and lead to him abandoning too quickly anything which is difficult (his Daddy saw the danger this would happen and has been working with the kid to avoid it). I used to worry that he would end being, like his Auntie, one of the loners: nope, him and his BFF are the class leaders (🆒). I worry that the little one, who’s got her parents so twisted around her fingers it’s not funny, will end up a tyrant. She’s ridiculously good at figuring out who can she twist and who can’t she, though, so that’s that: looks like she’ll be a tyrant only if she ends up in a situation in which tyrant-doom is the most advantageous behavior. Kid’s so socially-smart that Littlebro and I really, really mean it when we tell her parents to get her into politics. I do hope we’ll be able to raise them to be happy, and helpful, and good people. If there ever comes a point where things get bad for them at home they’ll be welcome to talk with me and, if it’s that bad, to move in with me: I hope things never do get that bad (I don’t think my sister in law will be happy if either kid wants to study something that’s not considered in her Master Plan, for example, or if either one turns out to be gay or discovers (s)he’s not Catholic). But I don’t give a shit about which particular professions they choose, or which hobbies they have, or anything like that, so long as they’re happy and good folk. I might be more nervous if they happened to be my biokids, but I doubt it - it was me who convinced my parents to not try and choose the Bros majors for them, after all (I’d had a horrible time with that). ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-of-young-children-do-you-worry-about-their-future/575233/55 "2011-03-21T13:27:38Z")
> [@Susanann](#): > > The future WAS!!! bright for the USA 100 years ago, it WAS a bright future 150 years ago, it WAS a bright future 200 years ago. I don’t particularly want to get in the way of this train wreck but I just HAD to ding that middle part there. 150 years ago the majority of the nation thought that the nation would not exist as a whole in short form. Even those most in the ‘firebrand abolitionist’ camp assumed that the south would be able to make good on secession. 150 years ago was 1861 and the entire country east of the Mississippi was about to go into the fire. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-of-young-children-do-you-worry-about-their-future/575233/56 "2011-03-21T16:43:36Z")
Fire is bright. Duh. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-of-young-children-do-you-worry-about-their-future/575233/57 "2011-03-21T21:22:40Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > I don’t particularly want to get in the way of this train wreck but I just HAD to ding that middle part there. > > 150 years ago the majority of the nation thought that the nation would not exist as a whole in short form. Even those most in the ‘firebrand abolitionist’ camp assumed that the south would be able to make good on secession. > > 150 years ago was 1861 and the entire country east of the Mississippi was about to go into the fire. AND those damn Irish immigrants were creating a crisis. They were inferior to our original European stock, lazy, uneducated, and poor. Sometimes, History is really seems more a case of mad-libs. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-of-young-children-do-you-worry-about-their-future/575233/58 "2011-03-23T02:18:04Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > Social conservatism is declining actually, the younger generations are less likely to support it and conservatives are more focussed on economic issues nowadays. Possibly. But we are in severe economic times, so it is hard not to focus on economics first. That doesn’t mean social issues are gone, they just aren’t as pertinent at the moment. Either way, one of the first things the GOP did after taking over the house was try to pass an anti-abortion bill. I don’t know what is going on in all 50 states, but the first things the GOP tried to do were pass anti-abortion laws, repeal health reform and cut various programs they dislike for political reasons. Plus despite the argument that their motive is economics, the reason the federal House of reps is going after groups like NPR is because NPR has a liberal bias. So that is a social issue (the concept of media bias). Younger generations are less likely to support it. But younger generations don’t support most of the things that conservative republicans support (putting faith over science, rejecting the international community, social heirarchies based on race or class, religion, etc) but it doesn’t seem to matter. Lindsay Graham has urged the GOP to support climate change legislation to appeal to youth, Megan McCain urges them to support gay righst for the same reason but it doesn’t seem to be sticking. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-of-young-children-do-you-worry-about-their-future/575233.md?page=2)