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Letter from Berlin: Defusing Germany's Demographic Timebomb - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News

Germany's population is shrinking, with serious consequences for the country's economy and pension system. Can Family Minister Ursula von der Leyen persuade Germans to breed?

 Can Ursula von der Leyen stop Germany's population from shrinking? Pandas are famously bad at sex. In fact, they are so unwilling to breed that zoo keepers have to resort to all kinds of tricks to get them to procreate, including showing them pornographic movies to get them in the mood.

Ursula von der Leyen must feel a certain sympathy with the panda keepers. One of her main tasks as Germany's family minister is to coax reluctant Germans into having children, so that the shrinking of the country's population can be slowed or even reversed.

At the moment she has plenty of reasons to celebrate: Preliminary birth statistics for 2007 appear to show that her policies are having the desired effect.

by Fran (fran at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Apr 30th, 2008 at 01:10:49 PM EST
I thought the Muslims and immigrants were overrunning the place. How can its population be dropping??
by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Wed Apr 30th, 2008 at 01:14:50 PM EST
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You're mixing it up with France.
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Apr 30th, 2008 at 03:13:44 PM EST
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OMG-have we hit peak immigrants as well????
by Sassafras on Wed Apr 30th, 2008 at 03:38:54 PM EST
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We arer shrinking, we are shrinking, uaaargh!!!

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.
by DoDo on Wed Apr 30th, 2008 at 02:10:40 PM EST
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It's hard to isolate Von der Leyen's policies from the general development in Germany, which has been positive for most in the last two years. The policies themselves are not all bad, though.
by nanne (zwaerdenmaecker@gmail.com) on Wed Apr 30th, 2008 at 02:29:36 PM EST
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I feel guilty, because i rely on recreational sex, as opposed to the propagational kind.  Being 60, not sure it matters.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
by Crazy Horse on Wed Apr 30th, 2008 at 02:50:38 PM EST
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Crazy Horse:
 Being 60, not sure it matters.

Hey, according to Ayurveda the life expectancy should be a 120 years. This would mean you are in you mid-life and prime time of your life. :-)

by Fran (fran at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Apr 30th, 2008 at 03:05:51 PM EST
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Strangely, i do feel exactly in mid life, it's why i accepted the hip joint most likely to last long, and why i've spent so much extra effort rebuilding my musculature, which this type of joint demands.

It's probably not in the literature, but i find having sex often to be better than anything from rehab, except perhaps the first week or two in the pool (but at that time there was no chance of having sex because of how long it took to move.)

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Wed Apr 30th, 2008 at 03:21:28 PM EST
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