Politics and Culture

Below is a post from a person who either doesn't get it or does, but wants to call the bluff of conservatives who can't argue for their position. His technique is similar to my mother's when she would ask me, "You're bored, are you?" and then proceeded to put a hedge trimmer in my hand.

He reports that aggregate Spanish marriages are up, but only because homosexuals, many of them foreign tourists, are the ones getting married; if you only counted heterosexual marriages, the total would be down. This reflects the demoralizing effect that same-sex marriage has on the heterosexual community, as conservatives always predict, and liberals always shrug off (Remember, only a society that doesn't value marriage allows same-sex marriage.). The figure may even underestimate the demoralizing effect because Spain recently gave amnesty to millions of illegal aliens who probably get married more than the native population.

So, the question, "How will same-sex marriage affect your marriage?" should be answered with, "It might not affect mine, but it will affect my children's."

Anyways, marriage is good for society- as people who want same-sex marriage suddenly concede after same-sex marriage becomes an issue, but only because of the respect for women fostered in men, the maturing effect it has on the same, and the stability it provides for children. Two men or women getting married is of no benefit and probably deleterious for the demoralizing reason given above.

The writer also points out that births are up in Spain because immigrants are having more children. This isn't bad, in and of itself, and, provided that the immigrants are of a certain quality (non-confrontational and hard-working), they really might be able to support the writer in his retirement.

However, the writer dismisses people's concern about the future of Spain's culture, at least- without getting into Steynian worst-case scenarios. But, if the Spanish don't care, they don't care. What can I say?

From here.

GIVEN the mass of evidence that marriage is broadly good for society, it is cheering to learn that the number of marriages celebrated in Spain in 2006 was up, slightly, on the year before, slowing slightly a decades-long trend of declining marriage rates. Social conservatives may want to pause before celebrating: the only reason that the total marriage number rose (by 2,403 marriages over the previous year) was that the country celebrated 4,574 gay marriages, representing 2.16% of the total for the year.

More same-sex marriages involved men than women (surely challenging the canard that women are more obsessed with getting married than men), and a disproportionate number of marriages involving at least one foreigner were gay ones (4.10% of marriages involving at least one foreign spouse were same-sex, most of which involved Spanish men marrying foreign men).

There was good news on the childbirth front, too, with Spain's (still very low) fertility rate creeping up to its highest level since 1991. Again, those convinced that Europe is being bred into submission by immigrants may be fussed to hear that the foreign-born mothers played a large role in that increase in the number of births. This correspondent, who hopes someone is going to be working to pay his pension in a few decades time, admits to being more relaxed: at least somebody in Europe is prepared to have children. The exact figures break down like this, according to a summary from the Spanish National Statistical Institute (full data here, in Spanish):

The total increase in births was due, in part, to the contribution of foreign women,
which continues to increase. In 2006, a total of 79,169 children were born to foreign
mothers, that is, 12.68% more than in 2005. Births to foreign mothers accounted for 16.46% of the total births in the year 2006, as compared to the 15.07% recorded in 2005 and 13.78% in 2004. Ecuadorian women residing in Spain were the most numerous, followed by Moroccan women. However, the latter were the most prolific, giving birth to 17,205 children, 21.73% of the total births to foreign women in 2006. Ecuadorian women had 8,999 children, which accounts for 11.37% of the births to foreign women. Colombians and Romanians, the next two most numerous nationalities residing in Spain, reached 5.97% and 10.95% of the total births to foreign women, respectively.
And deaths? There was a drop in the number of deaths, and a drop in the rate of deaths per thousand people. This despite nearly 10,000 deaths of foreign-born residents (all those pensioners seeking warm winters), a quarter of them British.