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NEW YORK, August 20, 2002 (LSN.ca) – The New York Times issued warnings from United Nations Statistics chief Dr. Joseph Chamie today noting the soon-to-be-felt high toll of the low birth rate in developed countries.  The paper described the current situation of low births and growing elderly populations as dynamics which “cause havoc” in retirement systems such as those in place throughout most of the developed world.  The paper reports that in countries such as Italy with a fertility rate of 1.2 children per woman, contributions of workers into the social security system can be as high as 40 percent of their salaries.  Dr. Chamie and other experts warn of drastic changes that will be required to cope with the effects of underpopulation.

“The age of retirement will have to increase. The benefits to the elderly will probably decrease. Taxation for the workers will probably increase,” said Dr. Chamie.  Another expert Dr. Paul Samuelson spoke about mandating saving for retirement, “voluntarily or coercively, in our working years in order to be able, given our numbers, to pay for our longer years of retirement.”.”  While noting the disastrous effect of radical population control in the developed world, the United Nations nevertheless suggests poor countries maintain strict population control.  While the UN suggests population control in the developing world will serve to better economies other studies have suggested the opposite.

In fact, the U.S. National Security Study Memorandum 200 (NSSM 200), written by Henry Kissinger was designed to counter growing populations in developing nations so that they would not threaten U.S. economic superiority.  NSSM 200, subtitled “Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for U.S. Security and Overseas Interests,” warned that increasing populations in developing countries threatened U.S. strategic, economic, and military interests.  It suggested that competition from new world powers would rise when developing nations had sufficient populations to utilize their national resources to their full potential.

See more LifeSite coverage on NSSM 200:  https://216.122.249.80/waronfamily/nssm200/index.html   See the NYT coverage:  https://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/20/science/earth/20ECON.html