There's trouble, I say, trouble in Europe!

Oh, boy. Pat Robertson, global pundit of inestimable value, believes that Jean-Paul Sartre is responsible for the declining birth rate in Europe. While I'm sure he's better known (and better read) there than here (Sartre, that is), I doubt that young people leave high school there with a very well-developed appreciation for the finer points of early 20th century philosophy. Can they even spell existentialism?

Frankly, I'm surprised that Roberston is familiar with Sartre and/or Existentialism, at all. Wouldn't seem to be the kind of thing he'd take to, if you know what I mean.

My suggestion is that the lower birth rate is probably due to our general obsession with ourselves and selfish things (and us Americans are certainly in there, as well). We simply don't think we have the time or want the bother of having kids. Takes away from our weekends of clubbing, skiing, or simply hanging out and getting stoned.

Update: A friend suggests that another explanation might be the cost of raising children in an urban-tech environment. Kids is expensive, so there might be some incentive not to have so damn many.

Furthermore, just the whole slant of Robertson's comments about "racial suicide" implies that there might actually be a European race (something of which I was unaware), and that the real reason the reduction in population might be a "bad thing" from his perspective mostly has to do with a perceived change in the relative balance of races on the planet. This means Pat Robertson is really making a rather racist remark. "White peoples need to have more babies, 'cause the [insert favorite non-white race here] sure are!"

Disgusting.