Following on from Patricia Hewitt's 'breed for Britain' speech to the CBI, Will Hutton wades in in The Observer, trumpeting that "The wellsprings of creativity - optimism, hope for a better tomorrow and the need to explore the human condition - run dry" if we don't procreate.
Despite the hyperbole, there are sound economic reasons why an aging population is not a great idea. The active labour pool shrinks and becomes unable to support the dependent older generation. It also leads to increased HR costs and skill shortages. This last point is of issue to me at the moment, since I have a leaking tap.
Now whilst I'm partial to the initial stages of the child making process, the subsequent decades of drudgery and penury leave me cold. But lets suppose, hypothetically, I were to take Ms Hewitt's advice and breed myself a plumber.
18 years and a (conservative) £140,000 later the stout youth is ready (if he's survived childhood illness and peril). But assuming practical skills are genetic, he'll have inherited from me a fine pair of opposable thumbs, but no earthly idea what to do with them. So we're back to square one. The tap drips on.
Conversely, for a short trip across the channel I could secure myself the services of a sturdy Bosnian, with generations of pipe bending skills coursing through his veins. Who'd get to work on the tap today; for a handful of Euros and a hearty stew.
This would seem a logical social progression. We no longer hunt and gather for our food. We no longer weave cloth in our cottages. Why therefore would we seek to breed our own workforce. However, I suspect that the arguments by Hewittt and Hutton are at a slightly more visceral level than simple economics.
