411–420 of 434 posts
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They were considered white. (Italians and Greeks weren't though)
Hm, it's easy to find credible claims that they weren't, e.g. https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-events/when-iri...
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I’ll humbly quote myself from an earlier comment: If you accept that the South and the Midwest are legitimate places to live, then you're forced to really consider it, which is difficult -- moving long distances is hard! It's much easier to conclude that those places aren't real options.
The South is a legitimate place to live, just like Saudi Arabia is. If you want to talk about quality of life, that's another issue. If you're not a gun-loving church-going conservative, you're not going to be very happy relocating to the South. It's already horribly hard to make friends over the age of 30 (this comes up here on HN often), and moving someplace where the locals are diametrically opposed to your worldv…
This response isn’t like a little wrong, or a bit of hyperbole — it’s egregiously and embarrassingly wrong. It’s not just, like, your opinion, man. It’s a factually absurd, untravelled, ignorant comparison.
Huh, I did a blog post about this just last night. Basically, people's personality has an impact on whether they have kids, personality is heritable, fertility won't be low forever given current conditions but who knows how conditions will change. http://hopefullyintersting.blogspot.com/2018/05/falling-fert...
Sounds like a tautology to me.
If this were true wouldn't that mean that the genes for the heritable part of the "want to have kids" personality type would be overrepresented in the population, because they came from parents who had kids?
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Look, yes, obviously there are more jobs in the biggest cities. Why people insist on translating this into “there are no jobs anywhere else” is anybody’s guess. But it extends beyond preference or opinion and into objectively, verifiably, factually wrong territory with remarkable consistency. It makes the people who claim it look ridiculous, but they seem to think it makes them look — I don’t know what — something no…
The problem here is the concentration of jobs. For my specialty, there's lots of places where I could go to get a job . But it might be the only job there. I had some silly company try to recruit me to La Crosse, Wisconsin not long ago. The work sounded really interesting and was a good fit for me, but it's most likely the only company in that town that would have such a job for me. That town isn't near anything . So…
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> People knew where babies came from way before the internet. I think you missed the GP's primary point. Just because someone in the entire world had the requisite knowledge might mean nothing at all to another someone a mere few hours of travel away, let alone on the other side of the world. That's why written language was such a huge invention[1]. Then the printing press. Then the telegraph, radio, and telephone. F…
Sex and procreation can be found throughout recorded human history, regardless of locale. In mythology (from Zeus boning anything that moved to "be fruitful and multiply" to the Immaculate Conception and numerous creation myths besides), religious teachings regarding sex being for procreation and not mere pleasure, laws governing property rights, inheritance and royal succession, in literature, in plays and songs, in…
The problem for something like contraception, which is the context here, is in understanding the details. Those details are sorely lacking in plays, songs, fairy tales, and old wives' tales.
> It also happens to be knowledge that's necessary to continue the species
No knowledge is actually necessary, as mere ignorant performance of the act is sufficient.
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The reason is that the US doesn't provide support for families. Childcare, maternity leave, health care support, these are things that could make it possible for working parents to have more kids. The US is doing just the opposite.
The US didn't have that stuff a century ago either, and the birth rate was higher. You may wish for those things, but they aren't required. Some EU countries have those things, and their birth rates are even lower than the US birth rate. Those things actually contribute to the problem. They drive up taxes, causing more families to feel that they need two incomes and overtime and a bit more waiting.
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America integrated large immigrant waves in it's past, and I doubt anyone would say the Italians, or Irish, or other minorities were not integrated today. Time bridges cultures, and we're the better for it.
Italians, Irish, and most of the other immigrants from that time were Europeans who had a lot in common with Americans culturally.
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Italians, Irish, and most of the other immigrants from that time were Europeans who had a lot in common with Americans culturally.
Back then, Americans didn't see it that way. There was a widespread suspicion that Catholicism was incompatible with democracy.
And that was the secularized, polite face of the common religious belief that both the Papacy as an office and the particular occupants of that office were the literal referent of the biblical Antichrist, and that “Papists” were, therefore, followers of the Antichrist.
Huh, I did a blog post about this just last night. Basically, people's personality has an impact on whether they have kids, personality is heritable, fertility won't be low forever given current conditions but who knows how conditions will change. http://hopefullyintersting.blogspot.com/2018/05/falling-fert...
> Basically, people's personality has an impact on whether they have kids Sounds like a tautology to me. If this were true wouldn't that mean that the genes for the heritable part of the "want to have kids" personality type would be overrepresented in the population, because they came from parents who had kids?
For decades, the US birth rate has been held up by immigration. American values have been to regard the country as a nation of immigrants, who not only act as a source of youthful workers, but also have more kids than Americans who have been here longer. So the US has avoided workforce aging, as has happened in parts of Europe and especially Japan, through immigration. With the recent reduction in immigration, accele…