Only sex can save Estonian economy
28.08.2008, 22:45The following column is written by Annika
Matson, editor-in-chief of Estonian business daily Äripäev online channel
aripaev.ee.
An appeal from a well-known online vendor plumped down in my mailbox today,
explaining that Estonia could be salvaged from foundering only if Estonians had
more sex and, by doing so, also did breed.
I took a liking to this idea as to one to bolster up our economy. Moreover,
Estonian economy is listing precariously, and creative approaches to problems
always pay off.
The gravity of the situation can be perceived by reading a recent Eurostat
news release. According to the latest data, by 2035 the population of Estonia
will have plummeted by 7 per cent, and by 2060 even by 15 per cent. The same
survey predicts that, unlike in Estonia, in 13 other EU countries there would
have been a sizable population growth by the same time.
According to the estimates of the survey, Cyprus would have had the largest
rise of 66 per cent. The most serious fall would have befallen Bulgaria
(28 per cent). Estonia would have a population of 1,13 million in 2060.
Estonia’s population today is 1,34 million, thus we would have 200 000 souls
less.
So, rather naïvely and emotionally, I shall now try and unravel how sex could
deliver us from this certain economic doom.
Firstly, in those scores of years to come we should not be able to replenish
our own workforce and Estonia would be inhabited by an ever-growing number of
Chinese, persons of darkish countenance, Muslims etc. That is not to say that I
have anything against them, I do not lump them together, either - I am simply
worried about the future of my country and folk. This low-cost workforce would,
however, bring different attitudes. Besides, the integrating of them into our
society would probably be more expensive than bringing up our own children. It
was even today that BLRT announced that they would like to employ skilled
workers from China. It is also with horror that I ponder the paper of Johan
Bäckman, criminologist and jurisprudent, who predicts in his yet unpublished a
book that Estonia as a country will die a death within the next ten years.
Secondly, people of my age, now toiling in the sweat of their brows, would be
bereft of their old-age pensions; in addition to this, the retiring age would be
so advanced that I should not even live to see it, I should die long before
being superannuated.
Thirdly, tax rates would soar, and the state would impose all sorts of taxes
upon us. The less we should be in number, the heavier the tax burden would be
per capita. It should come as a warning that childless persons are now being
considered to be taxed, not to mention the car tax, or the fact that it has been
proposed to freeze the further lowering of the personal income tax.
Moreover, if we do not engage ourselves in sex, we should get stress and
be unproductive at work which, in turn, would bode ill for our economy.
Finally, I tell you: follow not my example, but follow my words instead –
for, if formal matrimonial status is to be considered, I am single, of 32
summers, and childless. Why? I cannot say. I am just dedicated to my work.