Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Producing children for pay? by Tony Green


Older Asian Couple
The Chinese government supports a policy of prohibiting their urban citizens to limit child production to no more than one child. Parents with multiple children are not given the same benefits as parents of one child. Moreover, in some cases, wealthy families pay a fee to the government in order to have a second child or more. The policy is designed to tackle the problems which result from uncontrolled population growth like epidemics, slums, overwhelmed social services namely health, education, and law enforcement.

This is a strike contrast to the Japanese government.  During my recent trip to Japan, I realized many Japanese are aging but due to population trends resources to support this aging populace may become scarce. For example, my wife’s parents had three children from which they had two grandchildren. Over time if most families bear fewer grandchildren than children then in the long-term the population will decrease. Another example is my wife’s elementary school will be closing after being open since after the Second World War as a result of decreased enrollment of student in her area.

It was even mentioned at some point in the future Japan may cease to exist as result of this birth rate decline. This to me seems extreme; however, it is clear in the long-term something needs to done. How the Japanese government incentivizing its young people to create offspring in the same way that the Chinese in a roundabout way pays its residents to limit births?

I have a hard time believing I am typing this on a blog that anyone can read via the Internet. The concept of getting a stipend to grow families is not quite the “normal” idea of childrearing. Most people given the correct circumstances would happily produce offspring.   

Typically the younger generation looks after the older one. With the risk of there not being enough younger folks to address the needs of the older age group what is the alternative?   Should the Japanese at least consider finding some way to incentivize their populace to produce children?

Thursday, July 26, 2012

We are Penn State,We are Done by Tony Green


Penn State logo
I was watching the live press conference of the penalties imposed on the Penn State football program in light of the sex crimes scandal and the university’s decision at its highest leadership to not contact the proper authorities in order to maintain the integrity of the program.   

I find it difficult to believe I am writing a blog on this topic. Having grown up the in Philadelphia, a few short hours from Happy Valley, I fondly remember watching Gregg Garrity’s diving touchdown catch in the 1983 Sugar Bowl against Georgia securing Penn State’s first national title and who could forget Pete Giftopoulos’ interception of Vinnie Testaverde in the final seconds of the 1987 Fiesta Bowl to hold off the heavily favored Miami hurricane to bring home its second and final national championship.

It is not easy to fathom that winning a national Championship, even winning a bowl game may not occur for Penn State for the duration of my lifetime. Of course, more pressing concerns include the welfare of the children, now young adults, whose lives have been changed irreparably as a result of this ordeal.

The penalties to the football program handed down a few days ago ranging from the loss of scholarships to being barred from post season play for four years are, in many cases, worse than the often talked about “death penalty”. The death penalty results the program is shutdown from operation for a specified period of time. The NCAA decided not to go this option after much deliberation. Whatever the true reason for their decision the end result whether intended or not will be everyone involved with Penn State and the world will be able to watch the football program flounder from heights from which the program will never return.

The parties who are being held accountable have done it to themselves, from the deviant who perpetrated the crimes to those in power who allowed the endangering of innocent children to continue. I just wish they had not done this to everyone with any affiliation to Penn State football.

Now every time I see any tweet with the hashtag #wearepennstate I think a more appropriate description the future of Penn State football should be #wearedone. 

 Image Courtesy of 
http://klownsportsdotnet.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/penn-state-football-schedule-college-game-day-begins1.jpg