Good for the Amish:
I’ve always liked the Amish. You know, the little communities and farms of people who avoid modern contraptions and work hard with abstemious habits. Lots of people talk about “sustainable development.” Well the Amish way of doing things is very sustainable. They don’t use fossil fuels, for one thing. No cars.
They also demonstrate that you can survive in America today, given the right community. They pay the same taxes as everybody else but avoid tapping into government handouts. One problem they have is that they are such good neighbors that the land near them commands a premium price. Then when it’s time for the youngsters to buy land and start a farm, the price may be out of their reach, the land having been snatched up by people who can better afford it. But as with most things they have worked things out.
And they have babies. They have lots of babies. It was not that long ago when I read an article darkly intimating that the community was small and there was the danger of INBREEDING. Oh horror of unspeakable horrors. Oh squeal. Oh gag. Oh how totally un trendy.
Yep. It looks like they have limited their social pool to the extent that their fertility is high. Maybe a quarter million of them now. Maybe a full million in forty years.
Yes, I know. There are too many people in the world. But I personally don’t think there are too many people who are honest, self sufficient, care about their families, are non violent and who are all around good neighbors.
The only problem I see (other than that there is absolutely nothing they can do to keep my own people, however you like to define us, from going extinct) is that their growth is nothing like sufficient to replace the shortfall that the rest of us in this country apparently face. But it’s nice to know somebody is doing it right.
There have been 63,811 visitors so far.