David Paul Deavel, a regular contributor to Catholic World Report, has penned an apologia for the oft-discussed "1 percent":
My wife and I are part of the 1 percent — so we’re used to criticism. We’ve made a bundle — heck, a number of bundles — and while the rest of the nation seems to be in a slump, we’re just making more. We’re part of the false cult of quantity at the expense of quality. Our consumption hurts the environment. Our ridiculous tax breaks reward our selfishness at others’ expense. To give us larger breaks is so ridiculous a suggestion even the Wall Street Journal calls us tax “gangsters.” But we, I reply, are the makers. It’s right that our tax burden is lower, since we ultimately provide the raw material for jobs, innovation and future tax revenue.
Of course, when I say we’re in the top 1 percent, I mean kids. I can’t prove conclusively that we’re 1-percenters, but given that 2010 census data showed that only 1.9 percent of American homes had seven or more members, I think it’s likely. Many seven-plus households are surely multigenerational, and 2012 census data shows the average number of children under 18 per household living with parents was 1.88.
We ended 2012 with five. No. 6, God willing, will emerge from the womb in late summer.
Read his entire column on the StarTribune.com site.
Deavel mentions the new book, What to Expect When Nobody's Expecting, by Jonathan Last, who is also Catholic. In a recent interview with NRO, Last talked to Kathryn Jean Lopez about the serious demographic, cultural, and political challenges facing the United States:
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