Posted 2/21/2011 at 11:00 am by Adam Tod Brown
Being broke is a total bummer, especially when just a few months or years earlier it seemed like you had all the cash you needed. Unfortunately, that’s how recessions work. One week you’re enjoying nightly excursions to the finest restaurants in town, the next week you’re raiding your kid’s college fund to keep a roof over your head and pawning your CD collection to put Ramen noodles on the table.
But every cloud has a silver lining. For one, CDs are borderline obsolete these days, so having them around just made you look like an out of touch doofus anyway. Also, a lack of expendable cash doesn’t mean you have to live a life devoid of entertainment. After all, sex is still free! And if recent statistics are any indication, nobody has embraced the idea of sex-as-recession-busting-fun like those randy Brits.
It makes perfect sense. A deflated or non-existent entertainment budget means more time spent at home. That leads to couples spending more time together which in turn leads to, you guessed it… domestic violence. Wait, that’s not right. Sex! It leads to more sex! At least that’s what experts in the UK are claiming, and they’ve got the statistics to back that claim up.
During Britain’s “Winter of Discontent” in 1979, when most of the country was mired in labor strikes, the economy plummeted, but the average number of children per woman rose from 1.84 to 1.88. Taking on an extra mouth to feed during times of economic hardship might seem like a bad idea, but it looks like the trend is holding true for the current recession also.
Birth rates have risen from 12.5 per 1000 women to 12.7. Meanwhile, condom sales have dropped 2.6% while sales of things like pregnancy tests, folic acid and baby toys have all risen.
These numbers all point to one undeniable fact: A shitty economy is no reason to, literally, tighten your belt.
(via dailymail.co.uk)
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