Columns

Louisiana’s business voice, LABI, as well as the Louisiana Insurance Department each took a huge hit in the waning days of the recent legislative session. LABI, with the full support of Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon, pegged legislation to supposedly reduce insurance rates in the state as the most important proposed legislation of the session.

I was recently watching a cartoon marathon of The Flintstones with some fourth graders, and when the last line of the theme song blared from the TV, a 10-year-old girl looked up at me and said, “Were the Flintstones gay?”
For a minute, I had no idea why the sexual orientation of Fred, Wilma, or Dino was an issue, until I listened closely to the lyrics: “When you’re with the Flintstones / Have a yabba-dabba-doo time / A dabba-doo time / We’ll Have a Gay Old Time.” I realized that a 10-year-old would not remember a time when the word gay just meant happy.

America’s declining birthrate has given me pause.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of babies born in the United States in 2018 was the lowest in 32 years, continuing what NBC News calls “a decades-long trend toward fewer and fewer babies being born each year.”
That means fewer young people to support an increasingly aging population. Hey, young people! We need you to have kids who’ll pick up our Social Security and Medicare bills 15 or 20 years from now!