My Pet Topic
Whenever I see an article on the West's impending population implosion I tend to post it on here. Do I find some sick satisfaction in the consequences of the abortive/contraceptive sex-as-recreation children-as-lifestyle-negation coming home to roost. Probably. I should be more troubled than I am because the reality will hurt-- all of us. But pain may cause us all to live the real reality with more clarity.
I hear much more about global warming than population decline. Why is this? Why the indifference? Are these cries of "Wolf, Wolf" from a minority or are the majority a bunch of feathered flightless birds with their heads in the sand? Well, this editorial is from the Wall Street Journal.
My favorite line: "Well, here's my prediction for 2032: unless we change our ways the world faces a future . . . where the environment will look pretty darn good. If you're a tree or a rock, you'll be living in clover. It's the Italians and the Swedes who'll be facing extinction and the loss of their natural habitat. "
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110007760
posted by Peter @ 1:28 PM
2 Comments:
I also follow this subject with interest. If nothing else, it gives you material for something to say back to those people who a horrified at the number of children/siblings.
Some people still don't see the declining population of the world as a bad thing. Here is another take on the subject from the Economist:
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=5358255&tranMode=none
Hopefully the link works. Let me know if it doesn't.
Thanks for the link. The following was a comment from the article:
"The crucial question is therefore what the effect of demographic decline is on the growth of GDP per person. The bad news is that this looks likely to slow because working-age populations will decline more rapidly than overall populations. Yet this need not happen. Productivity growth may keep up growth in GDP per person: as labour becomes scarcer, and pressure to introduce new technologies to boost workers' efficiency increases, so the productivity of labour may rise faster. Anyway, retirement ages can be lifted to increase the supply of labour even when the population is declining."
Is it reasonable that these coutries will be able to reform their workforce to increase production per person? Are the Europeans going to vote for politicians who want to reduce their 2 month vactions down to a week, or ask them to work for 10 years longer (and 10 more hours a week), or cut health and other social benefits ...?
The point that all of this would take a dramitic seismic shift from the current social and political climates in those countries is not addressed at all in this article. I think they will just start killing the old people because that is alot easier than giving up vacations to the beach. So yeah, I'm rather pessimistic for those countries in question.
Post a Comment
<< Home