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The Spectacle Blog

Un-reason and Non-reproduction

By Robert Stacy McCain on 2.10.09 @ 12:14AM

Playing off Joe's title, here is the bizarre obverse of that strange coin:

"You think the economy is bad now -- wait a few years... Wait until we're almost completely out of oil and food and water and available land ... we need to lose 4.4 billion people and we need to lose them fast."

That bit of Malthusian gloom from Psychology Today's Steven Kotler got "Quote of the Day" honors at HotAir.com, and illustrates the profound misanthropy of environmentalism, which sees humans only as parasitcal consumers of resources, not as creative producers of wealth. This goes back to economist Julian Simon's famous wager with Paul "Population Bomb" Ehrlich.

In 1989, when I was making $300 a week and living in a roach-infested $250-a-month rental with my wife and our newborn daughter, my father said, "Well, son, if you wait to have children until you can afford to have children, you'll never have children."

Indeed. We've now got six, our oldest is in college, and we still can't afford 'em, LOL.

topics:
Economics, Birth Control

View all comments (7) | Leave a comment

ruth| 2.10.09 @ 2:49AM

Will Steven Kotler volunteer to be first in the 'lose them fast' line? Can I nominate him? There are a few liberal trolls around here I could add to that list, too.

J David| 2.10.09 @ 8:07AM

Rush once quoted one of the country's leading mathematicians, back in the early nineties, as having mathematically figured up the necessary space of two square feet per person for every person on earth taking up a total space of a quarter of Jacksonville. Space and resources would not be a problem for many more people than exist now. The problem is the sin nature of mankind will not let them get along with each other, and will always project those with the least scruples into dictatorship over those with the most congenial, peaceful natures.

JP| 2.10.09 @ 9:37AM

Europe, Japan, Russia, and China are all in trouble. The EU's birthrate is about 1.6 children/couple; but if you remove thier large Islamic minority, it is about 1.4 children/couple. Russia's fertility rate is around 1.3 children/couple, while Japan's is about 1.2 children/couple. China has had a 1 child law since 1978. The US has a birthrate of about 2.2 children/couple -up from a low in the 1970s/80s of 1.8 children.

Do the math. If in 2000 a nation had 100 million people, and had a birthrate of 2.1 children/couple' for 100 years -its population would be 100 million in 2100. At 1.1 children birthrate, the same nation would halve its population every generation. If things continue Europe's population will be down 25% in 2100 from its 2000 numbers; Japan's will be down some 50-70%; ditto for China. The US, like Europe has depended upon immigration to stabalize its population.

It appears our global population will peak somewhere between 2030-2050, and rapidly decrease there after.

What sure concern all economists is the fact that 18 of the 20 richest nations in the world have birthrates below 1.8 children/couple. Eighty-five percent of our world's wealth is tied up in an aging demographic. You cannot have economic growth without people.