Lessons of Russia's Depopulation Disaster

NewsMax.com ^ | Thursday, Feb. 6, 2003 | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

[dirtboy]

"According to one Professor Antonov, 'Two thirds of Russian territory is settled now as sparsely as it was in the Neolithic Age: less than one person per square kilometer

I'm not quite sure what this is supposed to prove, as many of the Russians living east of the Urals were forced by the Soviets to move there. I would imagine many of them returned back west the first chance they got.

[Aquinasfan]

Too many people in China

There are?

(The Myth of Overpopulation)

[dirtboy]

You are one sick SOB. You're the type of elistist a**wipe Tom Clancy had in mind when he wrote Rainbox Six.

[steve-b]

Paul Ehrlich and Herbert London -- two mirror-image junk scientists with the same phony gloom-n-doom.

[jpl]

Until a hundred years ago there were less than a billion people on earth. I think that was a good thing.

Do you really want to go back to the way the world was 100 years ago?

There is nothing the other billions can do except get in my way and irritate me.

I'm not a lover of big crowds myself, but there are still plenty of places one can go to "get away from it all."

They are surplus population. The whole planet could use a good case of Ebola Zaire.

You've got to be yanking our chains here, because this is starting to sound downright Stalinesque. You are yanking our chains, right?

[steve-b]

According to one Professor Antonov, 'Two thirds of Russian territory is settled now as sparsely as it was in the Neolithic Age: less than one person per square kilometer.

Why wasn't this posted in Breaking News -- AMAZING DISCOVERY: SCIENTIST FIGURES OUT THAT HARDLY ANYBODY WANTS TO LIVE ON ARCTIC TUNDRA!

Sheesh.

[steve-b]

Steyn recommends: "Next time you're in a rundown diner and the 17-year-old waitress is eight months pregnant, don't tut "What a tragedy" and point her to the nearest Planned Parenthood clinic. Leave her a large tip instead. She's doing the right thing, not just for her, but for all of us."

I've already been flamed once on this supposedly conservative forum for pointing out the stupidity of actively rewarding such behavior. I'm not sure if it's because "conservatives" don't think that getting knocked up at 17 is irresponsible, or because they think that personal irresponsibility should be subsidized in general.

[friendly]

The womb is the greatest weapon of mass destruction. The arabs have it, we don't.

We have lots of wombs (imprisoned behind birth control). With proper incentives and authentic pro-family political reforms, those wombs could bear beautiful children.

[John123]

Julian L. Simon had a famous $1000 bet in 1980 with Paul Ehrlich that that five natural resources would fall in price as opposed to rise in price. The theory was that if Paul was right and natural resources are limited and we are all doomed, the prices would rise because of scarcity. However, Paul was dead wrong because every one of the resources had fallen in price ten years later. Julian passed away several years ago but many of his books were publish posthumously. "It's Getting Better All the Time," and "The Ultimate Resource 2" are very good books to keep around the house.

[null and void]

Servant of Nine is a stand up kinda guy.

That being said he does extend into hyperbole.

The human population of the earth will not grow to infinity. It can't. There isn't enough 'there' there for that.

How large is a sustainable population level is an excercise left to the reader. Swervie's happy with a billion. I think it's about right now. How many are you happy with, hmmm?

How it is achieved is either left to forces beyond our control, such as starvation, major natural plagues, or some other yet undiscoverd safety valve, or is left to individual responsibilities, or the global slaughter of a Khan, Stalin, Pot, Hitler, Amin, or Saddam. (See, it's not limited to any specific race, ethnic group, religion, or any political philosophy). Your call...

[texas booster]

Can you update the chart to show which countries are predominantly Moslem?

I count Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Egypt as predominately Moslem. Now we understand a little more of Israel's concerns about the future.

I am amazed that Pakistan and Bangladesh are already as big as Russia, people-wise. I also didn't realize how large Indonesia has become.

[John123]

Mathematically, the population tables shown look logical. There are several factors that are in play here. One, present Americans have the same low childbirths as in Europe. Two, we allow many immigrants which is a good thing because someone is going to have to pay for our Social Security and the freeze in immigration was one of the causes for our Great Depression after 1929. But, since we are pricing ourselves out of the labor market by raising the minimum wage and forcing manufacturing companies to relocate elsewhere, America's power will be facing a serious decline in population and prosperity. China and India are the next superpowers.

[steve-b]

Left to its own devices, the population, like the free market economy, seeks its own proper level. That's a concept that Ehrlich and London (two sides of the same counterfeit coin) just can't grasp.

[null and void]

BINGO!

The question is how. Hard, or easy...

[Tailback]

Exactly, get rid of the marriage penalty and reward MARRIED COUPLES for having children instead of single mothers. This isn't rocket science.

[steve-b]

Barring attempts by the government to "engineer national policy" (i.e. f*** up everything), population will (like most natural phenomena) oscillate around an equilibrium -- people have few children for a while, land and housing get real cheap, people start having more kids, livable regions get annoyingly crowded, people start having fewer kids,... and round and round the cycle goes.

Ehrlich would look at a patient catching a fever and predict spontaneous human combustion. London would look at a patient recovering from a fever and predict a corpsicle.

[null and void]

Exactly, get rid of the marriage penalty and reward MARRIED COUPLES for having children instead of single mothers.

Close. How about governments just getting the heck out of the way?

[null and void]

Barring attempts by the government to "engineer national policy" (i.e. f*** up everything)

They do seem to have that talent...

[VOA]

All I know is that after 9-11, I'm (relatively) happy that my country is being
over-run by Catholic (and increasingly Protestant) Mexicans...than by Muslims.

I'm sure this makes me a bigot in many circles...

[FreedomPoster]

>>Too many people in China + Declining Russian population and excess Russian land = Chinese annexing some Russian land.


I've seen reports here that this is already happening, informally, much as the US Southwest is being "annexed" by Mexicans.