Free Republic

To understand Gaza, you must understand what a welfare state on steroids looks like. This is a state that produces nothing, living only on the largesse of others. To hide this destructive parasitism, it has not only actual “workers” but also “idle workers,” a term I borrow from the Talmud. The former work and get value for their wages; the latter happily do little or nothing and get the same or lower wages. Those in the second category think they’re getting money for nothing, but they could not be more wrong—and Gaza is Exhibit A. Now let’s attend to the...

Humanity has never had it better.Especially the couple of billion lucky folks who live in the United States and Canada, Western Europe, and East Asia (including, now, much of China).The details of the miracle that is modern life are worth repeating, since they are the water we swim in and easy to forget.Deaths in childbirth and childhood are nearly nonexistent. People live longer than ever and can expect to be (physically) healthy into their seventies, not stooped by hard farm, industrial, or household labor. War and conscription have largely ended. In Europe and East Asia, all deaths of violence are...

The most important thing to know is that London is 15% Muslim. That’s far from a majority, but Muslims need a lot of what the Nazis used to call “Lebensraum”—that is, territory where they dominate the local population. Flexing their muscles, they act as if 15% is a majority and the general population, made ignorant by leftism and scared by the threat of jihad, accepts its status as a minority. If you understand these principles, you will appreciate the different approaches the London police have to things that call for Jewish genocide (that’s fine) and things that offend Muslim sensibilities...

For 99.9% of Homo sapiens‘ 250,000 years on planet Earth, our population has remained below one billion individuals, and for much of that time, our species’ growth curve was relatively flat.Since 1800, however, the human population has exponentially ballooned to 8.1 billion from just under one billion. We now occupy almost all parts of the globe and ravenously consume resources beyond what Earth can sustainably provide for the long term.As eminent ecologist William E. Rees argues in an ominous new paper, this is a recipe for impending disaster.Boom and bust cyclesFor 40 years, Rees taught at the University of British...

The number of Florida bears has skyrocketed. The bear population was estimated at 300-500 in 1974. Black bear hunting was banned in Florida in 1994 when the population was estimated at 1280 to 1290. In 1998, the population was estimated at 1500. According to the tampabay.com, there were 2,000 to 2,500 bears in 2006. In a 2015 bear hunt, a meager 304 bears were harvested. In 2016, the population was estimated at 4,350 bears. No study has been done to estimate the bear population since then.Bears are very adaptable. There remains considerable habitat for bears to populate in Florida in...

Renowned geopolitical analyst Peter Zeihan recently made a startling prediction during an interview with commentator Joe Rogan. Zeihan believes that China's collapse is imminent, with only 10 years remaining before potential disaster. The crux of his prediction lies in his assertion that China has misrepresented its population numbers, leading him to estimate that the country's actual population is lower by 100 million than what the government has officially reported. "This is their last decade," Zeihan said of China. When Rogan clarified by asking, So, you're saying that China has 10 years to go?" His response was, "At most." Some argue...

Florida and Idaho are America's fastest-growing states, according to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau. Their populations increased by 1.9 percent and 1.8 percent, respectively, causing them to rise to 22.2 million and 1.9 million from July 2021 to June 2022.The two are followed by South Carolina, Texas and South Dakota. While Texas is seeing both a high number of births and high levels of national and international migration, domestic movement of people has been a major factor for Idaho, South Carolina and South Dakota to achieve population growth. In Florida, the state with the largest net birth deficit,...

Most of the world’s population today lives in countries facing critical water security issues.Dealing with issues such as declining freshwater availability, demand from growing populations, insufficient infrastructure, or flawed water governance can impact how easily a country’s population can access water. A combination of multiple factors quickly makes problems with water security a lived reality.As Visual Capitalist's Freny Fernandes illustrates below, a recent Global Water Security Report by the United Nations University assessed the water security of different countries across the world.MethodologyThis study assesses water security in countries by examining 10 different underlying components, ranging from water quality and sanitation...

Just as Japan saw a substantial increase in foreign residents in 2022, it also registered a decline in its native population of approximately 800,000 people, marking the biggest drop on the country’s record. According to the report, the local population has dropped by 0.65%, leaving the total number of Japanese nationals at 122.4 million for the year 2022. This also marks the 14th consecutive year of the population’s decline. More foreign residents: The government data also highlighted the 10.7% increase in the number of foreign residents, reaching an all-time high of nearly 3 million people. The notable surge in foreign...

Japan’s population crisis is accelerating, with the number of nationals falling by more than 800,000 in the past year – echoing similar trends seen in other East Asian countries. As of January 1 this year, Japan’s total population stood at 125.4 million, including both Japanese and foreign residents, according to data released on Wednesday by Japan’s internal affairs ministry. The number of foreign residents rose by nearly 289,500 compared to the previous year – a significant increase of more than 10%. But the number of Japanese residents shrank by 800,523, marking the 14th consecutive year of contraction since a peak...

Population Control and Official USG Policy (Jul 25, 2023) referenced NSSM-200 The Kissinger Report (June 8, 1973)Personally, I have been reluctant to wander down the rabbit hole relating to various “depopulation agenda” theories involving the COVID crisis. However, the odd concordance between a possible population reduction objective and the dysfunctional “public health” policies is obvious to all open minded thinkers. These policies include that the biologically engineered SARS-CoV-2 virus, the many “public health” policies, as well as the rushed gene therapy-based COVID “vaccines” and their wide range of associated- but rigorously denied - “serious adverse events” (not the least of...

Vice President Kamala Harris made a verbal slip on Friday that fed a frenzy of conspiracy theories, after she spoke of the need to 'reduce population' instead of pollution. 'When we invest in clean energy and electric vehicles and reduce population, more of our children can breathe clean air and drink clean water,' Harris said during a speech in Baltimore on combatting climate change. The White House official transcript of the remarks corrected the obvious error, crossing out the word 'population' and adding 'pollution' in brackets to indicate what Harris intended to say.

WHAT DID THE VP JUST SAY? KAMALA HARRIS: “When we invest in clean energy and electric vehicles and reduce population, more of our children can breath clean air and drink clean water.” Did she mean "reduce pollution"?? If so, what a Freudian slip!! ... The way to destroy everything is through Malthusian population control. More people mean more solutions and innovation. But apparently your leaders want another Dark Age. Hide yo kids! ... White House doing damage control after Kamala Harris says the quiet part out loud

The point at which Latinos would outnumber white residents to make up the biggest share of the Texas population has been on the state’s demographic horizon for years. It seemed that long-awaited milestone was reached in 2021 when a closely watched data release last year was the first to reflect the culmination of decades of transformative growth. But confirmation did not come until this week, when the U.S. Census Bureau updated its official population estimates. In new figures released Thursday, the bureau confirmed Latinos have made up the largest share of the state’s population since at least July 2022. The...

San Francisco lost a higher percentage of residents during the pandemic between the ages of 25 and 29 than any other population group, followed closely by residents between the ages of 30 and 34, Census data show. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the city’s biggest percentage losses were among the age cohort that makes up the bulk of entry-level jobs — and that is also responsible for starting young families: Newly-released U.S. census data shows that the city’s biggest population losses from 2020 to 2022 came from residents in their late 20s and early 30s. The data shows that...

During a portion of an interview with the Fox News Channel aired on Monday’s broadcast of “Hannity,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) responded to California’s net population loss by stating that it was an anomaly, other states lost population, California is doing just fine, and that there was greater per capita migration from Florida to California than vice versa. Newsom said, “18 states had declines in population. California’s was 0.3%. You didn’t bring up any of the red states that had [declines in population]. It’s an interesting fact…an interesting omitted fact, per capita, more Floridians moved to California than Californians...

Without unrestricted immigration, nations like the United States cannot survive unless women have about 2.1 children each (the .1 reflects women who do not have children). The bad news is that the U.S. is falling short in reproducing itself. Occasional exceptions such as the Baby Boom aside, U.S. fertility rates have dropped over the last two centuries and show no sign of rising to the 2.1 replacement level. We are currently at 1.6.The baby shortfall has huge consequences beyond potentially filling the nation with immigrants. An aging population brings higher healthcare costs, budgets devoured by pensions, shrinking tax bases, labor...

Very interesting projection.

One of the most astonishing things about the mass flight from blue states is just how blase the ruling leftists are about it. There's no crisis, there's nothing to see here. This, as they seek ever greater heights of national power.The Wall Street Journal's editorial page has an excellent non-subscription piece on just how bad it's gotten:Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker shrugged last year after several high-profile corporations left his state. “Countless companies are choosing Illinois as their home,” Mr. Pritzker said. Then why does a new Internal Revenue Service report show an accelerating taxpayer exodus from Illinois and other high-tax...

The UN recently announced that India will become the most populous country in the world, surpassing China by the middle of this year. That’s only the tip of the iceberg in a massive global shift in population that will alter the balance of world power in the next 30 years.China lost population last year for the first time in six decades. As Axios reports, China will eventually end up in the same boat as Japan — an aging population with a workforce insufficiently large to care for it.China will increasingly face a similar challenge to Japan — where the population...