Why Is Population Growth Seldom Discussed?

[Jim Lane]

182. If you refer to a "so-called population problem" then we're probably not saying the same thing.

First, you continue to focus on the Third World. Your posts upthread indicate that you think the United States doesn't have a population problem. You're wrong. Population issues go beyond current rates of growth. The United States, at its current level of population, is overpopulated. The world as a whole, at its current level of population, is overpopulated.

You're right that, in sub-Saharan Africa and other places with high birth rates, higher standards of living will tend to reduce birth rates. So is it a solution to envision bringing the rest of the world up to the U.S. standard of living, in the hope that, along with other factors such as overcoming religious barriers to reproductive rights, the result will be population stabilization? No, it isn't. The current world population is unsustainable because of consumption of nonrenewable resources and other impacts on the ecosystem. Because of our higher standard of living, we in the U.S. contribute disproportionately to that aspect of the problem. If other countries are brought up to our standard of living while each country's population remains the same (i.e., with unrealistically immediate and complete population stabilization), then the world will hit the point of catastrophe that much more quickly.

As to your final paragraph, I'm not sure what you're getting at. If you mean that an expressed concern about population issues is sometimes a cover for xenophobia or racism, I agree, but those people are a small minority. There are many of us who sincerely believe that there's a real problem here.