Why Is Population Growth Seldom Discussed?

[Warren DeMontague]

197. Anyone can throw numbers out and claim them as authoritative.

170% of all statistics on the internet are made up on the spot, remember.

I doubt that whoever said authoritatively that "the biosphere can ONLY sustain 3 billion people" has much to go on other than they read it somewhere. I was active in the Rainforest Action Network in the 80s, and it was an eye-opening experience. Not just because the rainforest is important, but if I had 10 bucks for every person who quoted me with breathless, earnest authority, this line about how "The biosphere of planet Earth WILL NOT be able to sustain any life more advanced than a cockroach, by the year 2000".

Where did it come from? I don't know. Someone made it up, and must have written it somewhere, and allofasudden it was a fact. But as you can see, here we are in 2015 and while we have problems, we aren't only cockroaches.

My point above is, yes, population growth rates have managed themselves, so to imply that they are a direct function of the economy is incorrect. I agree with you about immigration, which is why despite people on all sides ostensibly wanting to "do something" about it- people in our party wanting to grant folks rights and citizenship, teabaggers wanting mass deportations- big business LIKES having lots of cheap labor from people in undocumented limbo, that they don't have to pay bennies to.

But that is an intrinsic exploitation that could (and should) be dealt with, just as other excesses of capitalism have been dealt with in the past; child labor and the like.

US population growth is from immigration, primarily, but I don't think our entire economic system depends on it.