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Population: A Problem?
| Article
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10730 |
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Section : |
EDITORIAL
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| Issue
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6 / 1993 |
893 Words |
| Author
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Morton A. Kaplan
Editor and Publisher |
The theme in Currents in Modern Thought this month investigates the claim that population growth is an approaching catastrophe. One writer takes this claim seriously; a second sees increasing population as a positive good; and the third sees good and bad arguments in each position that are influenced by the ideological framework of the proponents.
The third position, taken by Donella Meadows, is, I believe, closer to the truth than the other two. Moreover, the admittedly oversimplified red (social democratic), blue (market), white (decentralization of power), and green (environmental) ideological positions that she adumbrates do illuminate the debate over population. Yet, although a judicious mix of the positions may be illuminating in deciding whether population increases are desirable or harmful, one or two may be closer. In any event, the issue can be decided only directly and not through ideological lenses.
For instance, the blues are clearly correct about the power of the market. Argentina was one of the world's most advanced economies until, to use Meadows' terminology, Person's red policies disabled its economy. Africa is a basket case because its intellectual elite destroyed its agriculture and inhibited its industrial development with borrowed red policies. In the case of Africa, even stabilization of the population would have left huge problems, given the disruptive economic policies of the red elite, while an increasing population could have bee absorbed, given sensible economic policies.
Sweden was an exception precisely because it could draw on a superior educational system and a firm work ethic to compensate for its redistributionist policies. However, it has at last begun to lose its work ethic to a degree that is undermining its redistributionism. Like Germany, it has had to draw upon foreign labor to offset the unwillingness of its own population to accept available work. Furthermore, Sweden's establishment of a state-run system in which children are acculturated when both parents work apparently is undermining the psychological stability of these dependents.
Although I do agree that human solidarity does impose important limits on what the market should be permitted to accomplish, I believe social democracy carries these limits destructively far. And, in the end, it is likely to defeat that very solidarity to which the policies respond. Meadows suggests that certain types of production are dysfunctional and should be eliminated or reduced. She may be correct, but sumptuary laws to accomplish this would likely
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