“Over the course of the past one hundred years, we humans have grown in population at a rate rarely seen outside of a petri dish.”

I have wondered for some time why there is so little support in our western culture for cutting population growth.  I think I have finally figured it out.   

It is not in the interest of business that their market decreases.  An expanding market is good for business in so many ways.  Think of them.  Housing starts are diminished, pressure for food diminishes so prices will fall, in fact pressures that drive prices up will all fall and the excuse for raising prices disappears.  Well, actually, there is no excuse right now for prices to keep rising as they are.  My guess is that prices rise because they can.  People have gotten used to rising prices and will not protest.  I would advise my grandchildren to go into business so they can maintain their standard of living by pushing the cost of production down onto the consumer.  This is happening all up and down the supply chain until it stops with the consumer.  My pension has gone up this year just over 1% whilst the food I buy has risen around 30% over the last three years.

 

Crowded Planet  2nd Intervue page 11

A CONVERSATION WITH ALAN WEISMAN

Published in the September/October 2013 issue of Orionmagazine

http://littlebrown.com/countdown.html

 

http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/7694