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Q & A: Joel Kotkin
How will populations change in the United States over the next 40 years? (05:22)
Produced by: Ryan R. Reed
Interview by: Terence Monmaney
Special Thanks to: Joel Kotkin
Related:
The Changing Demographics of America
The United States population will expand by 100 million over the next 40 years. Is this a reason to worry?
August 2010 |
By Joel Kotkin
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Comments (2)
I watched a couple of Jack's videos. I think there are a couple major problems with his views. First, "stopping the killing" through Rapid Population Decline also implies a lot of killing. While many do not recognize abortion as a form of killing, it clearly is ending a developing human life. He does not necessarily advocate for abortion, but it is one of the logical and popular avenues for halting reproduction. Second, Jack does not address what happens in a population when the supply of younger workers suddenly dries up. This leads to tremendous stresses and conflict as well. How many older people will die as a direct or indirect result of neglect when the state (or few if any offspring) can no longer provide for them? Third, ever shrinking families reduces or eliminates many natural family ties, social bonds, and support systems. In families of only 1 child, that child will have no cousins. With more individuals maturing without children or in broken families, remaining largely focused on self, there is a greater risk of a sense of individual entitlement and less sense of individual responsibility to give or serve others. Neglect of both younger and older generations becomes more likely. Forth, the real problem is probably not population size per se, but is actually embedded in one of Jack's background arguments, namely selfishness and environmental neglect. Instead of abandoning families, maybe we need to learn first to share, and then to passionately pursue both more efficient energy solutions, and learn to do with less so that there is more for all.
Posted by Josh on July 19,2012 | 02:02 AM
How would you know, if the speaker, Joel Kotkin, while having all HIS facts straight, had such an incomplete portion of facts describing reality, that his predictions helped each of us create a horrendous future for our children.
Joel, in his writings, interviews and speeches lauds population increases that will collapse our civilization.
Please take the time to determine whether population increase or decrease produces the future we want for our children.
Jack Alpert
www.skil.org
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTWduFB_RX0
Posted by Jack Alpert on July 12,2010 | 01:24 PM