Sheila Newman
I wanted to point out an error in one of Caldwell’s statements. He said that “Even countries such as the US that have achieved very high levels of economic development press for even greater population increases …(e.g. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, France, Germany, Italy).
Whilst Caldwell is right about the English speaking settler states (Canada, US, Australia etc), and the UK, which seeded them and gave them the speculative framework of their land planning development and housing system, he is wrong about France and the rest of Western Europe. See my page on the die-off site.
The problem is that most of us only get English language opinion. We are mostly unaware that half of the western world has accepted demographic “decline” and stability and has done so since the 1973 oil crash. This is the subject of a thesis I have just handed in, comparing Australian and French population policies and demographics from 1945 taking into account projections to 2050.
Our media and institutions really keep us English speakers in the dark. Hype about Western Europe seeking vast numbers of immigrants to replace declining populations arise mostly in the USA and are generally found to be laughable in Europe.
Caldwell is right about nearly everything else and certainly about growth economics, but although growth economics depends on population growth in the English speaking settler states, it no longer does in West Europe, although a lot of their industry is exported.
Part of a solution to this problem is getting this message out to inhabitants of the cancerous economies of the English speaking settler states.