>From joeh@towel.wpd.sgi.com Tue Sep 6 12:51:45 1994 Received: from sgigate.sgi.com (sgigate.SGI.COM [192.82.208.1]) by csf.Colorado.EDU (8.6.9/8.6.9/CNS-3.5) with ESMTP id MAA01523 for ; Tue, 6 Sep 1994 12:51:42 -0600 Received: from relay.sgi.com (relay.sgi.com [192.26.51.36]) by sgigate.sgi.com (940519.SGI.8.6.9/8.6.4) with SMTP id LAA13701; Tue, 6 Sep 1994 11:53:02 -0700 Received: from towel.wpd.sgi.com by relay.sgi.com via SMTP (920330.SGI/920502.SGI) for @sgigate.sgi.com:ppn@csf.colorado.edu id AA08948; Tue, 6 Sep 94 11:52:58 -0700 Received: by towel.wpd.sgi.com (931110.SGI/911001.SGI) for @relay.sgi.com:ppn@csf.colorado.edu id AA08074; Tue, 6 Sep 94 11:52:53 -0700 From: joeh@towel.wpd.sgi.com (Joe Heinrich) Message-Id: <9409061152.ZM8072@towel.wpd.sgi.com> Date: Tue, 6 Sep 1994 11:52:53 -0700 In-Reply-To: Doug Henwood "re: population/fertility" (Sep 6, 7:14) References: Mabell: 415.390.4347 Ddial Xface: FFFF_FFFF_FFFF_FFFF(modulo zed) 64 bits o' black Personal_Life: Virtually Virtuous Mime.Audio: MmmwwoooweeeeEEEoooweeeeeOOOO [makes you feel like you're RIGHT there!] Pabell: 004 000 008dot005 005 009dot008 007 007 000(sub9) Ohhnoooo: It's not poetry, it's Boot PROM code! Oops: Iobject!Iobject! Geek_Alert: I once spoke to Kibo (over e-mail!) X-Mailer: Z-Mail-SGI (3.0S.1026 26oct93 MediaMail) To: Subject: Re: population/fertility Cc: joeh@towel.wpd.sgi.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Mime-Version: 1.0 Doug: On Sep 6, 7:14, Doug Henwood wrote: > Subject: re: population/fertility > > The US is thinly populated by world standards, and our cities are > among the least densely populated in the world - yet we hog resources > like there's no tomorrow. You're conflating two unconnected phenomena: urban population density, and resource use ("hog," to use your malaprop phrase, since "hogging" refers to storage without profitable use, an option not likely to be exercised were there no tomorrow). On the same subject, how do you suggest we address the astronomical overuse of Third World resources at our nation's universities? (RnfrKnya, etc.) > In fact, the very thinness of settlement is a > factor in our irresponsible resource use, as we drive everywhere instead > of walking or using public transit or bicycles as residents of more > thickly settled regions do. A curious, if somewhat baroque, description of the problem. Perhaps we should adopt the Chinese solution, constructing human warehouses like Peking in which only the superrich can afford to drive cars, and we can all start pedalling 45-pound iron bicycles (hmmm, on second thought...) to work through the smog. Or raise taxes on gas to $3/gallon, once again humbling the "underclass" (whatever that is). > Despite a lot of high-sounding rhetoric about > "empowerment of women," I think many US population-suppressors would like > to shift the burden of ecological adjustment onto the poor, and ignore > the stink in our own backyard. "Think" based on what? I "think" there's a lot of knee-jerk thinking going on here, with little statistical basis-in-proof. > > I did some simple regressions last night based on data in the World > Bank's 1994 World Development Report. I'm no statistician, so my > technique may not be shatterproof, but it sure looks like income > distribution plays an important part in the rate of population growth - > specifically countries with small middle classes are likely to have > faster rates of pop growth than those with larger ones (as measured by > the share of income going to the middle 60% of the population). The > middle's share seems more important than the bottom 20%'s share. But of > course the World Bank and the US government punish countries that attempt > income redistribution. Controlling for every other extant variable? --Joe -- Joe "Joe" Heinrich Tales of Silicon Valley {Internal access only, unless you can bust the firewall} Flatland: joeh@sgi.com Rotary dial: 415.390.4347 DTMF:SameAsAbove BLM Locator:Building8Lower SnailMail:MS/535, 2011 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mt. View, CA 94043 Kill all smileys :>