29 August 2008

Quick book review (sorta): America Alone, Mark Steyn

Okay, I'm not exactly done it yet, I've just started, but I ran into an issue (and some of my friends will recognize this) that I often talk about.

To paraphrase the beginning of his first chapter - to have a stable population, one that neither grows nor shrinks, a country's birth rate needs to be 2.1. For a growing population, it needs to be 2.6.

Current worldwide birth rates? Well, when Mr Steyn wrote the book, which was in 2006, the United States of America had a birth rate of about 2.1, give or take. Okay, that's not catastrophic. Canada had 1.48. Europe - 1.38. Japan - 1.32. Russia - 1.14. Spain, as an extreme example, has a population that is being cut in half EVERY THIRTY-FIVE YEARS.

So, a big army is useful until about fifty years later when all your soldiers have died and they failed to have enough kids to take their places. And the offensive forces (read: Middle-Eastern...and I bite my tongue...) are coming out with families of eight and ten children each. Admittedly I don't know this for sure, but I don't think it's far off the mark.

To quote from the book -

"But sure, go ahead and worry about 'climate change'."

No more to be said there, really.

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