Way Too Many People
by Charley Reese
King Features Syndicate (October 27 2006)
The US population is now 300 million. That's 150 million too many, as far as I'm concerned. I don't care for crowds. With that large a base, the population will be 400 million in about 37 years. It suits me fine that I won't be around to see the mess and chaos that will create.
If you think we have environmental and social problems now, just wait for what's coming. Other than learning Spanish and possibly Chinese, there is nothing we can do about it. The damage is done. Political apathy and greed for cheap labor have left our borders wide open for far too long, and still there is no political will to close them.
I notice the heads-in-the-clouds types are saying we've learned to live in an efficient and scientific manner, and everything will be OK. If you believe that, you should go back to the 1930s and read all those rosy predictions about the wonderful future - none of which came true. Instead of futuristic cities, science gave us Nagasaki, Hiroshima and Dresden. Sixty-two years later, many of our cities are beginning to resemble those in Third World countries. The whole world is becoming a gigantic urban slum.
We're not getting smarter as a nation, we are getting dumber. Look at the political numskulls we elect to public office. Look at the trash we consume as entertainment. Look at the low academic scores. We are producing college graduates who can't spell or use English grammar correctly. We are producing college graduates who are as ignorant of history, geography, philosophy and economics as any farm laborer.
It's a mystery to me how some Americans can endure sixteen years of formal education and know so little. I suspect it is a lack of interest, or to be more specific, a very narrow range of interests. They want to get their sheepskin as a ticket into the job market. But knowledge, per se, is of little interest to them. Well, at least they have football and basketball teams to cheer for.
The only country that appears to live in an efficient and scientific manner is Japan, but then Japan produces engineers and scientists, and we produce the world's largest collection of lawyers. I once advocated locating our intercontinental ballistic missiles on law-school campuses. That way, I figured, a nuclear war wouldn't be all bad.
I don't mean to sound like one half of the Brothers Gloom, but we do have some serious problems. The federal government, for example, is $3.5 trillion in debt, and its only source of money is our sweat and labor. The trade deficits continue at a record pace, and that will eventually put us in the position of a Third World country - exporting raw materials and importing value-added manufactured items. That's not the way to improve the standard of living.
And more people will add to the environmental damage. Almost any environmental problem you can think of can be traced back to a single cause - too many people. People pollute. People consume natural resources. The more people, the more consumption and the more pollution - that's the law of the urban jungle.
Of course, almost any human problem can be solved, but not by lawyers and party-goers. To solve these problems will require a disciplined, smart and well-educated population that recognizes neither hedonism nor materialism can sustain a nation. It also requires unity of purpose, and that will be difficult to achieve with lowlife politicians and media demagogues playing ethnic and racial politics. The only thing you can say for sure about our future is that it will be interesting.
_____
Write to Charley Reese at Post Office Box 2446, Orlando, Florida 32802
Copyright (c) 2006 by King Features Syndicate
http://reese.king-online.com/Reese_20061027/index.php
Bill Totten http://www.ashisuto.co.jp/english/index.html
King Features Syndicate (October 27 2006)
The US population is now 300 million. That's 150 million too many, as far as I'm concerned. I don't care for crowds. With that large a base, the population will be 400 million in about 37 years. It suits me fine that I won't be around to see the mess and chaos that will create.
If you think we have environmental and social problems now, just wait for what's coming. Other than learning Spanish and possibly Chinese, there is nothing we can do about it. The damage is done. Political apathy and greed for cheap labor have left our borders wide open for far too long, and still there is no political will to close them.
I notice the heads-in-the-clouds types are saying we've learned to live in an efficient and scientific manner, and everything will be OK. If you believe that, you should go back to the 1930s and read all those rosy predictions about the wonderful future - none of which came true. Instead of futuristic cities, science gave us Nagasaki, Hiroshima and Dresden. Sixty-two years later, many of our cities are beginning to resemble those in Third World countries. The whole world is becoming a gigantic urban slum.
We're not getting smarter as a nation, we are getting dumber. Look at the political numskulls we elect to public office. Look at the trash we consume as entertainment. Look at the low academic scores. We are producing college graduates who can't spell or use English grammar correctly. We are producing college graduates who are as ignorant of history, geography, philosophy and economics as any farm laborer.
It's a mystery to me how some Americans can endure sixteen years of formal education and know so little. I suspect it is a lack of interest, or to be more specific, a very narrow range of interests. They want to get their sheepskin as a ticket into the job market. But knowledge, per se, is of little interest to them. Well, at least they have football and basketball teams to cheer for.
The only country that appears to live in an efficient and scientific manner is Japan, but then Japan produces engineers and scientists, and we produce the world's largest collection of lawyers. I once advocated locating our intercontinental ballistic missiles on law-school campuses. That way, I figured, a nuclear war wouldn't be all bad.
I don't mean to sound like one half of the Brothers Gloom, but we do have some serious problems. The federal government, for example, is $3.5 trillion in debt, and its only source of money is our sweat and labor. The trade deficits continue at a record pace, and that will eventually put us in the position of a Third World country - exporting raw materials and importing value-added manufactured items. That's not the way to improve the standard of living.
And more people will add to the environmental damage. Almost any environmental problem you can think of can be traced back to a single cause - too many people. People pollute. People consume natural resources. The more people, the more consumption and the more pollution - that's the law of the urban jungle.
Of course, almost any human problem can be solved, but not by lawyers and party-goers. To solve these problems will require a disciplined, smart and well-educated population that recognizes neither hedonism nor materialism can sustain a nation. It also requires unity of purpose, and that will be difficult to achieve with lowlife politicians and media demagogues playing ethnic and racial politics. The only thing you can say for sure about our future is that it will be interesting.
_____
Write to Charley Reese at Post Office Box 2446, Orlando, Florida 32802
Copyright (c) 2006 by King Features Syndicate
http://reese.king-online.com/Reese_20061027/index.php
Bill Totten http://www.ashisuto.co.jp/english/index.html
posted by Bill Totten at
10:19 AM
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