March 30th, 2010 by DaveMunger in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, Research, True Stories
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The U.S. is ramping up its decennial census, and a few days ago I received my census form in the mail. Or, perhaps I should say, a census form. It wasn’t really mine at all, because it wasn’t addressed to me. It was addressed to a nearby house that doesn’t get mail delivery.
You see, our street—just two blocks long—has a “north” and “south” portion. My, northern, portion was developed about a decade and a half ago, and for some reason they decided to use the same house numbers as they had on the homes down the street, just with a “north” added to the street name. So there are two homes on the street with the same number—mine and another one about 50 yards away. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Daily Monthly*
March 25th, 2010 by DaveMunger in Better Health Network, Opinion, Research
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I’ve been searching Twitter for “population” and “economics” this month and came across this article on LifeSiteNews.com. The contention: Low population growth is responsible for the current recession. Here’s a snippet:
“With the decline in births, there are fewer young people that productively enter the working world,” Tedeschi explained. At the same time, he said, “there are many more elderly people that leave the system of production and become a cost for the collective,” increasing social welfare costs that a shrinking proportion of taxable young workers will have to sustain.
There’s actually a smidgen of truth to that. In a nation where the population is growing, the young outnumber the old. Where there are “pay as you go” retirement programs like Social Security in the U.S., this places an increasing burden on the working class to support the elderly.
But to say that the current global recession is due to slow population growth disingenuous. China is still doing quite well, even though its population growth has also slowed. The US continues to have relatively rapid population growth, but it’s in a recession just like places where population is stagnating, like Western Europe and Japan. The places world where population is growing fastest are typically highly impoverished. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Daily Monthly*
March 21st, 2010 by DaveMunger in Better Health Network, Opinion, Research, True Stories
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Last summer, my wife Greta and I spent a glorious week with old friends in a lovely home on the coast of Maine, immersed in wilderness and beautiful isolation. Isn’t it just wonderful?
Yet a home like this is completely out of reach for the vast majority of the world’s population, isn’t it? Even if everyone could afford such a place, there simply isn’t enough land on the planet to house everyone in such luxury, right? Maybe not. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Daily Monthly*
March 13th, 2010 by DaveMunger in Better Health Network, Opinion
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Population increases when the birthrate exceeds the death rate, and decreases when the reverse occurs. So what does the world look like when there are too many people?
One way to approach this question is to consider what the limiting factors in population are. When, exactly, does the death rate exceed the birthrate? A key consideration is mortality. If people live shorter lives, the death rate goes up, and population goes down (or at least grows more slowly). What causes mortality to increase? Obviously things like wars, pandemics, and famines have an impact, but economist Robert Fogel argues that these are actually a relatively small part of the global mortality picture. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Daily Monthly*
March 8th, 2010 by DaveMunger in Better Health Network, Research
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When I began work on this month’s project, I contacted a clinician, a case manager, and a scientist to get their perspectives on how we’re making progress fighting HIV and AIDS. I’ve introduced you to the clinician and the case manager, but not the scientist.
Dave Wessner doesn’t actually study AIDS, but he’s written a textbook supplement on HIV and AIDS and teaches a course at Davidson College on the subject. His students have even set up a blog discussing the history and science of HIV and AIDS. He also regularly lectures on the topic. I’ll be attending one of his talks tonight. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Daily Monthly*
