So much for small is beautiful

A couple of years ago Australia's Howard government had Treasurer Peter Costello out there "warning" that if demographic trends continued, Australia's population would halve by natural attrition by 2050 and the people should make a point of having three kids, "one for mum, one for dad and one for the country".

Apart from sounding creepily like other totalitarian governments of the past, and ignoring the reality that mum and dad had to work every hour available just to put a roof over their heads with no suggestion that "the country" would be practically supportive (state supported child care being yet another anathema to these right wingers) the reality of Australia already being grossly overpopulated never hit the agenda.

Now the Japanese are doing the same. Tired workers urged to go home and multiply.

JAPAN'S workers are being urged to switch off their laptops, go home early and use what little energy they have left on procreation, in an attempt to avert demographic disaster.

The drive to persuade employers that their staff would be better off at home than staying late at the office comes as health experts warn many couples are simply too tired to have sex. A survey of married couples under 50 found that more than a third had not had sex in the previous month. A study by Durex found the average couple has sex 45 times a year, less than half the global average of 103 times.

Japan's birth rate of 1.34 is among the lowest in the world and falls well short of the 2.07 children needed to keep the population stable.

If it persists, demographers say, the population will drop from its peak of 127.7 million in 2006 to 95 million by 2050.

If we are to have a sustainable tenancy on this planet, we are all going to have to face the facts that we cannot sustain our current consumption of finite resources and destruction of renewable ones. It makes perfect sense for island nations, especially those with high consumption patterns, to lead the way in reducing population and building the economic models that enable us to deal with those falling populations.

It wont be easy, especially for those indoctrinated into the yeast culture of breed or die. But unless we find new ways to deal with our impact on the planet, we are pretty close to the planet starting to impact on us.

Australia, NZ, Japan, all have the golden opportunity, what's the bet we throw it away in the isnane chase to have the most toys at the end?

Comments

[Saltation]

>Treasurer Peter Costello out there "warning" that if demographic trends continued, Australia's population would halve by natural attrition by 2050

are you as bemused as i am by the raw expression of simple-minded genetic drive that so often drives public writers to warn of the dread-ful peril of reducing population? it is no more than the genes writ large, roaring their primal need to live.

[Saltation]

alternatively expressed:
more living room, reduced pressure on under-invested public facilities (sewerage, roads, electricity, etc), reduced pressure on known-exhausting needful resources such as food and extractable minerals.
equivalent or superior wealth per-capita, due to technology improvements, even assuming no change in technology from today.

most people would describe this more toward the Eden end of the spectrum than the Hell end.

[Earl Mardle]

Hi Sal.

Not so much bemused as scared witless. If it was some semi-sane loon preaching on a street corner I would give him a wide berth and hope that his meds kicked in soon, but these are the people making decisions for all of us.

Even scarier, the voters keep putting them back in rather than having them put away and taken care of till the brain farts slow down and give way to the beatific smile and silence.

[Saltation]

yeah, but the scarier thing is: it's a worldwide syndrome.

intermittently, you see EXACTLY the same come out of brit, german, japanese, american, russian, etc pollies.

it's DNA-level, i reckon

[Earl Mardle]

So what is the answer. You have said you think the underpinnings are sound, yet the steering is in the hands of nutters.

So, for the common bod hanging on by the skin of their teeth, what is a rational strategy?

[Saltation]

shoot anyone who wants to lead the country

[Saltation]

shoot anyone who feels a burning need for the country to HEAR THEIR VOICE

[Earl Mardle]

heh

Unlike bloggers who merely want the world to hear their voice but whose leadership ambitions are ...

What exactly?

[sandy]

...and yet gays and lesbians cannot adopt. Wouldn't that be a way, small as it may seem statistically, to increase the population? Do they have to pop out of an Australian vagina to count? Don't get me wrong, I'm the happy stepfather of an 11 y/o (albeit with rights that are as yet largely unprotected), but I'm all for reduced population growth. This baby bonus thing is for the birds.