The “Grim” Milestone

Mark Steyn writes another classic in the Chicago Sun-Times today. His topic is the "grim milestone" of the United States reaching a population of 300 million. Well, it certainly is grim for certain people. Or at least an excuse (as if they need another excuse) to wax apocalyptic on the true meaning of the US reaching that population mark.

Last Tuesday morning, in a maternity ward somewhere in the United States, the 300 millionth American arrived. He or she got a marginally warmer welcome than Mark Foley turning up to hand out the prizes at junior high. One could have predicted the appalled editorials from European newspapers aghast at yet another addition to the swollen cohort of excess Americans consuming ever more of the planet's dwindling resources. And, when Canada's National Post announced "'Frightening' Surge Brings US To 300m People," you can appreciate their terror: the millions of Democrats who declared they were moving north after Bush's re-election must have placed incredible strain on Canada's highways, schools, trauma counselors, etc.

But the wee bairn might have expected a warmer welcome from his or her compatriots. Alas not. "Three hundred million seems to be greeted more with hand-wringing ambivalence than chest-thumping pride," observed the Washington Post, which inclines toward the former even on the best of days. No chest-thumping up in Vermont, either. "Organizations such as the Shelburne-based Population Media Center are marking the 300 million milestone with renewed warnings that world population growth is unsustainable," reported the Burlington Free Press. Across the country, the grim milestone prompted this reaction from a somber Dowell Myers. "At 300 million," noted the professor of urban planning and demography at the University of Southern California, "we are beginning to be crushed under the weight of our own quality-of-life degradation."

Steyn takes exception to this kind of reasoning. The US is still growing demographically, unlike Europe which is dying off rapidly. Too many in Europe have bought into the myth of "unsustainable growth". That old "population bomb" ticking away. As a result Europe is declining at the same time the ostriches have turned a blind eye to what is happening to them. This seems to be the day for a lot of "must reads", doesn't it?

Of course, Steyn usually is a must read.