Dan McLaughlin

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To Home Page Latest Newsletter Column Archives Click to get these columns for your local paper	© 2006 Daniel J. McLaughlin 300 Million People, No Problem The United States just passed an historic landmark. The population recently reached 300 million. Isn’t it amazing that just 30-40 years ago, the scientific consensus was that the world was overpopulated and that all countries, including America, would face mass starvation and food wars? What is the current issue that the intellectually arrogant are shoving down our throats? Obesity. Not only is there enough food for all the extra millions of people, but the problem, in their eyes, is too much food. To them, it is obvious that we are not responsible enough to take care of ourselves. We need government to force us to eat properly. In the 1960’s, Paul Ehrlich and population alarmists shouted loudly that government needed to take action to prevent certain catastrophe. In spite of the glaring failure of his predictions, Mr. Ehrlich and his cohorts are still looked upon as heroes by today’s alarmists. To them, all of our problems will be solved if we just let government shape us up and run our lives. It takes a mighty big and powerful government to save us from ourselves. It should be very obvious to anyone with a memory that alarmists use whatever issue is convenient to promote the government machine, with themselves at the controls, of course. A few decades ago, the issues were population explosion, famine, global cooling and the coming ice age caused by mankind. Nowadays, the issues are aging populations, low replacement levels, obesity, global warming and melting ice caps caused by mankind. Change is a fact of life in this world. The earth has never stayed the same. Climate data indicate long term cycles that have recurred way before the possibility of human causes. People who attempt to create a changeless earth and changeless society are not only doomed to failure, but doom the rest of us to the brutal consequences of their irresponsibility. There is a reason why the increase in the population has not caused any strain on the well being of our citizens, even while farmland has decreased and forested areas increased. In spite of growing intervention by government bodies, freedom is still the primary mode of operation in our country. Capitalism runs rampant here and has for much of our history. With capitalism, innovation solves problems in the most effective manner for the greatest number of people. Central planning and lack of capitalism is why the Soviet Union no longer graces the world map. Lack of capitalism is why so many African countries have floundering economies, with destitute people, unwilling child laborers and perennial status of Less Developed Country. It is incredible that the United States has never experienced a famine. Even in the depths of the Great Depression of the 1930’s, the lack of food was caused by the government agricultural policy of destroying millions of tons of crops to keep prices high, while people starved. Famines throughout history often had the element of government working it’s magical ability to get in the way. Capitalism works. It always has since it’s power to enhance the lives of people was first recognized. It’s effectiveness, however, is seriously diminished when intervention reduces the incentives to work and innovate and take risk. While America is primarily free, the capitalist foundations are being chipped away by constant attacks from what can effectively be called “anticapitalists”. An anticapitalist is anyone who, by their words or actions, seeks to dismantle or destroy the foundations of free people and free enterprise. That is not to say that all is fair when it comes to business. By free enterprise, I mean specifically the ability of any individual to do business with anyone else, without coercion by government or any other party. Free enterprise does not mean protecting inefficient producers by hobbling the efficient. It does not mean protecting an industry by punishing the rest of the citizens with tariffs, taxes and regulations. It does not mean flooding the economy with dollars and causing price inflation, or burdening citizens with trillions in government debt. None of these interventions arise from free markets nor capitalism. Population growth is only bad if not accompanied by capitalism and freedom. Bangladesh today and Ireland of the mid 1800’s are great examples of population explosions without capitalism and innovation explosions. People who would kill capitalism in America would be choosing to inflict Mr. Ehrlich’s famine and destitution on millions of people, as Lenin and Stalin did not so long ago. Please, let them rest in peace.
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Daniel Mclaughlin Copyright © 2006 [Daniel McLaughlin]. All rights reserved. Revised: 03/18/08

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300 Million People, No Problem

The United States just passed an historic landmark. The population recently reached 300 million. Isn’t it amazing that just 30-40 years ago, the scientific consensus was that the world was overpopulated and that all countries, including America, would face mass starvation and food wars?

What is the current issue that the intellectually arrogant are shoving down our throats? Obesity. Not only is there enough food for all the extra millions of people, but the problem, in their eyes, is too much food. To them, it is obvious that we are not responsible enough to take care of ourselves. We need government to force us to eat properly. In the 1960’s, Paul Ehrlich and population alarmists shouted loudly that government needed to take action to prevent certain catastrophe. In spite of the glaring failure of his predictions, Mr. Ehrlich and his cohorts are still looked upon as heroes by today’s alarmists. To them, all of our problems will be solved if we just let government shape us up and run our lives. It takes a mighty big and powerful government to save us from ourselves.

It should be very obvious to anyone with a memory that alarmists use whatever issue is convenient to promote the government machine, with themselves at the controls, of course. A few decades ago, the issues were population explosion, famine, global cooling and the coming ice age caused by mankind. Nowadays, the issues are aging populations, low replacement levels, obesity, global warming and melting ice caps caused by mankind.

Change is a fact of life in this world. The earth has never stayed the same. Climate data indicate long term cycles that have recurred way before the possibility of human causes. People who attempt to create a changeless earth and changeless society are not only doomed to failure, but doom the rest of us to the brutal consequences of their irresponsibility.

There is a reason why the increase in the population has not caused any strain on the well being of our citizens, even while farmland has decreased and forested areas increased. In spite of growing intervention by government bodies, freedom is still the primary mode of operation in our country.

Capitalism runs rampant here and has for much of our history. With capitalism, innovation solves problems in the most effective manner for the greatest number of people. Central planning and lack of capitalism is why the Soviet Union no longer graces the world map. Lack of capitalism is why so many African countries have floundering economies, with destitute people, unwilling child laborers and perennial status of Less Developed Country.

It is incredible that the United States has never experienced a famine. Even in the depths of the Great Depression of the 1930’s, the lack of food was caused by the government agricultural policy of destroying millions of tons of crops to keep prices high, while people starved. Famines throughout history often had the element of government working it’s magical ability to get in the way.

Capitalism works. It always has since it’s power to enhance the lives of people was first recognized. It’s effectiveness, however, is seriously diminished when intervention reduces the incentives to work and innovate and take risk. While America is primarily free, the capitalist foundations are being chipped away by constant attacks from what can effectively be called “anticapitalists”. An anticapitalist is anyone who, by their words or actions, seeks to dismantle or destroy the foundations of free people and free enterprise.

That is not to say that all is fair when it comes to business. By free enterprise, I mean specifically the ability of any individual to do business with anyone else, without coercion by government or any other party. Free enterprise does not mean protecting inefficient producers by hobbling the efficient. It does not mean protecting an industry by punishing the rest of the citizens with tariffs, taxes and regulations. It does not mean flooding the economy with dollars and causing price inflation, or burdening citizens with trillions in government debt. None of these interventions arise from free markets nor capitalism.

Population growth is only bad if not accompanied by capitalism and freedom. Bangladesh today and Ireland of the mid 1800’s are great examples of population explosions without capitalism and innovation explosions. People who would kill capitalism in America would be choosing to inflict Mr. Ehrlich’s famine and destitution on millions of people, as Lenin and Stalin did not so long ago. Please, let them rest in peace.

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