Inequality and the neo-Malthusians

On Wednesday's Nightwaves (BBC Radio 3) there was a fascinating discussion about Malthus and current anxieties of various kinds about "today's crowded world" and the possibility that "the population of poor countries alone will rise by almost three billion in the next 30 years" (and what should "we" do about this?)

Some very refreshing contributions came from Matthew Connelly, a historian from Columbia University - for example:

If the world's food resources were distributed fairly there would be about 4 pounds of food per person, "including 1 lb of meat and dairy products, which would make most of us fat".

... and:

"If the problem is consumption, then of course it's the *wealthiest* people we need fewer of."

Connelly has a new book out:

Fatal Misconception: the struggle to control world population;
Matthew Connelly; Harvard University Press 2008

For a free sample chapter, see:

http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/CONFAT.html


Here's a snippet from the programme that I liked so much, I laboriously transcribed it via the Listen Again facility:

"Too often, alas, population projections are *psychological* projections ... not that there are too many people but that there certain *kinds* of people, with whom we feel uncomfortable, who there are too many of. So when people say the US or the UK for that matter is overpopulated I want to ask them which people in particular they have in mind, who are in and of themselves a problem?

"If the problem is consumption, then of course it's the *wealthiest* people we need fewer of. I mean, Britain would do much better if it had 100 million subsistence farmers, say, than 50 million people who are doctors and lawyers and bankers and so on. It could have much less of a carbon footprint if it imported subsistence farmers from the Sahel, and exported bankers and lawyers to Africa. But nobody is proposing that."

You can hear whole program on line till next Wednesday, here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/nightwaves/pip/0vffr/