AOC and Population Control
February 26, 2019The Topic: AOC and Population ControlThe News Story: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: ‘Is it OK to still have children?'The New Research: Roots of Recession In a line that is not today as radical as it once was, New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to her Instagram account over the weekend to ponder on the morality of childbearing. While chopping sweet potatoes and pouring white wine, she reminded her viewers that “Our planet is going to face disaster if we don’t turn this ship around.” Part of the solution may be, she hints, that we consider some level of population control. “And so it’s basically like, there is a scientific consensus that the lives of children are going to be very difficult and it does lead, I think young people, to have a legitimate question. Ya know, should—is it okay to still have children?” But while zealots like AOC have been beating the “population bomb” drum for decades now, research continues to suggest that without an increasing population, mankind’s future looks bleak indeed. (Source: FOX News, “Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: ‘Is it OK to still have children?’” February 26, 2019.) The New Research: Roots of Recession For decades, population-control zealots warned of dire consequences of more babies—famine, poverty, natural disaster, etc. Now, research warns about the social and economic risks of historically low birth rates in many industrialized nations. Two recent studies reflect those concerns. The first of these is the effort of Edward Crenshaw of Ohio State and Kristopher Robison of Northern Illinois University to reintroduce sociological theories as explanations of economic growth. Using pooled time-series analysis of changes in real gross domestic product per capita of more than 100 nations for the years 1970 and 2000, their study finds that population growth is an independent and necessary driver of economic and social development: “The l
Categories:
