Dave, I think the population keeps growing because of human fecundity and
opposition to, or ignorance of, family planning and lack of education about
population. But yes, I've heard Ray Suarez (spelling?) on NPR mention that
some argue we should "grow our population" of young people to help support
the Medicare system and balance the proportion of young to old people in
the US. (Ray was not advocating this, only relaying the idea).
The resonse was "we shouldn't grow our population to "solve" our population
problem" and with that I agree. I think the overpopulation problem is
more significant than these temporary problems with funding Medicare.
Ray has pleanty to say about cities too, since he's writing a book on
suburbanization and abandonment of cities. The good side of the city
phenomenon is many cities are redeveloping their downtown districts
(taking advantage of those fancy old stone buildings) and turning
these areas into classy spots to live and shop. This is even being attempted
in Detroit through the development of "Renaissance zones" (though Michigan's
capitol city, Lansing, remains a crumbling shell of a rustbelt city...
everyone with bucks has moved to the Okemos suburbs). But I digress...
This is fine for people who want to live in cities (like me!). But many
people (including many retirees?) want to live in the country, or at least
in scenic suburbs. And so suburban spraw continues, as can be seen all
around Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona. Unfortuately, love of the country or
"the wilds", coupled with a desire to live there, results in development and
destruction of those wild spots.
Michael Chamberland