Re: Destruction of Wild CP

Michael.Chamberland (23274MJC@MSU.EDU)
Fri, 15 Nov 96 17:24 EST

> > But these homes are needed to house our growing population. People,
> > especially lovers of nature, do not want to live in the overcrowded, bligh
> > cities. They want to live in the country. So homes are built there.
> > Development is beneficial to us. It provides homes and business sites, an
> > it generates revenue.
> > Shopping centers and factories are needed to support our growing economy.
> > Jack Kemp (vice-presidential candidate) strongly emphasized the view that
> > the US economy needs to grow much faster if we are to maintain prosperity
> > in the US.
>
> Hi Little Devil,
>
> Is this true? I keep on hearing how the populations have to
> keep growing to feed the economy. This just doesn't sound quite
> right to me though. Perhaps this is simply not true, is Jack Kemp
> full of it? I mean, it seems that as cities age, they simply
> fall apart and loose their vitality and so we have to keep clearing
> new land to supports cities? Why aren't cities able to be less of
> a drain?
>
> Dave Evans

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