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June 28, 2005
Managed Decline
Mark Steyn on Euroshrinkage:
Every day you get ever more poignant glimpses of the Euro-future, such as it is. In East Germany, whose rural communities are dying, village sewer systems are having a tough time adjusting to the lack of use. Populations have fallen so dramatically that there are too few people flushing to keep the flow of waste moving. Traditionally, government infrastructure expenditure arises from increased demand. In this case, the sewer lines are having to be narrowed at great cost in order to cope with dramatically decreased demand.
I've got to find the source for that -- not that I don't believe it, but I haven't seen it in print, myself. Steyn is writing about the need for managed decline in Europe. I wonder how long it will take for the reality of population shrinkage to settle into Conventional Wisdom? I was amused to see that these Colleges' library has the latest Ehrlich prognostication on the new book browsing shelves. Russia has already shifted from "not growing" to "shrinking," and it won't be long for Italy and Spain (though Italy, at least, is beggining to have real immigration -- yay, Chinese food in Italy! There will someday be some interesting fusion opportunities there).
Posted by CrankyProfessor at June 28, 2005 8:53 AM