Towards population balance

[Chris Burford <cburford@xxxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opinterview.jsp?id=ns23075

Interesting article and important argument about a stabilisation of the
population of the globe within 100 years.

More detailed argument is about whether fall in fertility rates will stop
at the break even point of 2.1 or continue down. For example the fertility
rate in South Korea is now 1.6

If you believe in some sort of marxian law of value, based on labour power,
this means that in substantial areas of the global economy there will be a
contraction in the total mass of value, whatever monetary units it is
expressed in.

Ecological conflicts would presumably continue and intensify, but a
substantial contraction in the labour force in many parts of the world
would need a lot of social planning to manage, especially as the aging
population would expect substantial use values.

Chris Burford