John Ibbitson

The authors are Canadian white male journalists, who seem to think that they understand some history and social science. They seem to think that their globe-trotting has given them real insight, too.

But the purported point of the book, that the fertility rate and the birth rate (which they admit to using as interchangeable terms) are falling, is a straw man fallacy. Yes, it's true that the number of humans on the planet is soon to plateau and then fall. Yes, that's going to take some adjustment. Anybody who is paying attention already knows that.

But it's undeniably a *good* thing! We are *already* far too many. Consider the authors' proposal that, to be green, we should all move to the cities, (and apparently) let the robots do the farming. Because then we can heat our homes more efficiently, as we'll share walls with our neighbors. Um, what about cooling our homes? What about our mental health due to nature deprivation and due to crowding? Of course 'gentleman farmers' and 'commuters' are less 'green' but the solution is not to have bigger cities, it's to have a lower population!

We need more people who keep buying stuff to keep the economy moving?! Wtf! No! Stuff is what is not green. We need to accept that eventually we will have a lower population and that our society will look much different than it does today. Either we'll make the adjustments ourselves as we go along, or plagues will help hasten our decline and make the adjustments more difficult.

My proposals to ease the adjustment include 1. easing the labor shortage in low-skilled work by having fewer franchises... eg we don't need eleven fast-food restaurants in a town of 30K. 2. raising the retirement age to match what longevity it was intended to reflect. 3. letting people choose their time of exit.* Oh, and getting more people to read speculative fiction to stretch their imaginations as to what kind of future they might be able to help shape, or at least expect to possibly share.

Anyway, to the book. I do admit that I did not read every word. I got to p. 63, trying really hard to find actual insights. And I read the epilogue. And I read the index, following the few leads that suggested that they'd point to something notable (they didn't), and noticing lack of mention of labor shortage, or racism, or much of anything else. And of course Covid's changed a heck of a lot and will absolutely continue to do so.

It does seem that the real purpose of the book is to persuade governments, especially those of countries like Japan and those in western Europe with rapidly aging populations, to welcome more immigrants and refugees. Of course I agree completely with them on this one. What made America great? Lots and lots of "huddled masses" of course.

But stupid statements like "progress only goes in one direction" just frustrate me. Look at the elimination of all but one abortion clinic in Missouri, and the attempts to overturn Roe v. Wade in Texas. Or "7 billion? We're chugging along with that number right now."

And on pp.61-2 there's a discussion of France v. Germany, ending with the statement that "Reduced fertility can be a mortal threat to national security." Implied, but tactfully left unsaid, is the suggestion that we have more babies so they'll grow up to be soldiers. Argh! Again, I say, better to work on adjusting a smaller population of humans to be less interested in war! **

*eg everyone in my family and most of my doctors know that nursing homes are bad places, even the more expensive ones, and sitting around in them waiting for mercy is a miserable experience all around. Kevorkian was def. on the right track.

**Note that this was published before Putin's invasion of the Ukraine. I sort of wonder what they say to that. Anyway, what I say is that it seems likely that if the Russian people were healthier and better educated and less impoverished they wouldn't have let Putin become powerful enough to do this.
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tldr: I really wanted it to be an enlightening book, but the authors' limited understandings and perspectives made it just about worthless to me, and, I suspect, to most of you. I suspect that the high ratings from some of my GR friends are due to those friends believing that other people need to read it. I will move on to science books about the anthropocene and about a post-human planet. If I can find any by scientists.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/aug/16/the-best-books-about-the-post-huma...

March 2022… (more)

This is a wonderful volume that covers the biographies of two of Canada's most memorable prime ministers. Ibbitson, one of Canada's most important journalists presents the biographies in separate chapters that cover roughly the same time periods which illustrates how what was happening in Canada & the world influenced the development of the two men's beliefs and attitudes.

Having developed my political beliefs and attitudes during the 1960's when these two men dominated Canada's government, this book was a nostalgic visit to my youth. Even though I lived through the period and have read biographies of both men, Ibbitson reveal some stories and issues I had not seen before. Great fun for the political and history junkie.… (more)