| Do You Really Want 'Growth' in Your Town?
by Renee Kjartan
"Growth is good." "Growth brings jobs." These truisms are debunked in a
recent article in The Reporter, organ of the group Population
Connection, in which author Edwin Stennett discusses some of the main
points in his book, In Growth We Trust.
1) Is it good for a community to try to bring in new businesses and
jobs? Stennett says few local residents benefit, because four out of
five new jobs go to out-of-towners who otherwise would live elsewhere.
"These new workers bring their cars, which need more roads, and their
children, who need more teachers, and their housing needs, which lead to
more development and further urbanization of the area." In the end, he
says, the jobless rate stays about the same.
2) Will "smart growth" preserve open space? He argues that if each
resident consumes less space (a premise of smart growth), the
development of farmland and other open space is merely postponed, not
stopped.
3) Will telecommuting and mass transit help? Not enough, he argues, to
prevent the ruination of an area by "growth."
What will work, he says, is to reduce the US birthrate to 1.8 percent
annually from the present rate of 2.05. He notes that the US rate is
high for an advanced country. For example, he says Canada's rate is 1.6
percent and Germany's is 1.3 percent. Stennett maintains that a 1.8
percent birth rate can be reached merely by cutting the
unintended/unwanted pregnancy rate and by reducing still further the
teenage pregnancy rate. A 1.8 percent birthrate would result in a stable
population in the US, even when allowing for one million immigrants per
year.
How can birthrates be reduced? He says this can be done with four
methods: 1) reduce the high school dropout rate; 2) reduce poverty; 3)
make family planning available to all; and 4) use the media to educate
people about the consequences of overpopulation.
In Growth We Trust, by Edwin Stennett, 130 pages, $10. Available from
Population Connection, 1400 16th Street NW, Suite 320, Washington, DC
20036, www.populationconnection.org,
1-800-POP1956.
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