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Hi Joe!Redistribution of wealth is a productivity killer. But all other things being equal, population size and even population density provides higher standards of living per person. All other things being equal.
"If one can chase a thousand, then two can put ten thousand to flight". "Two are better than one". In some ways this is a good thing, because small countries cannot build submarines or battleships, but then neither can they build supertankers or jumbo jets (some would also call that good). Just for example.
Europe is undergoing a population implosion crisis. Some German towns are in danger of becoming ghost towns.
China is becoming a world-class powerhouse precisely building on its population, but mixed with a measure of capitalism.
The biggest problem for the U.S. is like Warren Buffet said. The United States is "exporting its economy". I've been using the same words since around 1990. You can't do that and maintain your production in real terms.
These things encourage economies and job growth: (1)Free market economy principles, (2)a population with a general minimum of a stable culture and a minimum of "goodness" in Toqueville's sense of the word, (3)_honest political leadership that has its own citizens at heart, these are incubators of success, and (4)_stable technology.
The facts put the lie to the Erdmans of the 1960's who told us that without drastic controls over population growth, mass starvation would kill off the majority of the world's people by 1980, unless it took drastic measures. Surprise, we're still here. And some of the worst wars, before that straw man argument comes up, have happened in places that otherwise were not the poorest or starvingest. Like Rwanda-Burundi was one of the most prosperous countries in all of Africa!
India had a green revolution, Kenya raced to encourage good agricultural practices under good leadership, South Korea began investing and Japan continued to save, save, save, and all these countries with big population densities are pushing up fast toward European standards. India is having another revolution, and China is racing ahead.
George Malthus was a man who loved tyrrany and he has been proven wrong in every generation since.
What makes for prosperity, and jobs growth, are an educated populace, generally good moral character, a concerned citizenry, technology, an appreciation for the importance of maintaining a local minimum infrastructure of agriculture and industry ("hard goods"), free enterprise encouragement, and now information, these are the things that make for prosperity and jobs.
Alan
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