> They used to warn us about a population explosion. People laughed about it like they do now when global warming is mentioned. But the explosion happened.

No, it didn't. Birth rates went way down in much of the world after about 1960 or so. In fact, much or most of Europe is experiencing negative population growth rates and the U.S. growth rate has also declined significantly.

While the world population as a whole is still increasing, the rate of increase is drastically slowing. We are not experiencing the exponential population growth that many in the 1950s and '60s predicted.

Not only did the doomsayers get the demographics wrong, they completely missed how good we are at dealing with the problems caused by more people. For instance, because of revolutionary new agricultural techniques, food is much, much cheaper today in real dollars than at any other point in history -- heck, in the United States one of our biggest health problems is that the poor are too fat. Imagine describing that problem to anyone from any century before the 20th.

By every material standard I can think of, Americans are better off now than at any point in history. Our houses are bigger, we have more cars, we have higher incomes (after adjustment for inflation).

> What in the world will we do in 16 years when all of those newborns get a driver's license?

We'll build more parking spaces.

This is what I don't get about the sky-is-falling crowd. That crowd has always existed and is never right. When we are hit by real catastrophic disasters we pretty much don't see them coming, with the possible exception of major wars. Humans are incredibly good at adapting to changes in our environment and are generally able to improve things.

Stephen