Fewer: How the New Demography of Depopulation Will Shape Our Future

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Ivan R. Dee, 2004 - Literary Criticism - 241 pages
Fewer tells a monumental human story, largely ignored, but which promises to starkly change the human condition in the years to come. Never before have birth and fertility rates fallen so far, so fast, so low, for so long, in so many places, so surprisingly. In Fewer, Ben Wattenberg shows how and why this has occurred, and explains what it means for the future. The demographic plunge, he notes, is starkly apparent in the developed nations of Europe and Japan, which will lose about 150 million people in the next half century. Starting from higher levels, but moving with geometric speed, the demographic decline is also apparent in the less developed nations of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Only the United States (so far) has been exempt from the birth dearth, leaving America as more than "the sole super-power." Perhaps it should be called the global "omni-power." These stark demographic changes will affect commerce, the environment, public financing, and geo-politics. Here Wattenberg lists likely winners and losers. In Wattenberg's world of "The New Demography" readers get a look at a topic often chattered about, but rarely understood.

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Contents

The Story of This Book
5
And Then There Were Many Fewer
19
Less Developed Less Fertility
39
Copyright

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About the author (2004)

Joseph Ben Zion Wattenberg (August 26, 1933 - June 28, 2015), known as Ben J. Wattenberg, was an American author, commentator and demographer. He was an aide and speechwriter to President Lyndon B. Johnson from 1966 to 1968, and served as an adviser to Hubert Humphrey's 1970 Senate race. Wattenberg was a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. He was appointed to various committees and commissions by Presidents Carter, Reagan, and George H. W. Bush, as well as by then-Speaker Tom Foley. Wattenberg died on June 28, 2015 from complications following surgery. Wattenberg's written works included: The First Universal Nation, 1991; Fewer: How the New Demography of Depopulation Will Shape Our Future, 2004; Values Matter Most, 1995; and Fighting Words: A Tale of How Liberals Created Neo-Conservatism, 2008.

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