Population Control: Real Costs, Illusory Benefits [Paperback]

Steven Mosher (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 17, 2008

For over half a century, policymakers committed to population control have perpetrated a gigantic, costly, and inhumane fraud upon the human race. They have robbed people of the developing countries of their progeny and the people of the developed world of their pocketbooks. Determined to stop population growth at all costs, those Mosher calls "population controllers" have abused women, targeted racial and religious minorities, undermined primary health care programs, and encouraged dictatorial actions if not dictatorship. They have skewed the foreign aid programs of the United States and other developed countries in an anti-natal direction, corrupted doens of well-intentioned nongovernmental organiations, and impoverished authentic development programs. Blinded by ealotry, they have even embraced the most brutal birth control campaign in history: China's infamous one-child policy, with all its attendant horrors.

There is no workable demographic definition of "overpopulation." Those who argue for its premises conjure up images of poverty--low incomes, poor health, unemployment, malnutrition, overcrowded housing to justify anti-natal programs. The irony is that such policies have in many ways caused what they predicted--a world which is poorer materially, less diverse culturally, less advanced economically, and plagued by disease. The population controllers have not only studiously ignored mounting evidence of their multiple failures; they have avoided the biggest story of them all. Fertility rates are in free fall around the globe.

Movements with billions of dollars at their disposal, not to mention thousands of paid advocates, do not go quietly to their graves. Moreover, many in the movement are not content to merely achieve ero population growth, they want to see negative population numbers. In their view, our current population should be reduced to one or two billion or so. Such a goal would keep these interest groups fully employed. It would also have dangerous consequences for a global environment.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Countries like France and Japan became rich before they grew old. Now much of the developing world is growing old before it before it becomes rich, due primarily rapid declines in birthrates that are unprecedented in human demographic history. Mosher correctly shows how the debate over reproductive rights and population control has to come terms with a world in which population growth is decelerating, and what remains will come mostly from increases in the ranks of the elderly."
-- Phillip Longman, Author: The Empty Cradle: How Falling Birthrates Threaten World Prosperity. Senior Fellow, New America Foundation.

"In Population Control, Mr. Mosher incisively explores the history and effects of the population control movement from a pro-people perspective, based on the belief that because each person has unique value, more people means more for all of us - more economic production, more potential for artistic and scientific achievement, more innovation.....his latest book should be read by all those who want to know why thriving human populations are reasons to rejoice rather than fear."
-- Joseph A. D'Agostino, The Washington Times

About the Author

Steven W. Mosher is president of Population Research Institute and is recognied as one of the leading authorities on population studies. He is the author of several books and articles, including A Mother’s Ordeal: One Woman’s Fight against China’s One-Child Policy; Journey to the Forbidden China; and Broken Earth: The Rural Chinese. In addition to making appearances on Good Morning America, 60 Minutes, and CNN News, his work has appeared in theWall Street Journal, the NewRepublic, and National Review.

Product Details

• Paperback: 310 pages
• Publisher: Transaction Publishers (April 17, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1412807131
• ISBN-13: 978-1412807135
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #793,498 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An alternative view of population control, May 23, 2008

By 

Joseph A. Dagostino - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Population Control: Real Costs, Illusory Benefits (Paperback)

Most people don't realize that soon, the world will be suffering from a dearth of young people rather than the excess that we have supposedly been enduring for the past few decades. Steve Mosher details the actual results of the brutal methods that population controllers have employed to keep down the numbers of the non-white peoples of the world and how successful they have been. He's especially interesting on China since he is a China expert who has lived in that country. I used to work for his organization, Population Research Institute, so I may be biased, but I believe this book is great compendium of the human rights violations and the developing social and economic costs of population control, costs which will become apparent to far more people within ten years. The book's endnotes point to a large amount of information for those who would like to learn more about this subject than they will get from the mainstream media and typical college courses, which take the anti-people attitude as gospel.

20 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Witty and brilliant, and taking no prisoners, August 20, 2008

By 

Jeri Nevermind "loves to read" (Idaho) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Population Control: Real Costs, Illusory Benefits (Paperback)

Mosher's book argues from the first line that "most of us grew up on a poisonous diet of overpopulation propaganda....Vice President Al Gore, who warned of an 'environmental holocaust without precedent'...that will engulf us if we do not stop having babies," and "The Population Bomb", that bestseller which predicted famine would soon be upon us.

Indeed most of the predicted demographic nightmare of growing population was based, not on overwhelming numbers of new babies, but on a huge elderly population, that, with new medical procedures, keeps living on...and on. That enormous new elderly population is what has mostly swelled the population numbers.

Now that those numbers of elderly are about to peak, the world population will start to decline. For some countries, such as Russia, Spain, Japan, and perhaps most of Europe, the population appears to be in a frightening death spiral.

Mosher is out to tell the truth, root out old assumptions, and he gives statistics that are bound to surprise you. Such as, "The old age tsunami that is about to hit Japan will not spare other Asian countries. The Four Tigers--Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Singapore--are already long in the tooth. China and India, the world's two demographic giants, are tottering along not far behind" (p 17).

Russia is in dire trouble with population. Between now and 2050, all indications are that Russia will lose a quarter of its population. No wonder Putin has offered any woman willing to have a second child $9,000.

South Korea's birthrate is 1.2.

Thailand has a birth rate of 1.9.

What will happen to these countries as their populations decline? Will housing prices fall dramatically, and, with fewer consumers, will depressions result? How will these countries continue to care for the elderly?

These are the real problems we need to tackle, not problems of overpopulation.

Mosher gives a thorough history of the population control movement, including such famous names as Rockerfeller and Margaret Mead. Organizations like the World Bank and the UN, using code words like "reproductive health" have attacked the poorer countries of the world with sterilizations, sometimes forced or with bribes, abortions, and contraceptives. And lectures, endless, hectoring lectures.

Anyone interested in these facts will also want to read "Disappearing Daughters" which details the 100 missing women in India and China. Yes, that many female babies have been aborted or killed in India and China.

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A VERY important book, August 6, 2009

By 

bookscdsdvdsandcoolstuff "bookscdsdvdsandcool... (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Population Control: Real Costs, Illusory Benefits (Paperback)

Since the days of Malthus we have been hearing that a non-existent "population bomb" is about to destroy the planet. Any sober look at the facts proves this to be wrong, but scientific facts don't matter to those who pursue ideological agendas.

This book is an excellent and sober analysis that shows why population control is such a flawed (and evil) agenda. Highly recommended.