Social engineering
From Mr Richard Barber Sir: I don't think that Mark Steyn ('Europe is dying, and the Yanks are going home', 15 March) draws the right conclusions from his projection that by 2050 Europe's population will drop by 100 million and America's will rise by the same amount. I remember an economist saying some years ago that we in Britain could afford to pay half the workforce their full wages not to come to work, thereby allowing the other half to automate and quadruple production. The only problem with this solution is a social one.
Europe should benefit from having a smaller but skilled workforce ideal for the high-tech environment of this century. The rise in America's population will come from the ghettoes of the big American cities — the stupidest section of its society — and will saddle it with an even larger underclass than it has today.
Richard Barber Tresco, Isles of Scilly
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