Fewer is better
From Daniel Stoffinan Sir: Mark Steyr' might want to check his facts a bit more carefully before offering a demographic analysis of the state of the world (One nation under God', 13 March). He thinks that China would not make the 'mistake' of allowing its population to stop growing. Yet China's fertility rate is 1.8 children per woman, well below the replacement level. This means that at some point in this century the Chinese population will stop growing. With the exception of a few stragglers (Nigeria, Somalia) all of the poor countries have plummeting birth rates. Most of the world's women, regardless of where they live or their religion, have decided they prefer to have one or two children rather than half a dozen or more. Mr Steyn is unduly alarmist. Europe and Japan are well ahead of North America, including Quebec, in this regard and yet social services in those comparatively elderly countries have not collapsed. Never-ending population growth is neither desirable nor possible.
Daniel Stoffinan
Toronto, Canada
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