Population Boom

Do we really know what the world population is? And does having that number do us any good? Adaptive Curmudgeon read a post by Sarah Hoyt that got him all stirred up so he wrote his own post on the subject. World population estimates all seem to come from the UN. Ask Google and every reference seems to point back to the UN. The question Sarah and Adaptive are asking is how do we know the UN isn't lying to us? Even if they aren't lying, their numbers are no doubt taken from what the various countries report, and lord knows how accurate those numbers are.

So our two gadflys dive into the rathole of why the UN would lie about this. I'm not going to worry about it. To me the UN is a nice facade that the limousine Bolsheviks have pasted over their imaginary world. They may be lying, they might not, they might be accurately presenting the data they have received, but we have no idea how accurate that data might be. Most of us probably think the people who compile these numbers are doing the best they can. There are going to be some areas where the census takers are over zealous, or fearless leader demands better numbers, and there are going to be other areas where they are more lax, but overall it will average out.

To me, there isn't just one problem, there are a myriad of problems. Each country, region, shoot, neighborhood, has their own problems. Mass migration might relieve pressure on one area, but it's going to bring more pressure on other areas. And migration isn't the best solution. Some people like the idea of moving to a new place, but I suspect most people are content to stay where they are. Forcing those people to move is going to engender some discontent, discontent that will manifest itself in some subtle and some not so subtle ways.