Population not problem
Re "Six is enough" (Public Forum, Oct. 24):
I am disturbed when I read articles and letters implying that population is the biggest problem facing the world. Writer Woodrow J. Hughes advocates reducing the population of the planet from its current 6 billion to 1 billion. Tell me, what is the preferred moral method of achieving this? Genocide?
I wish that these prophets of doom and gloom would think through the consequences before making these pronouncements. The facts are clear. Population by itself is not the cause of human misery. Incompetent, "kleptocrat" governments are the problem. Governments that restrain trade, make war and oppress their people with inept economic policies are the cause of starvation around the globe. Look at Hong Kong: one of the most densely populated places on the planet and possessing few natural resources. Yet Hong Kong enjoys one of the world's highest standards of living. Low-tax, libertarian policies have made Hong Kong one of the richest places in the world.
-- Kit Maira, San Fernando
I seemed to hit a nerve here, in the interest of equal time, here's Woodrow J. Hughes response. I answered it in a future letter.
Y2K and population
Re "Population not problem" (Public Forum, Oct. 29):Kit Maira calls me a prophet of doom for advocating a reduction in planetary population and asks if I am supporting genocide. She also boasts how wonderful densely packed Hong Kong is.
I believe Y2K will kill off a lot of P6B (population 6 billion). Today everything is connected to everything else. If the computers suffer even a 5 percent failure, millions will die now and tens of millions later. How many weak links are there in the food chain between a Louisiana soybean farmer and a Sudanese refugee-feeding camp? How many computers are in the system between a Kansas wheat farmer and a hungry person in the Soviet "Disunion"? Farm, granary, milling, railroad, harbor, customs, grain boat -- and that's just to get the wheat out of America.
Even in America, how many will die if life-saving drugs and devices either fail to work or fail to arrive? Maira boasts of Hong Kong. One of my co-workers just returned from Hong Kong last week. His eyes burned the whole time he was there. Is that how you want to live?
-- Woodrow J. Hughes, Northridge
