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Sept 11 - The Long View

© John McManamy

"There is the hint that the American people may be willing to tackle once again big problems and big issues."

To get a sense of where we are after September 11, we need to rewind the clock two thousand years:

Back when Jesus walked the earth there were only 250 million people, largely because, based on what man knew at the time, the earth would only support that many. Deforestation and overgrazing had rendered much of the land around the Mediterranean barren, and mother nature was beginning to fight back. Not long after, the tribes of the steppes and forests up north took up farming, and the resultant increase in population brought on a new crisis. The fall of the Roman Empire was primarily due to the failure of its border forces to stem the tide of hordes of desperate and starving people crossing the Danube to seek a better life.

Another great agricultural revolution occurred in the 1700s with its inevitable population boom, which in turn brought on the French Revolution, enclosure, forced emigration, and the Napoleonic Wars. When Malthus wrote his dire predictions about a finite earth failing to be able to sustain its ever-expanding population, he was perfectly correct based upon what he knew. He simply failed to take into account man's genius for creating more with less.

Forget everything you may have learned about economics. "More with less" is the guiding principle we should be concentrating on. If a farmer can vastly increase his crop yield while using less land, that is more with less. If lighter more efficient and longer lasting cars in greater numbers roll off assembly lines manned by robots, that is more with less. If a microchip doubles its processing power every eighteen months, that is more with less.

Since the time man emerged from the trees, we have demonstrated this unique capability. Just to cite one example, back in the 1700s, some 95 percent of the population scraped a meager living off the land. Now - in Europe and America anyway - it is in the low single figures, and farmers produce the kind of surpluses that ironically depress prices and threaten to put them out of business. We are now witnessing a similar trend in manufacturing.

For some time, then, we have had the power to create a heaven on earth, but the history of our species has been overshadowed by excess populations scrambling for dwindling resources. Witness all those unemployed Pakistani men burning flags, and we have every reason to be concerned about another cycle of war and misery.

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