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- Title
Will Population Slowdowns Yield Resource Conservation? Some Social Demurrers.
- Authors
Schnaiberg, Allan
- Abstract
Recent movements and social programs for American population limitation are premised on the expectation that reduced fertility will lower consumption, and hence conserve resources. This premise suffers from the fallacy of ceteris paribus: that, at the familial level, fertility reductions occur with no other familial change. In tact, recent history suggests that reduced childbearing has permitted greater income attainment and consumption by families foregoing childbearing. Moreover, even if families attempted to maintain lower consumption, the aggregate impacts on the economy would be defined as depressive, and lead to macro-structural counteractive strategies by the private and public sectors. This points to the automatic mutates mutandis fallacy of the populationist movement the notion that fertility reduction alone will cause economic and environment changes Resource conservation efforts must deal with both these facts and social scientists have an obligation to present this realistic picture rather than accepting the assumptions of Zero Population Growth.
- Subjects
UNITED States; SOCIAL scientists; CONSERVATION of natural resources; NONPROFIT organizations; CONSUMPTION (Economics); ECONOMIC sectors; PRIVATE sector
- Publication
Qualitative Sociology, 1981, Vol 4, Issue 1, p21
- ISSN
0162-0436
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/BF00987042