I look forward to reading David Willett’s new book The Pinch, about how “The baby-boomers have been throwing a big party and leaving it to their children to clear up the mess.”
Not least because, according to the preview comments I have seen it takes seriously the link between demography, society & politics, something of a hobby horse of mine, even though it often gets me accused of biological determinism.
You do not have to be a determinist to recognise that demographic factors - the percentage of very young or very old, the balance between the sexes, the numbers of children born to each woman – will set limits, will have their effect on what is possible in political or social life.
The growing imbalance in the sex ratios of both China & India are very worrying. But then, perhaps the unexpected effect will be the establishment of the world’s first mainstream polyandrous societies.
