A recent story in The Economist says an Oxfam study of a crackdown in child labor in the carpet industry in Bangladesh showed that of 50 thousand kids displaced from their jobs in carpet factories, 30,000 ended up in prostitution or jobs in more dangerous industries. (Hope I got those numbers right. Can't find the issue.) World Watch's last paper, "The Hour of Departure," discusses pressures that cause famine, war, and mass migration. It counts population growth high among them. An earlier article in The Economist mentioned that if all the land in the Phillipines were evenly divided among the people, there wouldn't be enough per person to support them. The World Watch paper says this is also the case in much of Africa. I have the impression people here aren't keen on Malthus, but isn't there something to the population question? If there's no room on the farm, what ARE the kids to do? Cindy Cotter Obviously non-economist
