http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opinterview.jsp?id=ns23075 Interesting article and important argument about a stabilisation of the population of the globe within 100 years. More detailed argument is about whether fall in fertility rates will stop at the break even point of 2.1 or continue down. For example the fertility rate in South Korea is now 1.6 If you believe in some sort of marxian law of value, based on labour power, this means that in substantial areas of the global economy there will be a contraction in the total mass of value, whatever monetary units it is expressed in. Ecological conflicts would presumably continue and intensify, but a substantial contraction in the labour force in many parts of the world would need a lot of social planning to manage, especially as the aging population would expect substantial use values. Chris Burford
