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What To Expect When No One's Expecting: America's Coming Demographic Disaster (2013)

by Jonathan V. Last(Favorite Author)

3.79 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1594036411 (ISBN13: 9781594036415)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Encounter Books

review 1: First of all any book is made easier to read when it is written well and the prose in this work is certainly of a higher class, especially when one considers the mountain of data and statistics that overwhelm every page. However, this is why I downgraded it from four to three stars. The reader is drawn to consider (I concede it is necessary) demographic information on dozens of countries and even the author recognizes that at the end of the day these statistics are in fact, just statistics. There are a myriad of reasons why Europe and Japan are collapsing demographically and by extension culturally, but the main one is something the author "dances around" and never really comes out and writes about specifically (though in a sense he does with the example of the nation of G... moreeorgia). The central thing all of these countries with negative growth rates have in common is that they are all radically secular. Whether still feeling effects of atheistic communism (Russia and Eastern Europe), forced communistic cultural sterility (China and Singapore), or conscious societal materialism (Japan) they all share the same problem, they have decided that the current generation is all that matters. My fleshly indulgences are more important than the opportunities and needs of my great-great grandchildren. So I recommend reading the book for its fascinating look at the reality of what faces so many cultures (especially see the radical change in Venice, Italy as a stark example) and nations who can no longer support the massive safety nets and state-sponsored pension programs because of the inverted birthrates.
review 2: Written in a very conversational tone, it reads almost like a speech. Although the topic is thought provoking and, at least to me, profoundly interesting, I kept waiting for the author to address what would actually happen if populations significantly decline. Isn't there some sort of problem with running out of natural resources and food for the many people on this planet? I'll pick up another book on this topic at some point! less

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