Those who have want even more
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Mr Soderberg is correct that wealth distribution is not the problem (Letters, November 27). Wealth distribution is a symptom of the problem. He is wrong, however, to think that population is the problem. It is not. It is merely an exacerbation of the real
The real problem is those people who have more than they really need but think they cannot be happy until they have even more of what they don’t really need. What threatens their happiness is all those people who don’t have much and would like to have more. The solution, as the have-a-lot see it, is that the aspirations of the have-little (such as a higher minimum wage) should be denied and, indeed, that the have-little should not even exist (the population argument). Wanting more than one needs is always the problem, but try explaining this to the have-a-lot who want still more.
I have a lot and want still more, too. But I do know what the real problem is and do not try to deceive myself about it by rationalising my self-interest. A very good argument could be made for reducing North American and European populations by 75 per cent and replacing the lost workforce with African and other labour sources, thereby keeping the economic machinery rolling and simultaneously improving the lot of Africans and others. But I don’t ever hear that argument made. Not by North Americans or Europeans, anyway.
Steve Merriman
Bang Bua Thong
