India"™s population "˜to outstrip China by 2030"™
By Mark Turner at the United Nations
Published: February 24 2005 18:02 | Last updated:
February 24 2005 18:02
The population of India will overtake that of
China before 2030, five years earlier than previously
expected, a new UN population report predicts.
According to the United Nations' latest World Population
Prospects, released on Thursday in New York,
there will be 1,395m people in India in 2025,
and 1,593m in 2050. In China the population will
grow to 1,441m by 2025, before dropping back to 1,392m in 2050.
"œWe've been saying for a while that India would cross
over China before 2050, but the crossover has been
getting earlier and earlier, and we now say it will
happen before 2030 (not including Hong Kong).
This is five years earlier than we said two
years ago,"œ Cheryl Sawyer, a UN demographer, said.
RE: Tighten your belts now kids, it's gonna get rough
It doesn't sound good for the American middle class. Blue collar work is fading fast. Those with low or no skills are gonna be hard-pressed down the road. In my area, I still hear about kids who drop out of high school. Not everyone can excel academically, but quitting is a no brainer.
I'm a pessimist to some degree I guess. I don't see big strides ahead for the average American working Joe. It appears that many will be lucky just to maintain their current income levels. With increasing globalization, I think labor in America will "tread water" for some time. ***an is a good lesson though. The ***anese worker (who used to work cheap) has now "arrived". He wants his piece of the economic pie. Eventually, the same will happen in places like India and China. We will arrive at wage parity.......if the American worker can survive 'til then!
But heh.....let's all jump in our old rustbucket and look for some bargains at Walmart!
RE: Tighten your belts now kids, it's gonna get rough
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Blue collar work is fading fast. Those with low or no skills are gonna be hard-pressed down the road.
If you think it's just blue collar, you're totally wrong. Professional jobs are leaving in droves. I'm an engineer with 3 degrees and am only able to find contract work.
Export the jobs, Import the H1B visas, remember "we can't find the talent here"...
RE: Tighten your belts now kids, it's gonna get rough
Not all that many people have kept up with the current happenings in India. People were amazed when China passed one billion, but India wasn't far behind. I don't think many people even realize that India has a population of over one billion. My undergraduate trade and policy projects focused on India. Very interesting country, with very large implications on world markets.
__________________
You may beat the rap, but you won't beat the ride!
RE: Tighten your belts now kids, it's gonna get rough
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At some point in the not too distant future, we are gonna rue the day we paved over so much of our prime farmland for the sake of a quick $.
Farming has long been one of our "Aces in the Hole" - especially with the booming pop. elsewhere in the world which will ultimately be unable to feed itself and COULD then be at our mercy to purchase food from us.
Chinese can't eat cheap Walmart ****s and plastic toys. And the Arabs can't eat their oil.
Sure, most of our farmland is intact, but sadly, much more is lost each year.
Interesting (and seemingly reasonable) conclusion, If. I don't think that we should fall back on agriculture to solve our problems, though. We have to maintain a diverse economy, not rely on some niche industry.
We can compete globally, but the first thing that has to go is our exceedingly high standard of living. We can all earn the things we need in life, but the Hummers, bigscreen TV's, and luxury homes have to go. Our wages are entirely too high for what we do in a lot of areas, and we can either compromise and live well, but modestly, or we can keep on keeping on and lose everything.
We also have to keep innovating. That means developing technologies and goods first, and marketing it agressively. The thing is that we inventing much of what the world has today, but after time everyone else has gotten a hold of it and made money themselves. America must stay ahead of the curve. Naturally, that means R&D.
RE: Tighten your belts now kids, it's gonna get rough
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I said farming was just ONE of our aces. I was not implying farming should eclipse other industries - just that it is of strategic importance and it often doesn't get the attention it deserves. We just need to recognise its future potential and gaurd our farmland like any other strategic resource.
Yep, I agree. I understood what you're saying.
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These overpopulated countrys will be turning to us for food in the future like we turn to some for oil today. I hope we are planning some long-term strategy around this.
The military, and the people, travel on their stomachs.
Man, a lot of them do now. Asians use a lot of soy in their cooking, and while I don't have statistics in front of me, I believe the majority of the world's supply is grown right here in the US. We have a lot of stray animals that we could sell, too. Another market to open up.
In all seriousness, though, you're right. We can make the world even more dependent on food than we are on oil.
Just looked up some figures. In 2000/2001 we produced just over 75 million (metric) tons of soybeans, out of a world total of 175 million tons (42.8%). China, for example, produced 15.4 million tons. India produced 5.24 million tons. Our yield is also among the highest in the world.
Tighten your belts now kids, it's gonna get rough
