Adrian Buck’s Reviews > The Waste Makers > Status Update
Adrian Buck
is on page 176 of 327
"If current trends continued, quite likely the United States population by the end of the century...world more than double the present population" - i.e 350 million according to Vance. At 328M America is still not there, and the biggest driver of population growth is immigration not larger families. "If current trends continue" must be the most fatal assumption in forecasting.
— Sep 17, 2020 11:49AM
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Adrian’s Previous Updates
Adrian Buck
is on page 318 of 327
"One of the best hopes for improving television content and reducing commericalism is "pay TV"" - I suppose that's worked out with HBO and Netflix. I don't know what content he was aiming for. For me educational channels on YouTube have been much more important.
— Nov 30, 2020 07:14AM
Adrian Buck
is on page 311 of 327
"...the lives of most Americans have become so intermeshed with acts of consumption that they tend to gain their feelings of significance in life from these acts of consumption" - Was this fair? Is this still true? Is it peculiarly American? If it is, is that because America is country fuelled by immigration, and the migrants are pursuing the American Dream.
— Nov 30, 2020 07:09AM
Adrian Buck
is on page 302 of 327
"Today, more than a hundred thousand talented high school graduates - certified to be college material - fail to go on to college specifically because of lack of money." - the problem today, some say, has been inverted now we have too many graduates drowning in debt.
— Nov 30, 2020 07:03AM
Adrian Buck
is on page 289 of 327
"Many scientists have long felt that salt-water conversion offers the most sensible way to make use of the slumbering genie of atomic power" - Vance doesn't have an ecological bone in his body.
— Oct 31, 2020 09:35AM
Adrian Buck
is on page 289 of 327
"...opportunities continue to open up in such service fields as travel, insurance, restaurants, hotel and motel operation..." - which with the exception of insurance damage the environment.
— Oct 31, 2020 09:33AM
Adrian Buck
is on page 283 of 327
"Furthermore, in terms of life satisfaction, acts of consumption are no adequate substitute for acts of individual productivity" ... Prostestant work ethic, obviously not heard of alienated labour.
— Oct 31, 2020 09:30AM
Adrian Buck
is on page 281 of 327
"Ireland, which is overwhelmingly Catholic, is outstanding among the nations of the world that have got their birth rate under control" - I thought it was emigration that eased Irish poverty, and in anycase it is outstanding because it's population peaked in the mid 19th century.
— Oct 31, 2020 09:27AM
Adrian Buck
is on page 279 of 327
"Japan is one nation that has in recent years taken drastic and spectacular action to strike an equilibrium between its births and deaths" - and now struggles with demographic decline...
— Oct 31, 2020 09:23AM
Adrian Buck
is on page 273 of 327
"If an automobile requires over 100 horsepower, it is too damned big and wasteful." - average car is 120 horsepower today
— Oct 30, 2020 05:55AM
Adrian Buck
is on page 273 of 327
"More than a fourth of all paper produced in 1959 was [recycled]" - 66% today, but I suspect we produce very much more.
— Oct 30, 2020 05:52AM
