Robert Scheer Drops the Population Bomb

As usual, Robert Scheer gets it half right when he focuses attention on overpopulation as the core of most of the world’s problems (“Playing Population-Explosion Politics,” Commentary, Nov. 5). Every crisis -- in the environment, education and unemployment, to name a few -- is exacerbated by increasing population. But to discuss population policy without taking on immigration policy represents the height of folly.

At least the political right is consistent in backing population growth and open borders to ensure cheap labor and plentiful cannon fodder. The political left, of which Scheer is a representative, should put its head where it says its heart is and advocate closing our borders. Shutting off the American “safety valve” is the quickest way to foment revolution against the plutocrats in those countries our immigrants are fleeing.

Barry Dantzscher

Van Nuys

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It was heartening to read Scheer’s commentary. There are many important issues our pundits and policymakers need to address, of course, but some of the problems we face -- overpopulation, wealth concentration, environmental collapse -- are so fundamental to the sort of world our children will inherit that their willful neglect borders on the criminal. Unfortunately, in a world whose leaders are more concerned with getting elected than with educating the public, commentary such as Scheer’s will probably amount to nothing more than wasted ink.

Kevin Caldwell

Venice

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Can President Bush ever do anything right according to Scheer? He complains about “a foreign policy driven primarily by a domestic agenda.” In case Scheer does not realize it, I think someone should tell him that Bush’s job is not to be president of the world or the U.N. but to do what is best for the U.S.

Judy Herbst

Beverly Hills