From the top the only way is down:
I see there is a review (On Top of the World, ECONOMIST vol. 397 no. 8703 October 9. 2010 page 119 reviewing Why the West Rules – for Now by Ian Morris, Farrar, Straus and Giroux 790 pages, to be published in Britain by Profile this month) of a book that examines the rise and fall of civilizations and the observation that they hit a “hard ceiling.”
Alas, it looks like I shall have to read a very large book in order properly to address the author. From the review it appears that there is no attention at all paid to demographics, far less to birth rate and its decline with rising social opportunities.
He will ignore me, of course.
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