I Am Number 79,221,018,804

By Stefano Gennarini, J.D. | November 2, 2011

The BBC website flagged by Tim informed me that I am the 79,221,018,804 person to have lived since history began. That is pretty cool! While it certainly gives some perspective of my relative importance in the order of things, I don’t really know what to make of it. Perhaps I should try those numbers at the lotto.

On a more serious note, the article on Population Control from the same website is a pretty good summary of population control policies over the last fifty years. Most importantly it recognizes that the Malthusian inspiration of these policies has meant a “disproportionate emphasis on birth control” and that they “ignored other serious needs”.

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