I purchased the Statistical Abstract of the United States, which comes out every year. The facts and figures from the U.S. are very interesting to me albeit sometimes disappointing. For example, the 1996 version, which is the one I have, says that for my year group, only 9.2 percent of the population has an advanced degree (something above a bachelor’s degree). The hightest dropout rates were in the southern states with Florida and Gorgia having the highest at over 14 percent. The lowest around 4 percent was found in Minnesota and North Dakota. Maybe being cold in the winter drives students to get that degree?

Phillip Longman‘s editoral, "What’s the difference between Seattle and Salt Lake City" notes that in Seattle there are nearly 45 percent more dogs than children. In Salt Lake City there are nearly 19 percent more kids than dogs. This curious fact might at first seem trivial, but it reflects a much broader and little-noticed demographic trend that has deep implications for the future of global culture and politics.

It’s not that people in a progressive city such as Seattle are so much fonder of dogs than are people in a conservative city such as Salt Lake City. It’s that  progressives are so much less likely to have children. It’s a patter found throughout the world, and it augurs a far more conservative future–one in which patriachy and other traditional values make a comeback, if only by default."

Has anyone read "The Marching Morons" by C. M. Kornbluth? "The story is set hundreds of years in the future: the date is 7-B-936. A man from the past put into suspended animation by a freak accident, John Barlow, is revived in this future. The world seems mad to Barlow until Tinny-Peete explains The Problem of Population: due to a combination of intelligent people prudently not having children and excessive breeding by less-intelligent people, the world is full of morons with the exception of an elite few who work slavishly to keep order. Barlow, who was a shrewd conman in his day, has a solution to sell to the elite." – Wikipedia