Population Density Quotes
This view that the more people a country has, the richer it is, has gone hand in hand with the notion that a large population will assure a nation of extensive military prowess. However, both of these are now known to be false. The most heavily populated nations are among the poorest, and military prowess is more a function of the training of troops and the modern tools and weapons. Tiny Israel has demonstrated that many times since its origin. It has been attacked over and over by several nations at a time. Despite the fact that Israel was vastly outnumbered by enemy troops and weapons like tanks and planes, Israel has repeatedly demolished the more populous enemies. The world, observing this, no longer emphasizes trying to build a large manpower pool as it does not help militarily and it makes full employment very difficult.
This quotation was written long before the “Protestant work ethic” was coined and well defined. Even though Say was a Frenchman from a Catholic country, he and most other serious economists and politicians recognized this vast difference.
Some Tibetans believe that the Han Chinese will indeed develop the area, but will in the process change the nature of the area and its culture—that the Han culture will dominate just as initially minority cultures have dominated and transformed South Africa, India, Canada and even the United States. Of course, modernization per se changes a culture radically.
