Should We Value Population?*

Population ageing: what should we worry about?

Approximately half the world's population now has replacement-level fertility or below. The UK experience in accommodating to a changing dependency ratio provides some generalizable insights. A mechanistic approach assuming a fixed retirement age and a need to raise fertility or increase immigration in order to maintain pensions at a fixed proportion of the gross domestic product (GDP) is overs...

Should we stay or should we go?

With the potential benefit of positive movement in the housing market and now having two properties this may place you in a good position to increase your retirement nest egg if you choose to sell your family home when you downsize. Depending on your situation you may even be able to keep the family home as an investment. One of the biggest decisions for many retirees is whether to stay in the ...

Should We Consider another Booster Dose of Measles Vaccine?

Background: To date, 36 years has passed since the beginning of measles vaccination; the disease is still circulating around the world, threatening lives of human beings especially in developing countries.  In recent years, we have confronted measles in previously vaccinated adults from all over the country. Objective: To find out if there is a need for changing our routine measles vaccination ...

Erythema nodosum :what should we consider about it?

Should We Be Population Pluralists? a Reply to Stegenga

In “‘Population’ is Not a Natural Kind of Kinds,” Jacob Stegenga argues against the claim that the concept of “population” is a natural kind and in favor of conceptual pluralism, ostensibly in response to two papers of mine (Millstein 2009, 2010). Pluralism is often an attractive position in the philosophy of science. It certainly is a live possibility for the concept of population in ecology a...