Top Obama Advisor John Holdren Wants to “De-develop” America

Before you accuse the radicals surrounding Obama of being communists, bear in mind that Science Czar John Holdren wants to “use the free market” to “de-develop the United States.”

“A massive campaign must be launched to restore a high-quality environment in North America and to de-develop the United States,” Holdren wrote along with Paul and Anne H. Ehrlich in the “recommendations” concluding their 1973 book Human Ecology: Problems and Solutions.

The economic effects of “de-developing” America are about what we’ve been seeing for the past two years. Maybe Obama has some clue what he’s doing after all.

Holdren’s scheme isn’t all about suppressing economic activity. As always with environmentalism, wealth redistribution comes into play:

“Resources must be diverted from frivolous and wasteful uses in overdeveloped countries to filling the genuine needs of underdeveloped countries,” Holdren and his co-authors wrote. “This effort must be largely political, especially with regard to our overexploitation of world resources, but the campaign should be strongly supplemented by legal and boycott action against polluters and others whose activities damage the environment. The need for de-development presents our economists with a major challenge. They must design a stable, low-consumption economy in which there is a much more equitable distribution of wealth than in the present one. Redistribution of wealth both within and among nations is absolutely essential, if a decent life is to be provided for every human being.”

I’ve been to a country with a low-consumption economy and an “equitable distribution of wealth.” It doesn’t exist anymore, but it used to be called the Soviet Union.

The wild-eyed Malthusian Paul Ehrlich was totally discredited when his predictions that we would run out of most major resources by 1980 or so failed to come true — but not among his fellow antihuman lunatics. Holdren and friends still sing the same evil tune of radical population control and a drastically reduced standard of living.

CNSNews.com recently asked Holdren what he meant by de-developing America:

Holdren responded: “What we meant by that was stopping the kinds of activities that are destroying the environment and replacing them with activities that would produce both prosperity and environmental quality. Thanks a lot.”

CNSNews.com then asked: “And how do you plan on implementing that?”

“Through the free market economy,” Holdren said.

You see? He believes in the free market. Obama’s advisors aren’t communists after all.

Obama has spent his life surrounded by malignant kooks Holdren.

On tips from TrickleUpPolitics, Byron, and Leslie. Hat tip: Weasel Zippers. Cross-posted at Moonbattery.

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