Johnson C. Montgomery's The Island Of Plenty

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In 1974, an article titled “The Island of Plenty”, was first published in Newsweek. The article was written by Johnson C. Montgomery, a California attorney, and the leader of the Zero Population Growth (ZPG) Inc. In “The Island of Plenty”, Montgomery argues for American solitude, because in his opinion, Americans are not responsible for other humanity. Montgomery claims that overpopulation is destroying the earth. He says that the only way to stop the eradication of the earth is to stop population growth by ceasing aid in less developed countries (LDCs). Montgomery is right, overpopulation is an issue, however the methods he suggests to solve the problem are wrong. All humans deserve to live, and there is huge potential among the poor children in Southeast Asia, India and Africa, yet American solitude might still be fundamental. All humans deserve to live, although Montgomery does not seem to think so. Montgomery asks himself what we should do about the billions of people in LDCs that are…show more content…
Montgomery conveys a good point in his article by saying: “We know the world is finite. There is only so much pie.” And “How big a piece each person gets depends in part on how many people there are.” These statements are true, because there are not unlimited amounts of food and other resources on earth, and the more people there are, the less everyone is going to get. Of course we have to remember that the world is unfair, and that resources will never be spread equally. Montgomery also says that Americans do not have as much resources as people think, and that we cannot afford to help others, because that would weaken the American society. This information is false, because according to the IMF (International Monetary Fund), the United States is the second richest country in the world with $17.416 trillion. So clearly Americans can afford to help without any risk of harming their own
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