Interesting point you make about the Black Death. Do you think that the increse in living standards was a result of the relative increase in resources per person or the rapid population growth afterwards? Couples would have had free housing(take over abandonded existing houses) a major cost was eliminated. Relatively wealthier. Of course there are many times the population in Europe today with an immesurably higher standard of living, so the two don't always go together. My question is about real versus apparent limits to population growth. Apparent always looks real till it's not.
I wouldn't mind betting that when the worlds population was 1bn there were those that thought with good reason that was the maximum carrying capacity.
As a sidenote, Japans population is falling, only by 10000 last year but expected to grow in the coming years. What effect that will have on living standards remains to be seen.
