In the United States, the rights of the individual are often emphasized and given top priority. Unfortunately, in the fervor to maintain these rights many people overlook the universal picture. This meaning, in a sense, that the good of the whole will be sacrificed for the individual. Because this is such a globally significant topic, it is an issue in which there has been much scrutiny for many years. Two examples of the research that have gone into this broad topic are the article Ten Years' Hard Labour from the accredited journal the "Economist" and Overpopulation which was found in an online encyclopedia called "Wikipedia". While each article provides information on the same topic and some of the same issues; the actual presentation of the material and the specific information brought to focus differ greatly.
             Both the journal article and the encyclopedia article discuss the issues involved with overpopulation, which is the main point of comparison between the two sources. The connection between population and standard of living is a fairly prominent discussion point in both articles. The encyclopedia article, Overpopulation, brings this to focus by discussing what is called "the demographic transition". According to the article, the demographic transition is that in a generation once a standard of living begins to increase, then in a seemingly direct correlation family size begins to decline. This, however, is shown only to be true in a society in which women are held in higher regard and are given more rights in the way of equality. In societies where patriarchal hierarchy is more prominent, the result appears to be in reverse of this idea. According to Virginia Abernety, who is quoted in this article, in the patriarchal society, with an increase in the standard of living comes an increase in the family size (Overpopulation).
             The article Ten Years' Hard Labour from the journal "Economist" also brings these issues ...