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1   Auntiegrav   2018 May 8, 6:43am  

Kind of a narrowly focused look at the real issue, which is consumption. They talk about Malthus and food production, not the issues of water and waste production, pet populations, fanatical consumptionism, quality of life, etc.
You can't have everything. Where would you put it?
Oh, it's OK because Elon's going to send the extra consumers to Mars....at a profit!
I think my brother had the right idea: get a job in waste management. As long as there's people, there's shit to do.
Why can't we all just get along?
Oh yeah, because it's more profitable if we don't: until it isn't.
If people acted with agency, they would put more into the future of things than they take out. We outsource our agency to our money (the Invisible Hand Job) and hope for the best, even as we pay people to exploit lack of agency in anyone below/behind/outside our righteous models.
Bloomberg et al love these kind of stories about how we (the West) don't have to worry about some logical consequence problem if it means avoiding thinking about consequences to other people or better yet; other people's children. The narrower the problem is presented, the better; so it can be countered with some narrowly cherry-picked data point.
"See! Malthus was all wrong (and he's dead)! There's plenty of calories to go around!"
We can eat all of those soybeans the Chinese aren't buying.

Drill baby, drill. Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran...
2   lostand confused   2018 May 8, 7:29am  

Fetility rates are dropping everywhere . In western states, it is reaching below repalcement levels. In some countries it is still high, but even there it is dropping.
3   Y   2018 May 8, 7:47am  

Sjws on the rise
4   justme   2018 May 8, 8:44am  

The population has ALREADY exploded. The bad effects of that overpopulation keep getting worse all the time. Once we have 9B people driving SUVs and jetting around the world there will be no more oil left and the climate will be hell. We are already here. The fact that this 9B people are not reproducing as much is only a small consolation.
5   FortWayne   2018 May 8, 8:48am  

I don’t know about that. All those on welfare are breeding nonstop for government benefits.

In our neighborhood that’s a common thing to see.
6   Shaman   2018 May 8, 9:47am  

justme says
The population has ALREADY exploded. The bad effects of that overpopulation keep getting worse all the time. Once we have 9B people driving SUVs and jetting around the world there will be no more oil left and the climate will be hell. We are already here. The fact that this 9B people are not reproducing as much is only a small consolation.


And you’d be correct if all 9 billion were doing those things. However it’s barely the top 10% who are doing that. Half the world is living in horrible poverty... and always has
7   Heraclitusstudent   2018 May 8, 11:22am  

There's only a couple of problems with this 'falling fertility' meme: first in African countries (hardly the most successful) fertility remains very high, which promises 4-5 billions of Africans by the end of the century. Africa is a large place, but I don't think 4-5 billions will live there in harmony. This puts the whole in danger, in particular liberal democracies in Europe. The relatively high fertility in Muslim countries is also a problem.
Second the population is still exploding, not because of birth but because of longer lives worldwide. We're still on the 11 billions trajectory.
You also have to factor the higher standards of living in places like China. That's not gonna make it easier to feed people.
Bottom line: At least a positive trend, but we're not out of the wood yet.
8   marcus   2018 May 8, 11:26am  

I'm trying to think of some other ways we can frame this as a fuck up on the part of liberals. Anyone got anything else ?
9   socal2   2018 May 8, 11:34am  

Heraclitusstudent says
There's only a couple of problems with this 'falling fertility' meme: first in African countries (hardly the most successful) fertility remains very high, which promises 4-5 billions of Africans by the end of the century.


If this is such a big problem - should rich 1st world countries stop providing Africa aide allowing them to live longer and reproduce?
10   Heraclitusstudent   2018 May 8, 11:47am  

socal2 says
If this is such a big problem - should rich 1st world countries stop providing Africa aide allowing them to live longer and reproduce?

On the contrary, we should help them more: educate their women and install TVs in their bedrooms.
11   komputodo   2018 May 8, 2:25pm  

lostand confused says
World no longer facing population explosion?


That's so 2017..
12   Bd6r   2018 May 8, 2:44pm  

Heraclitusstudent says
If this is such a big problem - should rich 1st world countries stop providing Africa aide allowing them to live longer and reproduce?

On the contrary, we should help them more: educate their women and install TVs in their bedrooms.

Provide FREE! contraception.

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