LOL. The worlds population is growing at less than 2% per year and that rate is declining.
Wait until the baby boomers and similar generations die off. We’re going to be begging people to have kids.
Rates and levels, they both matter. Even if the rate of growth is slowing there are still too many people. I’m going out on a limb (a very small limb, more like a shrubbery) to say that all of the people in the world would like a higher standard of living. That isn’t remotely possible for the people who are here now, let alone another 1.5% next year. So the level here is more important than the rate. There is nothing sustainable about how the western world lives. Adding more people who we will convince to want what we have is even crazier; they’ll never be able to have it and if they actually tried would crater our standard of living.
Most folks prefer to go through life believing in a techno narcissist fantasy. One that peddles the belief that technology can save us. If we just make things a bit more efficient we can save ourselves from ourselves. Mostly what we use improvements in efficiency for is to build bigger (fatter) and dumber (less aware of the world around them) citizens. This religion is patently false first and wouldn’t even mostly be necessary if we showed enough self restraint to live within our ecological means. Technology isn’t inherently bad, but we never recycle to gains for the future, we just spend the gains in the present.
So to the poster who snarkily said, population is only increasing at 1.5% a year I say good on you sir! You’re belief in the goodness of the status quo is helping to kill us all, quite quickly! I’m guessing you have or want more than 2 kids!
Josh[/quote]
I’ll play.
I posted the rate b/c many people who want to decrease the population think it’s growing out of control. So let’s talk level. What’s your plan to (I assume) get it down? Keep in mind that all things being equal ideas like making birth control more available, better education for women, access to abortion etc. all take decades to work their way through to results. What number do we need to get to and by when?
Again, keep in mind that most developed countries have large proportions of their populations that are older with the younger folks not making babies at a rate to keep up with their deaths. This gets worse in ~10 years.
As for me I have one kid. Would have liked another but it didn’t pan out. Maybe if I had 2 I’d want a third. Who knows. No one I know is being killed by a 1.5% growth rate.
I do find it appalling that someone or some government would try to tell me how many kids I can have (and I’m male).
