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Far too many people seem to simply not be capable of internalizing and comprehending that the primary source of the issues mentioned in this piece in addition t

by wahsd 11y ago

Far too many people seem to simply not be capable of internalizing and comprehending that the primary source of the issues mentioned in this piece in addition to climate change are due to unfettered population growth and growth in general. I get that many disagree, but reality is that not only is nothing we do about climate change totally meaningless without reducing or at least controlling the population, but improving the human condition for people will only produce even more polluting people. What is the concept from the startup community? ... the fallacy of scaling/growth out of marginal losses?

jp555 11y ago
We have reduced the amount of resources required for every $ of GDP produced by ~80% in the past century. Why do you think this will stop in the next century? It takes time for tech to propagate, which is why American farmers get 5x more food per acre than Indian farmers, but that's going to begin equalize (and double again) very quickly now.
- wahsd 11y ago
  And then what, more and more people and we chase more and more solutions to more and more problems we create through unrestrained population growth for no reason whatsoever. You don't seem to realize we are exiting the industrial age where people were a convenient input to production the wealthy and powerful fostered. It simply makes no sense to keep growing and then chasing the consequences of unfettered growth with the chance that solutions may be developed to solve unnecessary problems. You totally ignored the fact that the greatest contributor to global warming is people, western ones and residents of developed countries, especially the USA more so than any others. You can rationalize and fantasize justifications all you want, but the fact of the matter is that there are hard limits to growth before the rest of the system can't maintain and the wheels come off. And it's all unnecessary at that. There is nothing inherently better in more people, because if you are not worth at the very least ~$3M, you are definitely not net gaining from population growth, exponentially so if you are not American.
  - jp555 11y ago
    I think you misunderstand growth. It is not simple growth like a balloon grows as you inflate it. The economy is the act of economizing - the process of learning to do more with less. Growth is learning, to suggest we will stop learning or are capable of forcing ourselves to end learning is either ridiculous or horrific.

by wahsd 11y ago

jp555 11y ago

We have reduced the amount of resources required for every $ of GDP produced by ~80% in the past century. Why do you think this will stop in the next century? It takes time for tech to propagate, which is why American farmers get 5x more food per acre than Indian farmers, but that's going to begin equalize (and double again) very quickly now.

wahsd 11y ago
And then what, more and more people and we chase more and more solutions to more and more problems we create through unrestrained population growth for no reason whatsoever. You don't seem to realize we are exiting the industrial age where people were a convenient input to production the wealthy and powerful fostered. It simply makes no sense to keep growing and then chasing the consequences of unfettered growth with the chance that solutions may be developed to solve unnecessary problems. You totally ignored the fact that the greatest contributor to global warming is people, western ones and residents of developed countries, especially the USA more so than any others. You can rationalize and fantasize justifications all you want, but the fact of the matter is that there are hard limits to growth before the rest of the system can't maintain and the wheels come off. And it's all unnecessary at that. There is nothing inherently better in more people, because if you are not worth at the very least ~$3M, you are definitely not net gaining from population growth, exponentially so if you are not American.
- jp555 11y ago
  I think you misunderstand growth. It is not simple growth like a balloon grows as you inflate it. The economy is the act of economizing - the process of learning to do more with less. Growth is learning, to suggest we will stop learning or are capable of forcing ourselves to end learning is either ridiculous or horrific.