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You make a decent emotional appeal. However, the hard facts we are dealing with today is the aftermath of the Baby Boomers. Normally, when we deal with populat
by TheAmazingIdiot 15y ago
You make a decent emotional appeal.
However, the hard facts we are dealing with today is the aftermath of the Baby Boomers. Normally, when we deal with population graphs, we see a huge base of young, a smaller base of young adults, smaller base of mid adults, and a small/pinnacle of elderly. It's supposed to taper off into a long tail.
Instead, we in the US (unsure about other cultures and areas) a huge bulge around 55-65. Social programs are meant to subsidise the elder through the younger. However in this situation, there's not enough younger to pay for the same care the elder have been receiving. So you either raise the age cap, or reduce service. And, AARP makes sure the second choice doesn't happen.
And about the food quip: back in 2000, the global food output was enough to feed 12 earths of people, yet people still died of hunger. Overall resource maintenance and allocation is the bigger, and unsolved problem.
- nopassrecover 15y agoPresumably if we could extend life, we could also extend the period of life in which you can produce and create useful things. There would be little point extending lives if it meant you spent an extra 30 years confined to a bed with no memory of your identity.
- TheAmazingIdiot 15y agoThat's part of what I'm worried about. Upper middle class and above have little to no qualms about throwing scads of money at a little bit of extra time here, even if the quality of that time is approaching 0. And in the baby boomers case, they expect the government to send in their due. When that comes, though, we will not be able to afford it. It's kind of what we talk a lot about in the entrepreneurial sense: We try to convert time to money in a reproducible sense. However, the older you get, money depreciates to 0 (dead people have no use for money), so you run that equation backwards, with large inefficiencies. But this kind of talk seems to piss off the bulk of downvoters. So be it.
- TheAmazingIdiot 15y agoWhy exactly am I getting modded to death? -4? How about some of you who are giving downvotes explain why you are doing so? Is what I said not factual, or just uncomfortable to read?
- burgerbrain 15y agoBecause I don't think that "humanity tends to adapt to higher population densities as it needs to" is an appeal to emotion, but I do think that accusing someone's argument of being an appeal to emotion in what is traditionally a rather intellectual discussion venue is a pretty heavy accusation. Also, this is all absurdly offtopic.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- rokhayakebe 15y agoHow about some of you who are giving downvotes explain I did not downvote you and I think you make an interesting point. I agree downvoters should explain.