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Imagine there is a magic button, that once pressed, solves the basic needs of shelter, food, clothing, access to water, education, healthcare... permanently, fo
by 29athrowaway 5y ago
Imagine there is a magic button, that once pressed, solves the basic needs of shelter, food, clothing, access to water, education, healthcare... permanently, for every living person.
The only catch is that this magical work still costs natural resources to work. Topsoil, fresh water, oil, fish, lumber, pollinators, etc... every necessary resource to keep things working gets allocated and used automatically.
What will happen right after pressing this button is that there will be a massive population boost followed by a massive allocation of resources because perceive no longer perceives economic resistance as their families grow. So population grows exponentially and so does resource sage. Then, once resource depletion is imminent, a war over resources would take place.
After years of non-stop war, people will realize that peace is possible if they establish reproduction quotas. But each time the quotas are not respected, war happens again.
Would that be a better world? I don't think so.
- com2kid 5y agoPeople who can afford to have all their basic needs met without worry have less children on average. See: population decline in advanced economies, especially Nordic countries and middle/upper middle class America. Humans are still animals that act on instinct, and our instinctive behavior is, when faced with dangerous short term threats, to reproduce en-masse. War torn countries are the best example of this, humans fall back to a mass quantity strategy for survival. But in a situation of resource abundance? People have less kids and invest more in each child.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- Cthulhu_ 5y agoMost of those resources you mention are renewable (and we're working on getting rid of the need for oil), their limits are an economic and / or technologic problem that can be solved, especially if we can get more people educated and working on these problems. Anyway as another commenter pointed out, birth rates will decline on their own if people are comfortable and happy. Which presents itself with its own problems in the current economic system that seems to depend on constant population growth, and in many economies where birth rates have declined they compensated with immigration. Which presents its own challenges of course, but then, the US was founded by colonizer invaders, the local population genocided, then built up by millions and millions of immigrants (voluntary or slaves).
- 29athrowaway 5y ago> Most of those resources you mention are renewable They are replenishable/renewable at a rate. And that rate has been for many years slower than the consumption rate. https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=29athrowaway https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=29athrowaway When the consumption rate is higher than the replenishment rate, the resource is depleted over time.
- 29athrowaway 5y agoThat link is an accidental paste/typo.
- jokoon 5y ago> there will be a massive population boost Care to explain? There is a high correlation between level of education and a reduced number of children.