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Common view with a fundamental flaw: The most important resource for us people is other people! A lone human typically doesn't survive the winter. Big populat
by BurningFrog 4y ago
Common view with a fundamental flaw:
The most important resource for us people is other people!
A lone human typically doesn't survive the winter. Big populations allow division of labor which is what has given us the, to people of the less populated past, unthinkable prosperity and long healthy lives.
- pessimizer 4y agoNobody is talking about lone humans. They're talking about the difference between 8 billion and 16 billion. It's not likely that any significant economies of scale that have somehow not managed to emerge at 8 billion people will emerge when you double that.
- BurningFrog 4y agoPerhaps. But going from 4 billion to 8 billion in the last 50 years, the living standard for the average person has improved spectacularly.
- thefz 4y agoAverage,yes. But just because the top has become wealthier.
- BurningFrog 4y agoNot at all. There has been enormous improvements for the poorest. Tons of data here. Look for yourself: https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty-in-brief https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty-in-brief
- jemmyw 4y agoWe don't know if it would have improved more or less if the population stayed at 4 billion, so there's no argument there either way.
- thefz 4y agoWe've been surviving for thousands of years in very small, sparse groups.
- BurningFrog 4y agoSure. But we've only flourished under industrialism during the last 250 years.