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> There was also forced sterilization in the United States. Yes, in the 20s in New York State. It was quite rare by comparison to what happened in India. The

> There was also forced sterilization in the United States. Yes, in the 20s in New York State. It was quite rare by comparison to what happened in India. The point was not to say "this is what socialists do" but to say point out that they did it at the behest of capitalists, which is quite the incongruity -- an incongruity which you noticed yet you failed to make the connection that it made the Gandhis phonies. That should make you wonder how genuine they were as socialists.

sterlind 1y ago
specifically, The Population Bomb was the big book during the era, which was written by a Stanford professor. India's forced sterilization campaign was at the behest of the World Bank, and championed by the Ford and Rockefeller foundations, all of which were strongly influenced by the book. Fun fact: the author, Mr. Erlich, is still alive (at the age of 92!) and has maintained his correctness, instead saying he was "too optimistic" when his forecasted mass starvation failed to materialize.
- cryptonector 1y ago
  Malthusian predictions have two parts, one of which is proven time and time again, and the other which has yet to be proven but on the basis of which horrible things are justified: 1. population growth leads to food production improvements which enables more population growth, 2. catastrophic failure must result eventually when we really run into the planet's human carrying capacity. Malthusians like Paul Erlich are the boy who cried wolf. They are always wrong when they cry "wolf!", but who knows, maybe someday they might be right ("someday we will be right" is their message). So far we've only seen the inverse of Malthusian catastrophes: population collapse. We've seen population collapse twice in recorded history, perhaps more: - the Roman empire - now, almost everywhere Malthusians like mr. Erlich might argue that the reason we're reaching population peaks (followed by collapse) is precisely due to their efforts. Perhaps. But population collapse is not all that fun either. Yet even today we have a great deal of political pressure from some quarters to do things that will speed up the collapse rather than slow it.
  - wqaatwt 1y ago
    > is proven time and time again It’s not though. That was only the case since the 1800s. Malthus was more or less correct about the preceding periods. > collapse twice in recorded history, perhaps more Not perhaps. Certainly more. If you want a clear cut and well documented example look at Europe between ~1000 and the 1300s. Massive population expansion leading to overpopulation, very high food costs and mass starvation. The Black Death interrupted that cycle and limited population growth for the next 400 years or so (which resulted in significant increase in per capita productivity across Europe).

sterlind 1y ago

specifically, The Population Bomb was the big book during the era, which was written by a Stanford professor. India's forced sterilization campaign was at the behest of the World Bank, and championed by the Ford and Rockefeller foundations, all of which were strongly influenced by the book. Fun fact: the author, Mr. Erlich, is still alive (at the age of 92!) and has maintained his correctness, instead saying he was "too optimistic" when his forecasted mass starvation failed to materialize.

cryptonector 1y ago
Malthusian predictions have two parts, one of which is proven time and time again, and the other which has yet to be proven but on the basis of which horrible things are justified: 1. population growth leads to food production improvements which enables more population growth, 2. catastrophic failure must result eventually when we really run into the planet's human carrying capacity. Malthusians like Paul Erlich are the boy who cried wolf. They are always wrong when they cry "wolf!", but who knows, maybe someday they might be right ("someday we will be right" is their message). So far we've only seen the inverse of Malthusian catastrophes: population collapse. We've seen population collapse twice in recorded history, perhaps more: - the Roman empire - now, almost everywhere Malthusians like mr. Erlich might argue that the reason we're reaching population peaks (followed by collapse) is precisely due to their efforts. Perhaps. But population collapse is not all that fun either. Yet even today we have a great deal of political pressure from some quarters to do things that will speed up the collapse rather than slow it.
- wqaatwt 1y ago
  > is proven time and time again It’s not though. That was only the case since the 1800s. Malthus was more or less correct about the preceding periods. > collapse twice in recorded history, perhaps more Not perhaps. Certainly more. If you want a clear cut and well documented example look at Europe between ~1000 and the 1300s. Massive population expansion leading to overpopulation, very high food costs and mass starvation. The Black Death interrupted that cycle and limited population growth for the next 400 years or so (which resulted in significant increase in per capita productivity across Europe).