Why is no One Talking about Overpopulation?

[nanook12]

Falling wages due to over supplies of labor, lack of jobs, food shortages, rising inflation costs, animal die offs, massive environmental degradation, infrastructure failure, high crime rates, etc. How can people not see that overpopulation is a problem?

[Simulacrum]

cuz you can't really do anything about it

not like it's a problem in the west either, which just makes it even weirder for us to sit around talking about how to get those poor people to stop breeding as much

[Tennis]

How is it a problem? Agricultural production has grown exponentially?

Not to mention with all the "progressives" out there who want to be single and live life till they're 40, we don't have that much to worry about the earth's population getting too high.

[Danbala]

My friends and I have tried to get into actual debates about this, but there is always a mother of 3 children or more who interjects with "WELL YOU WOULDN'T SAY THAT OVERPOPULATION IS A PROBLEM IF YOU WEREN'T BORN".. Of course, If I wasn't born, I wouldn't have an opinion on the matter.. But overpopulation is really a looming concern. I'm not sure why nothing is even talked about. I guess people's "right" to screw and therefore further screw up the planet trumps everything.

[jellmoo]

Because it isn't a problem? There is a veritable crapton of land across the world that is uninhibited along with natural resources up the wazoo. The issue isn't overpopulation, the issue is that the land and resources are controlled by a teeny tiny percent of people. The issue isn't the number of people. It's distribution of wealth.

[chazus]

Almost none of those problems are a result of overpopulation. It's not being talked about because it's not technically a problem.

That isn't to say our birthrate currently isn't staggering, and in 100 years it WILL be a problem, but it's not a problem now.

[Guy4123]

Good luck telling China and India to stop fucking so much.

[PC2]

No matter how much people try to blame everything on rich people you cant avoid the fact that having 7,500,000,000 people is terrible for the ecosystem and natural resources per capita.

[Deleted]

Falling wages due to over supplies of labor, lack of jobs, food shortages, rising inflation costs, animal die offs, massive environmental degradation, infrastructure failure, high crime rates, etc. How can people not see that overpopulation is a problem?

Because that would place the newest "progressive" trend, mass immigration from the 3rd world into the West, into a very questionable light.

Also we all know where the overpopulation problems really are and who really should be conrolling their own breeding a bit more, but talking about that would be racist.

[spinner981]

Because it isn't a problem? There is a veritable crapton of land across the world that is uninhibited along with natural resources up the wazoo. The issue isn't overpopulation, the issue is that the land and resources are controlled by a teeny tiny percent of people. The issue isn't the number of people. It's distribution of wealth.

Neither of these things are issues. The distribution of wealth is simply what you arrive at within a society that doesn't arbitrarily assign resources (be they necessary or unnecessary) to people regardless of their contributions. Wealth isn't and shouldn't be wholly 'distributed', it should be earned based on merit, which is ultimately what happens within a true capitalist society and is why such a system works; because rather than being based on how some idealists think mankind 'should' behave, it instead is based off of how mankind does behave.

[nanook12]

How is it a problem? Agricultural production has grown exponentially?

Not to mention with all the "progressives" out there who want to be single and live life till they're 40, we don't have that much to worry about the earth's population getting too high.

Have you looked at the birthrate for immigrants?

[Deleted]

Because it isn't a problem? There is a veritable crapton of land across the world that is uninhibited along with natural resources up the wazoo. The issue isn't overpopulation, the issue is that the land and resources are controlled by a teeny tiny percent of people. The issue isn't the number of people. It's distribution of wealth.

You should talk to the Russians about redistribution of land.

[jellmoo]

Neither of these things are issues. The distribution of wealth is simply what you arrive at within a society that doesn't arbitrarily assign resources (be they necessary or unnecessary) to people regardless of their contributions. Wealth isn't and shouldn't be wholly 'distributed', it should be earned based on merit, which is ultimately what happens within a true capitalist society and is why such a system works; because rather than being based on how some idealists think mankind 'should' behave, it instead is based off of how mankind does behave.

Bollocks. When people can work a full time job and still live in poverty, you cannot make that claim. When people live a life of luxury based on nothing more than who their parents are, you cannot make that claim. When entire nations live in largess whist others die in gutters, you cannot make that claim. When the entire system is corrupt and is designed to keep the rich on top and the poor on the bottom, you cannot make that claim.

[Independent voter]

If every human on earth was given the house on the left, how much space would it take up?

[nanook12]

Because it isn't a problem? There is a veritable crapton of land across the world that is uninhibited along with natural resources up the wazoo. The issue isn't overpopulation, the issue is that the land and resources are controlled by a teeny tiny percent of people. The issue isn't the number of people. It's distribution of wealth.

Correction there is a crapton of land that is either non-fertile or just far to economically costly to develop. The argument that "the earths entire population could fit on the state of Texas" is silly because it doesn't acknowledge that each person needs a fair amount of land just for themselves to survive. Plus it does not take into account that humans are greedy and will not share equally unless forced t. So I disagree with your statement that "overpopulation is not a problem," especially considering the laundry list of things that I posted in the OP that are already happening.

- - - Updated - - -

If every human on earth was given the house on the left, how much space would it take up?

Now calculate in farm land needed to grow crops and livestock, cotton for food, land for generating energy to run our modern conveniences, roads for transportation, etc. Also calculate in the propensity of human greed.

[Nihilist74]

How is it a problem? Agricultural production has grown exponentially?

Not to mention with all the "progressives" out there who want to be single and live life till they're 40, we don't have that much to worry about the earth's population getting too high.

With the increasing agricultural production, we are creating tons of pollution from nitrogen fertilizer. The nitrogen fertilizer is getting into our waters. This causes massive growth of algae that kills everything else in the water.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...helms-streams/

[Blueobelisk]

Because you should want a good amount of people in the generation that should pay your social security checks?

[Sky High]

because it's not a problem yet and for all we know will never BE a problem.

[Tennis]

Have you looked at the birthrate for immigrants?

What about it? It balances out while the club crowd just wastes their life away.

[xChurch]

Because it's not a Global problem at the moment. Sure some countries are over populated but on the whole the Earth is not. Our problem is resource allocation, not population, the Earth isn't even close to capped yet. Keep in mind that a lot of Western countries are starting to see the begginings of a demographic crisis due to aging populations and low birth rates (just go look up Japan for a case study). So until it becomes a Global problem you're unlikely to see a Global effort towards any action.