Subject:
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Re: Poverty myths?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Mon, 3 Feb 2003 21:51:44 GMT
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Viewed:
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124 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, David Eaton writes:
<snip>
> In a more global system dynamics view, what happens if poverty is truly
> eliminated? Does the world have the resources to maintain a human society at
> the level of what we might consider to be a 'non-impovrished' nation? And to
> be more specific, at what population level? (IE maybe we could support 500
> million, but can we support 5 billion? etc) IIRC world models predicted that
> there was a 'pinch-point' around 1995 (or so-- I forget) after which no
> matter *how* much we reformed ourselves (in terms of polution, resource
> consumption, etc), human society was doomed to plummet. Anyway, that date
> also got pushed back with progressive models and better technology-- but not
> by much. Anyone know anything about the 'current status' on that one?
>
> DaveE
I can't remember the day, but I was watching "live, on television" when the
world broke 5 billion folks. They had this counter going up like a Lotto or
something... Like wow, we have 5 billion folks on this planet...
I've heard many differnet numbers over the last few years, and it seems as
if these numbers depend on what social influence you're trying to get across
"The world can support 10 billion people--why are folks starving??? We
should ship the food from the 'haves' to the 'have nots'"
"The world is already overpoplulated! We should enforce sterilization
procedures on third world girls so they don't have upteen children!"
Well, it's like the chlorestorol--first it's good for ya, then it's bad for
ya, then some is good, some is bad, and now every 'dietician' who is suppose
to know such things contadicts every other dietician.
What it comes down to, for me, is to help where you can. I donate some
funds monthly to some child somewhere in the world. Hopefully, as the
mailings keep telling me, this child is getting nourished, but more than
that, she is supposedly being educated so that maybe she'll be smart 'nuff
not to get knocked up upteen times when she reaches any age when she can
start having kids.
I dunno, sometimes I feel I should do more, but the numbers don't work for
me, as you noted. Give food, produces more mouths to feed. There is no
simple solution.
What can the world support? Again, dunno, but we should be stewardly with
what we're given, no matter if we can support 10 billion. Waste = doing
something wrong.
Forced sterilization? I think I'd definitly be against that. Spend the
money on education so these repetitious downward cycles don't continue.
There was an A C Clarke story set sometime in the not-so-distant future when
China imposed a tax on any child born after the first one--1 million dollars
for the second kid, 2 million for the third kid, 4 million, then 8 million.
The character in the story was the most expensive kid ever born, costing his
parents, whatever, 32 million (I can't remember if that's the exact
number... but you get my point)
Canada is said to have a 1.8 birth rate. Since it takes, on the average, 2
kids--one make, one female--to maintain the population, 1.8 is reducing our
population. But we make up for the numbers with immigration. We have,
though, been sititng at 30ish million folks for a while. Is that a good
thing? Again, I dunno.
There are just no easy answers to this one.
That's enuf tangents for this post.
Dave K
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Poverty myths?
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| (...) There are two other indicators that can be of help here: the "age pyramid" (dividing the population in classes of 5 years), and the "Active-to-passive" ratio. This last one takes into account the contribute of the immigrants to the society, (...) (21 years ago, 3-Feb-03, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Poverty myths?
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| (...) In my utterly limited study of dynamic systems analysis, I remember several examples (most of which I forget the specifics of, tho remember the jist) where the 'gut reaction' was to help people/societies/etc by giving money/aid/etc, which just (...) (21 years ago, 3-Feb-03, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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