Drill baby drill

We have certainly long since passed the point where our collective lifestyle is sustainable. There are a lot of resources that will run out in the foreseeable future.

That is true in developed countries. But there are a lot of parts of the world where they still have very high birth rates because traditionally a good many kids died before they could have their own families - and now that they have better health care, food support, peace keeping efforts, etc., their population sizes are exploding.

Understandably, there is a lot of reluctance to saying "let them starve, kill each other, or die of epidemics". But what is missing is that along with the bag of rice, we should give them a bag of condoms. Along with the ebola vaccine, we should give free vasectomies. Instead, there is far too much influence from far-right religious nutjobs (mainly the USA and the Catholic church) who think abstinence is the only form of contraception that should be promoted, and that safe abortion is evil.

It would be good to see the population level off and gradually decline in a controlled manner. I fear it will continue to increase, and then inevitably crash.

What is your idea of "foreseeable" ? Predicting the future is a notoriously imprecise activity.

All those countries need is developing. And it's happening.

Ehrlich and his pals weren't a bit reluctant. They sort of relished it.

But what is missing is that

What we should do is educate their girls. My company finances some of that.

That concept, exponential growth and crash, has been popular since Malthus. So far, it's been flat wrong. The occasional disasters are the results of stupid politics (Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot, Chavez) or warfare, which is the same thing.

Really? If implemented, would these units forgo government liability protections/limitations (IIRC to 560M$)? And not require government waste disposal facilities into near-perpetuity? I won't quibble about the billions of $$ of R&D that we/government have paid for research leading up to this (sunk costs).

What you tout may be genuine advances, but the notion that there's NO government support seems at best an exaggeration. Gates et al. are no dummies, they'll socialize their risk and privatize their gain to the extent possible. It's up to everyone else to evaluate whether this is a good or Faustian bargain.

I think you mean "I'm sure glad I was born in a place where the people chose to live as we live here, where people's rights and property are respected."

America's no accident, we *made* it this way, mostly by organizing ourselves in a new and unique way--this "culture" of ours. Any other people could imitate us, and many have adopted and benefited from some of the American experiment.

And poor peoples? The things that have come from our free society have improved and extended the lives of even those who don't copy us, elevating virtually every people on the planet from the most poor, to even those living under the worst despotism.

Living off our crumbs? How preposterous! You're repeating 1960's Soviet agit-prop, that free enterprise wasn't beating communism by being a better, freer system, it's just that we were exploiters taking advantage of African countries. Which the Soviets proceeded to conquer with that agitprop--that's why so much of Africa went Marxist. Worked out real good for them, diddnit?

You really don't seem to get it: America's not some cosmic accident. It's what it is because hundreds of years ago we chose to live this way, respecting each other's rights and property. And we've taught our children for generations to live the same way.

Any people on the world could adopt our values and live the same way. But they don't.

It's not our 'lucky dirt' that makes us different, it's the way we choose to live--if we chose to live like Mexico, we'd soon be exactly like Mexico.

If Americans traded places with Mexico, and left them our houses and industries, in short order North America would as Mexico, and Mexico would be the new America.

Cheers, James Arthur

Bitrex lives in the Democratic Peoples Republic (aka Church/Police State) of Massa2shits, and thinks that's the way the rest of the United States _must_ live. ...Jim Thompson

As they should. It has killed more people than any other chemical.

If you must whine about any of the above, show us the way and stop using it! ...or STFU.

See

Yes, but Mr. Bit makes a broader left-staple argument: that America just got lucky for 241 years in a row. Magic. Nothing fancy about it.

Not so. It was a set of choices, choices we hear are outdated, made by white people, and, for other equally silly reasons, should be thrown away.

Those choices all sprang from a belief: that a man should choose his own destiny, be his own master(*), and rule his government rather than be ruled by it. They believed, calculated, and gambled this would be better-- "Let's give it a go! Distributed intelligence. People power!"

(*) Yes, boneheads, slaves too.

The left believes men are children, don't trust them with their own earnings or doings, and feel the 'masses' have to be ruled by better men. Them.

Cheers, James Arthur

We don't want no populism 'round here.

My heart is hardened when it comes to Massa2shits. The Cambridge police actually cited me for working on Sunday wiring my landlord's carriage house for electricity (back when I was an MIT student).

The state also issued a warrant for the seizure for all my property because I refused to pay the Massa2shits poll tax (I was a WV resident attending MIT, NOT a citizen of Massa2shits).

I managed to exit Massa2shits before they could execute that warrant, but when I was leaving Massa2shits after graduation... when I crossed into Connecticut, I stopped and pissed on Massa2shits from Connecticut

I sent the warrant to Voo Doo, the MIT humor magazine, who had a ball editorializing on it ;-)

See progressives, I've always been a rebel, though I registered Democrat when I moved to Arizona... of course, once I reached the age of earning and a growing family to support, I switched to Republican. ...Jim Thompson

Others have had American experiments imposed on them. Iran is a case in point.

The Shah of Iran might not have one of the worst despots, but he was imposed on the people of Iran by a CIA-sponsored plot, designed to make Iranian oil more readily and cheaply available to the US and the UK.

That's one of the "things" that came from your "free" society, and the current theocracy running Iran is essentially a consequence of that mistake.

Depends on the populism!

History has too many examples of pretty disgusting (to contemporary eyes) activities that were popular.

And of powerful elites doing very nasty things.

Too true.

People are people, whether here/there, then/now, and whoever pays their wages.

Reducing the population is what hospitals are for.

It's not in their mission statements. If you are likely to die, you will probably end up in a hospital and may die there, but they do see their job as putting off the inevitable.

Just dispose of all leftists... imagine the tranquility >:-} ...Jim Thompson

Please, NEVER go to a hospital.