[weatherguru18]

Originally Posted by murdoc9

overpopulation isn't the problem - think about it. Ok go...

Alright now, what are problems and what are symptoms, seriously? So, what are the negative aspects of people having too many babies, that is causing some of us to act as if their loins could use some lube? Lets see, the problems are disease, starvation, crime, not contributing to society either in the form of not paying taxes, requiring welfare, being imprisoned, etc., etc.

So, how many of these problems are due to there being too many people? Well, disease is influenced by many factors such as availability of healthcare, sanitation, education about the actual causes of illness and proximity to the disease carrying entities. You could have a billion people or 10, and nothing changes about the influencing factors.

Starvation is a factor of not enough food in a particular place. Why does this happen? If we have plenty of seeds, the earth is 70% water and the rest is dirt that we can use to plant in, why is there a shortage? The answer is sure as hell not that there is too many people, it relates to cost, government interference, lack of education, etc.

Crime seems like it could be directly related to overpopulation, but gasp, it has nothing to do with it. In big cities the biggest drivers of crime are drug and gang related activities, in more rural areas the biggest drivers of crime is violence between close relatives and acquantances. People killing each other in drug and gang related activities aren't doing so because there are too many people to sell drugs and "services" to, its because they chose that line of work (why they chose that line of work is related to many factors such as level of education, risk/reward perceptions, lack of knowledge about readily available alternatives - again, in no way related to so called overpopulation).

I could go on about my last point about people not contributing to society, but it would sound a great deal like the other points I've made.

I think this discussion is a byproduct of our quick fix mentality, but problems that appear to have quick fixes are usually far more complex.

Also to add that most of what is being said here about crime relates to American cities. While crime happens everywhere, it is considered safer in the middle of European cities than it is in the burbs. My friends from Europe don't understand why most of us live in the suburbs here.

As far as over population and disease, it's our own fault. TAKING THE MORALITY AND HUMAN ASPECT OUT OF IT...why do we continue to persue medicine and cures for diseases? Population in the olden days was controlled by disease, warfare, and natural disasters. While devastating, especially if it were MY closest ken, it is a fact of life. While I agree with finding ways to ease the pain of disease so we don't suffer, it was never meant for us to survive everything. If everybody lived to be over 100 (or god forbid 150), you would strain every resource the planet has...this would truely be a tragedy of the commons...social security would most certainly be done for! Think about it, we'd be paying for people born in 1858...three years before the Civil War!!!