What does your future hold?

**mashman** · 12th October 2010, 18:49

Originally Posted by NinjaNanna

I've been thinking on population control again today for no good reason.

I began contemplating mass contraception, what I arrived at was this:

this was passed on to me the other day.

**NinjaNanna** · 12th October 2010, 19:14

Originally Posted by Milts

There are a lot of issues with that, but the one which makes it least practical right now is that the countries with the high birthrates don't have the economic or social power to enforce it - you would need a strong government and medical infrastructure and those exist in the countries with the lowest birthrates.

I can also imagine huge outcry because it's only imposed upon the women, what's to stop a man having multiple children through multiple partners, wouldn't it lead to a huge percentage of women denying being pregnant/having a child and therefore a large percentage of the population who "don't exist" in terms of a birth certificate etc....

The countries which have the biggest population problems seem to be the developing countries, and the developed and westernised countries seem to have the lower birth rates (in general). Surely in that case the "solution" (from our perspective) would be to encourage development and westernisation of currently developing nations?

Yes I saw these problems and it wouldn't work so well in developing countries where home births are the norm rather than the exception. Mind you whilst these countries increasing in population is a problem, there are other ways of dealing with them - but unfortunately they are inhumane and require us turning our back on them. But so long as they can feed and water themselves who are we to say how big their population should be.

the other option is to serverely decrease the developed countries birth rates then open those countries doors to immigration. But whilst that would be humane it would never gain acceptance as it is inherently unfair.

So that leaves us with the developed countries that still have too high a birth rate (and from memory there are only a handful of countries where the rates are actually declining, Japan is one of them). Whilst I don't feel particularly comfortable saying that only women should be administered the contraceptive it is the most effective means, after all men can't have babies, and in most cultures the women decides who father's her child anyway so the issue of males fathering more children is really only acedemic.

I was working on a way to to quickly bring our population under control (but really to stimulate some conversation), yes I agree that long term it is only education and real choices for women that delivers "free choice" population control but that takes decades and generations to acheive and I don't believe we have that time available to us.

**NinjaNanna** · 12th October 2010, 19:17

Originally Posted by mashman

this was passed on to me the other day.

Interesting, though I really don't like the idea of covert medication, but if it became neccessary to control the populations in developing countries, then they should be told, I believe everybody has the right to know that they are being screwed.

**Pixie** · 13th October 2010, 08:37

Originally Posted by NinjaNanna

I completely agree with you Milts, the world is always falling down, the only part that I see considerably different is the sheer weight of population. Historically societies have generally been self sufficient in the neccessities of life. If they had shortfalls then the population was kept in check. These days it doesn't seem to be the case, if a poor country is incapable of supplying its own food and water (I'm refering to long term not short term crop failures and natural disaster) then aid kicks in and continues to allow marginal settlements to continue in subsistence. If a rich country is unable to supply its own needs then it simply purchases what it needs.

Recently as part of the election campaign here in Australia, Dick Smith produced a documentary about population growth and in particular Australia's policies toward managing it (or as it turns out lack of policy at all). Australia is one of the countries where population is meant to double within the next half century, albeit only through immigration. Following the screening of the documentary there was a televised debate that addressed some of the issues raised. One of the guests on the panel was an ex president of the Australian liberal party, I was disgusted to here him outwardly scoffing at what had been presented, in particular he was laughing at the prospect of food and water shortages, he openly laughed at the prospect sighting that Australia currently exports 1/2 of its produce.

What was screemingly obvious to me but seemed to totally escape this man was that if the population doubles as expected then there will be none left to export!!! On top of that very real statistics are showing that despite increased technology farm productivity is dropping due to major salinity issues and overall decreased fertility of the land due to intensive farming. To add another blow to this much of Australia's farm land which previously was owned by Australian families is being bought by multi-national companies. This equates to Australians no longer being in control of their own food destiny. As demand for food increases these companies are there for one reason, to make money, whoever has the most money can buy the food, to bad if Australian's can't afford it.

This isn't just happening in Australia, in a recent David Enborough documentary we were told about may European, Middle East and Asian countries buying up large properties in Africa for the sole reason of sureing up their own food supplies....

So yes while I agree with you that the sky has always been falling, I beleive the sheer scale, due to population, of what is coming will dwarf any famine, natural disaster or war history has ever none.

Unless of course we do something about it.

Who the fuck is David Enborough?

**Pixie** · 13th October 2010, 08:38

Originally Posted by NinjaNanna

This isn't just happening in Australia, in a recent David Enborough documentary we were told about may European, Middle East and Asian countries buying up large properties in Africa for the sole reason of sureing up their own food supplies....

So yes while I agree with you that the sky has always been falling, I beleive the sheer scale, due to population, of what is coming will dwarf any famine, natural disaster or war history has ever none.

Unless of course we do something about it.

Who the fuck is David Enborough?

**imdying** · 13th October 2010, 08:52

TLDR

My future holds an XR1200 or a VRod

**onearmedbandit** · 13th October 2010, 09:12

Doomsday supporters could only reach a smaller audience before the internet.

**mashman** · 13th October 2010, 10:17

Originally Posted by NinjaNanna

Interesting, though I really don't like the idea of covert medication, but if it became neccessary to control the populations in developing countries, then they should be told, I believe everybody has the right to know that they are being screwed.

TPTB Devils Advocate: The thought of asking the population to take something rendering them, even if temporarily, infertile makes us roar with laughter. We will covertly medicate you. Why? We have provided you with FREE contraception over the last 40+ years and what is the result? A population boom the likes of which the planet cannot sustain. You keep knockin people up and draining the financial resources of your country. Therefore you leave us with no choice, other than to covertly medicate you, tis for your own good. Remember, we offered you free contraception, you didn't take it, have a nice day