Thread: SHOULDN'T WE BE SERIOUSLY STOPPING OUR POPULATION GROWTH?

Originally Posted by tact

No, am not coming from an economics perspective, though of course that does come along for the ride. My thinking is purely in relation to the number of beings that the closed system that we live on, the earth, can sustain.

My point was that so many schemes to address this focus only on limiting new entrants to life's journey (i.e. births overall, or population movements to a life in a specific country). A fully rounded picture would also deal with culling the old codgers constantly, trimming the tree so to speak, to make room for continuous well planned new growth.

To keep the population (of the globe, or of a specific country) at a relatively constant number that is sustainable, could be managed by simply controlling the birth rate etc.... But why not have a more proactive system in play, active culling at a certain age? This allows for better planning around the introduction of new lives to the fixed size pool. Mitigates the risks of increasing lifespans. Ensures constant fresh blood.

The actual number of codgers to be culled may need to be adjusted seasonally - To account for surprise departures through natural disasters, birth defects, suicides, etc. Given the lead time to commissioning new life entrants (9mths), any unexpected life terminations could result in an extension of time for some lucky old codgers. (How to administer that is open for discussion).

One thought to administer this would be to sentence all grandparents to death. When a daughter (or daughter in law) gets pregnant, you have nine months to decide which grandparent gets the lethal injection. You could do it at the time of birth. A big family arrival/departure celebration (the celebration being big, not the family). Three kids, not a problem. One of the parents must go.
Oh, for immigration, we should set up a sponsorship scheme. When your sponsored immigrant sets foot in the country, the sponsor must either get the lethal, or be deported.

Is this where we're headed? From the Hitch Hikers Guide:

Bethselamin

A fabulously beautiful planet, Bethselamin is now so worried about the cumulative erosion by ten billion visiting tourists a year that any net imbalance between the amount you eat and the amount you excrete whilst on the planet is surgically removed from your bodyweight when you leave: so every time you go to the lavatory there it is vitally important to get a receipt.

Originally Posted by Bigbjorn

An alternative to culling oldies would be to cull ferals and bogans. Most are non-productive and cost taxpayers lots to maintain. Think welfare payments, police, courts, gaols, hospitals, drug rehabilitation centres, public housing and so on.

Who decides ?