The Population Bomb Doomsday Scam • Hacker News Board

Re: The Population Bomb Doomsday Scam

#11

Post by leto_ii » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 12:42 PM UTC

To my mind the authors completely fail to acknowledge a serious conflict of interests and therefore have no credibility. Both are affiliated with the Committee to Unleash Prosperity (what a comically Orwellian name that is, btw) which seems to be sponsored by John Catsimatidis [0] an oil industry billionaire. The whole thing seems to be some sort of offshoot of ALEC, a completely ideological business driven lobbying endeavor.

[0] https://committeetounleashprosperity.com/committee-members/

Re: The Population Bomb Doomsday Scam

#12

Post by afgasgbui » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 2:48 PM UTC

eplanit wrote: post #10

afgasgbui wrote: post #8

Terrible article. It's been decades since anyone has taken Malthusianism -- the naïve version discussed in this article -- seriously. It was never the scientific consensus that we would see mass starvation from overpopulation. "Some prominent scientists believe x " is not proof of a consensus. Besides, why would it matter if the scientists were wrong? Being wrong might be rational if your belief is based on the best…

Why is it a goal to populate the world to a maximal amount? Yeah, we could make room for more people by restricting the lives of the others... but why? Why not identify a comfortable, sustainable level, and keep the level there? The earth is not crying out for more people to be on it, and no societal problems are solved by adding more (quite the opposite). Being told you can only have 2 kids max is less dystopian tha…

This very topic has, unsurprisingly, been the subject of debate for a long time. You might want to read this:

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/repugnant-conclusion

>no societal problems are solved by adding more

That's not true. Old people often need expensive support and may not be able to work as productively as they once did. If the population ages, the relative amount we spend on medical bills will go up and productivity will go down.

On the whole you might think it's not worth it. That doesn't mean there's no benefit whatsoever.

Re: The Population Bomb Doomsday Scam

#13

Post by bryanlarsen » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 3:40 PM UTC

afgasgbui wrote: post #8

Terrible article. It's been decades since anyone has taken Malthusianism -- the naïve version discussed in this article -- seriously. It was never the scientific consensus that we would see mass starvation from overpopulation. "Some prominent scientists believe x " is not proof of a consensus. Besides, why would it matter if the scientists were wrong? Being wrong might be rational if your belief is based on the best…

> but only by draining aquifers and polluting waterways.

That's by choice, not by necessity. It would certainly be possible to feed 8 billion people in a more sustainable fashion, but it would cost more. Some people can't afford to pay more (or would need assistance to do so) and most don't want to pay more.