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DrBrian: 10 months ago

Given that too many people on Earth is our greatest problem, what would YOU do if you were President to control the birth-rate?

Global warming, air pollution, dwindling resources and wars are ALL caused by over-population. Yet, no politician is brave enough to admit this self-evident fact. Nor has any politician been wise enough to propose how we can manage this quandary. If nothing is done, there is no future for the human race except extinction

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Answer 1

bigred50: 10 months ago via iPhone

Free people would never allow a politician to tell them how many children they can have. Education is the key. You sound like you would prefer a dictator. Free people would not. Be careful what you wish for.

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DrBrian: 10 months ago

Extinction is free, too. My question was what would YOU do to address the problem. Dictator or not, any sensible suggestion would be VERY welcome. I think the unintended result of Chinese dictatorship might just do it! If we all opt for male children, the birth rate will collapse.... You don't tell folk what to have, just say they can only have one child and they are free to choose the sex.

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DrBrian: 10 months ago

Education WOULD be a powerful solution, but the countries with the highest birth rates deny their women access to education. Of course, NOTHING will be done and the over-population will solve it's own problem. No food, water or shelter and only the politicians will survive. For my requirements, they are welcome to a world like that....

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Answer 2

momlee: 10 months ago

It's really nobody's business!

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DrBrian: 10 months ago

I take it you are happy for the human race to reproduce itself to a seething mass and cease to exist because they weren't smart enough to control their basic urges. I'm too old to bother, but your descendents will not thank you for your uncaring attitude....

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nwarguy: 10 months ago

Nobody's business????? When I'm helping pay for some trash that won't close her legs b/c she knows that the more kids she has, the more welfare she'll get... and it's not my business?

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momlee: 9 months ago

For each child she has, she gets $30 more a month over the $165 for the first one. Do you think that will support that child? And as long as she can work, she only gets that welfard 60 months for that child. I understand your feelings, and a probably agree with many of your thoughts; but I would have been really teed if I'd been told I couldn't have had my son and daughter.

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Answer 3

cerebrogasm: 10 months ago via iPhone

Japan has negative population growth. China restricts how many children you can have by law. You have to ask yourself - what is the motivation to have - say - more than 3 children (assuming you can afford all the expenses associated with each)? You're dead-on that the earth is over-populated - we're simply running out of enough resources to tend to the needs of 7 billion humans. I've heard epidemiologists speculate that nature has a way of re-setting population levels - by outbreaks of lethal pathogens that wipe out millions. War and poverty also lower population concentrations. The obvious way to not send ourselves down the road of certain extinction is to control birth rates - but people will typically invoke religion to justify producing oversized families. We also need to dis-incent the production of "well-fare babies" that are brought into the world for financial gain provided by government social services. Given all the points you've made - it appears that the bulk of humans are just naturally irresponsible, and bury their heads in the sand when you ask them to make hard choices like limiting the sizes of their families.

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DrBrian: 10 months ago

What WILL happen is nothing. The global warming fiasco guarantees that will happen. Our only hope is for something like Ebola to mutate into an airborne disease and wipe out 90% of the planet. The most probable solution will be another world war - any excuse will do - all we need is a minimum of 50% reduction in our young men and we will be OK for a decade or two.... Kike I said: scary, isn't it?

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cerebrogasm: 10 months ago via iPhone

Maybe I'm miss-reading your response - you actually believe there's nothing changing in our climate? I actually work with numerous climate and environmental scientists - from Woods Hole Oceanographic to NOAA to EG&G (who build the instrumentation) - to MIT (who analyze the data coming from worldwide data gathering instruments) and more - no argument exists that we're going through a climate change - and it looks perilous. I don't see this as a worldwide conspiracy of scientists for some nefarious purpose - nor do I see it as political - which it has become, unfortunately - it's just a problem we need to address. As far as "nothing" happening - yes - quite possibly true - depending on your timeline. Given a long enough time line - everything ends (a paraphrase from "Fight Club").

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DrBrian: 10 months ago

I am sorrry to confuse you. My point was the politicians have already proven they are incapable of agreeing on global warming and WON'T promise to do anything. If they are hopeless at solving that clear-cut problem, the tricky question of birth control will NEVER be addressed. Every scientific measurement made proves that global temperatures have been rising for the past fifty years. But all the politicians do is argue the toss. God help us all!! I admire what China has done and is doing, but already you can see the mess they have created: selective preference for male children, so there are no females for them to mate with! India would do the same thing and I would expect Americans would selectively opt for male children too. Mind you, THAT sort of stupidity would REALLY speed up the depopulatoion pf our planet.

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cerebrogasm: 10 months ago via iPhone

That sounds more like you, DrBrian - I must have miss-read your earlier posts - thanks for clearing this up - and, of course I agree with you. I do remember reading about a "eugenics movement" in the US, early last century - but that wasn't well thought out - the problem needs to be addressed prior to pregnancy - I recently saw an old Charlton Heston science fiction classic: "Soylent Green" - where overpopulation has wiped out the food supply - and technology has found a devilish way around this problem. I wonder if the world, as depicted in that film (or more recently, the city environment of "Blade Runner"), could ever come to that...hang out in midtown Manhattan or Sao Paulo at rush hour - and you'll think it already is upon us.

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Answer 4

caluvox: 10 months ago

History has shown it may work itself out. There have been 7 dark-age events, the next one will be far more devastating on the world population due to our dependence on industrialized farming. Most people today do not possess the abilities to survive on their own as did our ancestors. It may be the only way that it gets resolved unless we turn to a "Logan's Run" method or advance our science in some fantastic way over-night i.e. Alien contact, etc..

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cerebrogasm: 10 months ago via iPhone

When you say "7 dark age events" - are you referring to the "extinction events" scientists keep digging up more evidence of ? One question to consider - will such a future event - be natural or the result of human activity?

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caluvox: 10 months ago

Hiya cereb, no when I refer to the dark-age events I'm speaking of cultural collapse's. Ancient Egypt 2, China 2, precolumbian America 2 and Europe 1. Oh, and I just remembered the Greek bronze age, but that was rather small. Too your second point I'm leaning toward natural, we usually find a way to step back from the brink when faced with such events (Cuban missile crisis)

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cerebrogasm: 10 months ago via iPhone

cal: now I've got what you were referring to - good point - my guess is that our next nightmare will be something to do with aggression between Iran and Israel - which will drag us into the fight - all you need is the entire Middle East mobilized against we infidels and other players, like Russia and China, worrying about the oil - might jump in. Another scenario is that whack job running his closed society in North Korea decides to lob a middle at South Korea or Japan - and again we're sucked into another aggression event. Of course the war-profiteers will be jumping for joy at the mere thought of building more weapons.

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caluvox: 10 months ago

My eye is on China, they are an economic engine that has been running at 6500rpm's for the last 2 decades. This engine requires annual growth at a rate of no less then 7%, it has been running at between 8.5 & 11%, by comparison we run at an average of 1.5% growth per year. If their growth should fall rapidly it could start a chain reaction that would bring complete and total collapse of the world economies. Worst case scenario everything is FUBAR !

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Answer 5

davidNS5: 10 months ago via iPhone

Nuclear war?

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cerebrogasm: 10 months ago via iPhone

Very possible: our military and intelligence agencies fight nuclear war games all of the time - trying to figure out how to win something that may just make the earth uninhabitable. All of those cold war nuclear tipped ICBM's are still buried in the ground and in Russia - and who knows where else. Humans are a killer species - but human annihilation doesn't get any of us any gains - unless the reward is in the "afterlife". It's frightening to consider there are so many humans that believe this: they are the random element we can't anticipate.

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DrBrian: 10 months ago

How would that solve anything? But that IS a true politicians' answer to this sort of question, I agree. You are hereby elected to be our next President.... I hope you make provision for a select group of people as breeding stock to be protected from the fall-out: all politicians' friends, of course....

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davidNS5: 10 months ago via iPhone

Well it would solve the population problem but it would also create a whole bunch of other new problems.

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Answer 6

nwarguy: 10 months ago

This is one of those difficult questions that not many would venture to touch, simply b/c if they make one slight misstep on the people's freedoms, they are labelled as a dictator and are on the verge of taking more and more freedoms away. I know that this will be skirting around the issue slightly, but if the population control was my ONLY priority, then I would stop welfare immediately and begin giving tax breaks to those single or dinks (dual income no kids). But like I said, that is only if that was my only priority.....

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Answer 7

mcolston: 10 months ago via iPhone

Sterilize everyone, make them take classes and get a license to breed. But then you get evil corrupt people abusing the system. It would never really work.

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DrBrian: 10 months ago

If you do nothing, we are all doomed. If you sterilize everyone, how do you breed - with or without a license?

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mcolston: 9 months ago via iPhone

Sterilize them with something that can be reversed, but like I said it would just be abused.

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Answer 8

clawal: 10 months ago via iPhone

Don't have any kids then. Also, the reality (non reality) shows promote sex and exploiting children. Castrate sex offenders and rapists.

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DrBrian: 10 months ago

NOW you're tsalking! It beats me why the authorities allow these repeat sex offenders to carry on the way they do. Compulsory castration HAS TO become an option, but I can't see any of the current bleedong hearts on Capitol Hill having the balls to do it. Do you want to be President and fix this mess for us????

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Answer 9