beardy wrote:pwa wrote:TonyR's question about what we can do about population increase without resorting to draconian policies (one child per family, etc) is a good one. And you can add to it the fact that the increase in the number of old people makes an increase in the number of younger people (to support them) essential. But there must be a limit. Unless the whole world is going to look like Hong Kong!
I'd limit Child Benefit to, say, two or three children, and take a similar approach with other benefits related to family size. I'd also want a public campaign to encourage sustainable family size.
You would "punish" children for their parents sake then?
£13 a week isnt enough to make me condone abortion and I would anyway rather have a child raised in poverty than terminated and not raised at all. That is actually the
only reason for our existence, to self propagate.
Drinking is a problem. Cut their benefits.
Obesity is a problem. Cut their benefits.
Truancy is a problem. Cut their benefits.
Antisocial behaviour is a problem. Cut their benefits.
Immigration is a problem. Cut their benefits.
Housing is a problem. Cut their benefits
One could imagine the only real problem is
poor people. What was IDS's solution for poor people?
Oh yes, Cut their benefits.
Agreed,with reservations.
Some(dispassionate) thoughts
Responsibility is the main one,if we don't curb population growth,the planet will do it for us,if war doesn't.
We are already seeing mutant forms of infection resistant to antibiotics,which while some don't kill they severely disable individuals thereby,in the western world at least,need more resources for such people to have a quality of life.
That aside we can only feed so many people otherwise the whole ecosystem teeters on the brink of crashing and I wouldn't want to be around when it does,there'll be a remnant of humanity to begin the cycle again and the planet will restore itself,but it'll take time.
Consumerism is based on never ending growth both in population and resources,which is a nonsense as even a blindman can see it's not possible,energy is needed and will cost more and become evermore scarce as time passes.
After WW2 we could've been forgiven for thinking that there were an endless supply of everything,but who would've thought the population increase would've been so large and in such a short time.
Child benefit in the UK was introduced to repopulate a country ravaged by the toll of war, but now it's not needed so should IMHO be phased out over a period,and population growth discouraged,how we do that is a matter for debate and no mean task in itself.
But one thing's for sure we simply can't go on as we are doing in the hope that our technology will somehow pull us out of the mire,it won't based on simply mathamatics.
War yet again looms,how catastrophic it could be this time is anyone's guess but it has the potential of being almost total.