Well, this is a scientific and mathematical problem:
A: how many resources are there?
B: How much resources does each person consume?
C: How many people are the resources available?
C=A/B
Discussion
Humans have never depleted any natural resource.
The reason is that in the past, the ratio of human population to the resources of the planet was low, but are the resources of the planet unlimited? Earth's resources are enough for how many people? A hundred billion? A trillion?
I have looked but never found any indication that the resources on Earth aren’t effectively unlimited. Water, oil, metals.
Tyrants do a great job of wiping out hundreds of millions every few centuries. There’s a good chance people are being exterminated right now. Natural resources running out should be the last of our worries.
My view is that if one is concerned about overpopulation, maybe stop artificially manipulating the natural order with welfare subsidies that try to overcome the survival of the fittest aspect of nature. The world would be far better off not having to wipe the asses of those who aren’t able to look after themselves, at the expense of those who can.
I have looked but never found any indication that the resources on Earth aren’t effectively unlimited. Water, oil, metals.
Tyrants do a great job of wiping out hundreds of millions every few centuries. There’s a good chance people are being exterminated right now. Natural resources running out should be the last of our worries.
My view is that if one is concerned about overpopulation, maybe stop artificially manipulating the natural order with welfare subsidies that try to overcome the survival of the fittest aspect of nature. The world would be far better off not having to wipe the asses of those who aren’t able to look after themselves, at the expense of those who can.
So you believe that it is better that the world's population is not controlled, and if a person is born in a poor country to poor parents, his suffering and poverty are his own and not our problem? But I think it is better to control the population of the world so that such people are not born at all and do not spend their whole lives in suffering.
It seems to me that you’re effectively arguing for a solution to a problem which is preventable in the first place.
I’m suggesting that if we didn’t have forced welfare programs and the like in the first place, that survival of the fittest would be a good enough self-regulating mechanism for the population. Many people who are poor only end up having kids because they know the state will provide them with money. It is an artificially created problem in modern society.
The decisions of others, provided they are not harming anyone else, should be none of our business.
This is true. It's rather strange how we manage this particular matter. In my opinion, there is another matter that always seems to have a substantial impact, and not for the better, I believe. Corporate and government interests always seem to end up becoming the priority, which, in turn, results in a very small portion of the global population having nearly total control of the planet's resources. Food is a significant issue as most of it, nowadays, is processed, and the 1% seem to get access to the healthiest foods available. But, you should consider how food production would progress if more and more people began to grow their own food instead of relying on processed foods from corporations. In simple terms, humanity as a whole is inappropriately managing their available resources, and profit has become an issue, not a solution.
Yes, I agree with you on this. The world's resources are unevenly distributed among humans. But this is a natural problem, throughout history, resources have always been unevenly distributed, and there have always been people who have exploited other people. The world has never been a utopia and it will never become a utopia, no matter how good people try to make it better.
Also true. Now... I hope this doesn't sound off topic in any way, but this is where global adoption of Bitcoin could have a significant effect. If you give people control of their money then you give them control of whatever available resources they themselves have. Like Stella described in a previous post: it would create a barter system of sorts. I could go on, but the broader effects of Bitcoin adoption is, obviously, widely unknown. 🤷♂️
Yes, if the people of the world accept Bitcoin, it can help to balance the wealth in the world. Of course, there are always powerful people who will take bitcoins from poor people by force. Bitcoin cannot solve the problem of dictatorship in the world.
True
Bitcoin can make the government's money printing machine useless, but if one day their money printing machine becomes useless, they will take your bitcoins from you at gunpoint. Unfortunately, Bitcoin cannot take us to utopia either.
Also true
We'll see what happens. It's too damn difficult to predict how Bitcoin will impact society. We've never had anything like it, and humanity has proven time and time again how terrible we are at predicting the future.
Bitcoin stops the money printer.
A pair of balls stops the raid. I'll take my chances. ;)
Sounds reasonable :)
How are they going to pay the people to show up at your house with guns if the money printing machine is useless?
Who is going to be a henchmen for them for free?
The US dollar is backed by the US military, yes. but the US military is only backed by the US dollar.
In the world, there are always mercenaries to serve dictators. Dictators will pay these mercenaries from your stolen bitcoins. A dictatorship with a money printing machine is a soft dictatorship, and a dictatorship with weapons is a hard dictatorship. If one day the statesmen of the world cannot rule over you with money printing machines, they will do it with weapons. Even now, we can name many dictatorial countries in the world. Democracy is a fragile thing, it crumbles with lack of resources.
😅 I'm not even sure if democracy exists anymore.
Mafia is what you’re describing, not dictators.
Good luck going door to door getting BTC from people with multi-sig setups in more than one jurisdiction, multiple accounts with different passphrases, when you don’t even know what or if they have any.
And even if that did start to happen, people would move their holdings to complex multi-sig, multi-jurisdiction where it’s untouchable via violence en masse.
And that’s assuming people with resources didn’t organize to defend themselves which they also would.
I’m not against gaming out some worst-case scenarios for which to prepare, but the baseline should be — how am I going to impose my will on the corrupt and unjust state, not how is it going to exploit and dominate me.
Yes, we can look at the matter from this angle. In fact, I imagine the worst case scenario and you the best case scenario.