My gut, uninformed feeling regarding population control and capitalism.

[StellaBlue]

Let me get this straight.

They want us to reproduce more OR let thousands more immigrants in.

I can't find a decent job and neither can 90% of my college-educated friends because we aren't trying hard enough.

I can't afford individual healthcare coverage, supposedly because of all the poor and illegal people (how someone can be illegal I am not sure yet, but that's for another post) "abusing" the system.

Our GDP is ever-increasing, therefore, the economy is booming.

Our current world economy is based on every nation wanting to continually increase its GDP.

To increase the GDP, more products have to be consumed.

For more products to be consumed, there have to be ever-more-novel products and more and more consumers (i.e. babies).

The earth is already overpopulated, with not enough resources to go around (hence the war in Iraq, according to PNAC, is not about profits for the corporate class, but about national security for the USA through ensuring access to oil reserves).

In order to produce more goods, to increase consumption, to raise the collective GDP, more resources have to be used up.

See my point?

We need LESS PEOPLE, period. My time spent living in the already-cramped quarters in the UK made me start thinking about this. The Labour government prattles on and on about shortages and the necessity of immigration, and blah blah blah, while people are all living on credit, the country is chock full of people, cars, and residential construction... all for what? To increase GDP. The shrinking native British population is on the RIGHT track, IMHO. 1 child per couple would help out a lot. No one wants to see the world paved. The Trans-Texas corridor fiasco got me thinking about this tonight.

E.g., to increase profits for the corporate class.

My conclusion? Capitalism is inherently unsustainable.

Thoughts?

[dailykoff]

1. Capitalism is a huge scam and always has been.

Whatever the policy, it's all about exploiting labor for the benefit of the rich, and that includes population "control."

[kestrel91316]

2. It's that simple: "Capitalism is inherently unsustainable".

Really sums up the whole mess.

[krkaufman]

3. Well, sure, but you're not considering the whole system

Capitalism is just the economic system. Add-in crony capitalism cum fascism, and then couple that with population decimating wars and everything comes together nicely.

It all depends on the metrics one uses to measure "success."

[NotGivingUp]

4. I agree with you SOOOO wholeheartedly!!!

[Bridget Burke]

5. "The shrinking native British population is on the RIGHT track"....

Yes, overpopulation is a global problem. But--why did you add "native"?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

7. Probably discounting the population shift by immigration, I guess.

Am I correct?

[StellaBlue]

8. It's a fact that British immigrants have higher rates of reproduction than

the native population.

[NotGivingUp]

6. I was just reading Thom Harmann's "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight"

which BTW is THE absolute best book I've ever read!

Here's some of what he said pertinent to this thread:

"There are two basic social organizations of humans that we know of: city-states and tribes. ... Tribes have been around for the entire 100,000 years of known human history...Tribes have historically been highly successful human systems. ....tribal life is relatively spress-free, satisfying, produces more leisure time than city-state life, and -- perhaps most important -- is sustainable indefinitely."

"About seven thousand years ago the first polictally organized city-states came into being. Since that time, they have systematically exterminated almost all remnants of the tribal culture they come in contact with..."

"...structure and nature of city-states:

1. Political dominance
2. Established hierarchy: clear authority structures
3. Acquiring resources through trade and conquest
4. Absorbing other cultures into their own identity
5. Genocidal warfare against others"

"...A culture that depends on conquest for survival is not sustainable when the limits or worldwide resources are approached. ... Growth is the prime directive of city-states. When growth stalls, they often collapse polictically, socially, and economically, or are conquered, or internal power is seized in coups."