People understand the concept of, “no infinite growth on a finite planet,” but then refuse to accept that that holds true for us as well. The world population has more than doubled in my lifetime. Obviously we can’t do that forever. Especially in the context of a climate crisis that is making less land livable over time. For completely practical reasons we are going to have to set up some kind of system that can function in equilibrium rather than requiring growth.
This is true but people focus so hard on the population they miss the wider issue. Its not the number of people thats the issue right now, its the massively uneccesary amount of resources each person uses.
The world can accomodate a lot of people IF we shift the way we do things. If we all live like the world is an endless piggy bank, it wont work.
Without considering the way we live and the system we’ve built, people begin sliding into borderline eco-fascist ideas of population control because its an easy thing to understand and latch onto. But the situation is much more complicated than that.
So yes, there is a finite human population limit but that doesnt mean we’ve hit it or are even going to hit it.
Its not the number of people thats the issue right now, its the massively uneccesary amount of resources each person uses.
so your proposal is to increase the population count, but decrease how much each person has available as resources? Essentially just throwing a lot of people into poverty?
Well yes but no. Supporting this many old people is a genuine problem, no matter the economic system.
Sure, a problem in the sense that it requires a solution. Capitalisms solution is infinite population growth via forced pregnancy. A non capitalist option is to simply use the very large amount of resources available to take care of the old folks. It’s not profitable, but that’s not the point.
This is deeply myopic. The problem is not low birth rates, but uneven demographics.
How does, let’s say, marxism leninism deal with the problem of uneven demographic distribution? I’ve never heard of any even theoretical fixes from them for that.
https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/CHN/china/birth-rate – do you think China doesn’t view this as a problem?
If I understand what you said, then it is still a problem caused by capitalism. Because we have the knowledge and technology to live comfortably with a lot less manpower then 300 years ago. And yea we can go into details, but the difference between an ox and a tractor is huuuuge.
It’s not caused by capitalism but exacerbated by it. The ratio of workers to retirees in 1960 was 5.1 to 1, it’s now 2.1 to 1. Sure if capital wasn’t extracting excess value maybe we could be fine at 2.1 to 1 but I doubt we would be at .5 to 1. At some point it becomes an issue
