43 replies to this topic

[fermin25]

Yeah there is a theory: the malthusian theory. Thomas Malthus said that to control the overpopulation each disaster like the earthquakes, the wars, hurricanes, everything is necessary and people have to die to control the population and a better food distribution for all the survivers. But the nature(or maybe the human I don´t know) has another methods to control the population like the AIDS, cancer and a lot of eventually diseases like the SARS and another virus like AH1N1 that kill a lot of people. But I think that maybe there are another ways like the topic´s author said like the born planification and the control of maternity.

But now I want to tell you about some strange methods, well they are no methods but in my country we have like 10 years with the same population: eigth million. Since 2000 the cense said that Honduras has eigth million of people living and the most of people is young. But in 2009 the cense reported that all the population in Honduras is eight million, also. Analizing all the situation in Honduras I see another ways to contron the population.

In Honduras there are a lot of social problems that contributes to the control of population like:

1. Organized Crime(mafia, drug dealers).

2. Ilicit Associations(maras).

3. Vices(drink, smoke, cocaine).

4. Car accidents.


In the point number 1 the organized crime commanded by the drug dealers and the political and economical mafias are responsible of a lot of deaths. For example in Honduras is common to see a morning that in the forest appeared three unrecognizable bodies. All these deaths are ocassionated by the drug dealers who kill to members of the competence between the Carteles or by thieves that kill to another thieves for the terrotory to steal to the people. But in almost all the circunstances all the crimes are made by the drug territory and for control all the distribution of cocaine for a cartel. In 2010 there are aproximately 2000 deaths by persons linked with the drugs market and with the thiefs and the other deaths are innocent victims of the street violence because they opposed to allow one assault and the thieves simply kill them. In the new this is the daily bread. The violence in the street kill to a lot of people and make a balance between the born children and the people that dead daily.

In the point number 2 are the ilicit associations known in my country like "maras". The mara is a group of young people who are dedicated to assault to the citizens, sell drugs in the street and extort to the business with the "war tax". In 1990´s the mara growth and a lot of young men joined to the maras who didn´t have a father because in the most of cases their fathers had emigrated to the United States to get a better job, a better life to their sons.
This social crisis brougth the complete chaos in the street because I remember that in some cities you cant to go to a market without the danger to suffer an assault or be killed if you resist to give your things to the thieves. All one generation of the Honduras´s young men was lost in the maras. When Ricardo Madura won the elections in my country, his son was killed by the maras, and he started an agressive campaign against the maras with some death cars who killed to all the Mara´s boys in one street. In some ocassion is suspected that he ordered to burn a jail full of mara´s boys where aproximately three hundred mara´s boys dead. In conclusion a complete generation of young men was lost in the mara´s time and the rest of them are honest citizens or are in the jail.

In the poin number 3 are the vices typical of my country like the drinks and the people who smoke cigarettes. Here is esential to a boy to be a man and this starts going to a night club, get drunk and pay to have relations with a woman. All of this is pleaceful to the men and the adiction to this lifestyle is so big in my country that a lot of men dies because they get an alcohol intoxication or get AIDS or simply dies in the typical fights under the alcohol effects. This is cultural and contributes to stop the overpopulation.

In the point number 4 are the car accidents ocassionated by people who are drunk and drive whitout any precaution. In the north zone of my country this type of accident are catastrophycal and a lot of people dies because the accidents between two vehicles of the public transport is very common. The car accidents contributes to the death of aproximately two thousand people every year.


In conclusion my country is perfect to stop the overpopulation because here aproximately born the same amount of people that dies everyday. So maybe this system is bad for the human society but good for the nature and the planet. For example Mexico is a country with the same system of kill, kill and die. I am fortunated I think not because maybe one of these days I can be in the staticts also.

Thank you for read my post and please post your opinion about the overpopulation is a very very interesting topic. Really.

[Iniyila]

overpopulation is not a problem in developed countries but only in poor countries with little income per family. actually i think being poor is the reason why people are making babies. they should have many children to help them like in farming. the main reason that poor families have many children is that they want to have more labors and because they have no money to employ anyone they have to born them. in modern countries where government pay to peoples who don't have work, they are loosing their population and most of their peoples are old (like germany). so only teaching people is not important actually teaching is useless when they are poor and governments have to provide support for poor families until they do not need more children for more income.

Edited by Iniyila, 22 December 2010 - 01:34 PM.

[Harlot]

I don't really think over population is a big problem at the moment - especially not in countries such as the United States. It is estimated that the U.S. population won't double until somewhere around 2090. This means that in 2090, we are expected to have around 600-650 million people. Based on the resources that we currently have, we would have no problem handling that kind of population growth. The fact is that human beings only new 3 things for survival. Food, water, and shelter. Of course, a lot of people will disagree with that, but it is a fact. Human beings are nothing more than mammals, and the majority of mammals only have food, water, and shelter. When I say "shelter", that consist of things such as clothing, a structure, and warmth. Those are the only three resources human beings need, unless you want to be technical and include free stuff as oxygen. Come to find out, there is an abundance of food, water, and shelter. There is so much food, we throw it away. In fact, we burn crops so that they won't flood the markets. The true reason that people are against population growth is because it will transform life. People always tend to be against change. Just as the industrial revolution caused drastic change in the way society function, so would a large growth in the world's population. In a society with a huge population, where resources must be managed wisely, capitalism could not exist. You could not have 1% of the population owning 80% or 90% of the wealth. There would be no Bill Gates and Oprah. You couldn't have a single person with $60 billion and others without two pennies to rub together. I take that back, capitalism could exist, but the three basic needs of life would most likely be rationed and moved outside of the monetary system. Those three basic needs being food, water, and clothing. It would be impossible to peacefully live in an overpopulated world with social inequality determining who can and can't eat. I noticed that most revolutions start two ways - or probably all revolutions. The first way is nationalism or an equivalent emotional appeal. The second way is starvation. A hungry people is an angry people. As long as people have food, they are usually willing to come to terms with whatever other hardships are going on in their life. As soon as you take away the food, the poor are burning the country down.

Nevertheless, I don't think overpopulation is a problem for the US. Although, I may not be looking at the big picture, because on an international level, the population of the world in general will eventually effect the resource availability for others countries. It is especially true if you live in a country that is import based such as the US. I think the most important thing to do, based on the fact that India and China population is set to double between 2070-2100, is to become more self reliance. The question is, "Does the U.S. have access to enough raw material to be self reliant". I can't answer that question, but I can say that the biggest problem with be oil. In the next 70 years, our top agenda should be finding an alternative to fossil fuels or developing cars that take 1/3 of the fossil fuel that it takes to operate currently. But then that even lies on the question of "Is the world's supply of fossil fuel really running out?" It depends on a variety of factors, but I don't believe that the population growth for the next 100-200 years will be so large that the resources of the earth, if properly used, can't hand it. People will have to learn how to use resources wisely and spread them out in a way that is more equal. I actually think it will do a semi-good thing. People in the world are already too greedy and materialistic. They cling to religion, but they forgot the chore teachings of Jesus, who was to give to your neighbor and put your neighbor before yourself. We don't do that unless we are forced to by circumstances. Even now, in a world with so many resources, no one should be starving. However, since we want to ensure the food prices stay high, we are willing to increase demand and price by forcing the less fortunate to starve.

I also agree with the idea of education. Nevertheless, I don't think the educational purpose should be less babies. I mean, that could be an aspect of it, but what I am saying is that people are stupid to be active citizens, and that must change. As I stated previously, a poll showed that 50% of Americans can't name a single branch of government. That same percentage don't know the name of their congressional representative. I wonder what percentage doesn't know the earth is round, and believe it or not, I had a guy who recently argued that it was flat. His logic was that, "If it was round, why don't we fall off?" I told him gravity, and after I explained to him what gravity was, he still didn't understand why we were not falling off of the earth, and then he asked me, "Why do we not walk upside down on certain parts of the planet then?" I am happy that he asked such questions, it shows that he has the potential to become a thinking person, but the fact that he didn't already know at his age shows us that we have serious problems with educating our people. In fact, I think over 14% of Americans believe that the sun revolve around the earth...No Kidding! If we have that kind of misinformation going on, how do we expect people to demand equality. How can they see right through the lies placed on FOX News, and in some cases, MSNBC. For example, you have people in the U.S. who say that they support cutting spending. Nevertheless, they don't know where the majority of U.S. spending goes. A large percentage of Americans that think 25% of U.S. spending goes on foreign aid, when its under 1%. The majority of U.S. spending goes to Medicare, Defense, and Social Security. Ironically, the same people calling for the government to cut spending, will march in the street and get ready to burn the country down if their medicare and social security is taken away...lets not even talk about defense spending. So I do think that education is one of the variable.