Your favorite Malthusian check?

[richxx87]

I think climate change/global warming/sea rise (and the inevitable Malthusian check that it's supposedly going to produce) will be a good one, and will work out well for many of us.

What are some other good ones?

[Marlow]

I think the bursting of the mortgage/housing bubble was a mini-Malthusian check (the Great Depression a rather larger one), but I doubt that Global Warming constitutes the same thing. It happens slowly enough to plan for its consequences. It's not like Hurricane Katrina suddenly rushing ashore.

[richxx87]

I also think the idea of a massive, induced Malthusian check would be useful. Further to Dr. Thomas P.M. Barnett's theories on 6-Sigma Globalization--where he advocates fully utilizing combined military power to rid the world of the "defects" so the whole can be more efficient--I think it's time to act.

(6-Sigma is basically a company-management theory that focuses on jettisoning defective units within a company so there are no weak links to effective productivity.)

This would mean literally all the current 6-Sigma countries working together in concert to wipe most of Africa, much of the the Mideast, lots of sections of Asia and S. America off the map of the world with military precision, then bringing every nation/people group/country in line with 6-Sigma productivity/functionality on a global scale.

Some might see it as slightly anti-PC or even extreme, I grant you, but the ends would indeed justify the means in this case.

[Marlow]

wipe most of Africa, much of the the Mideast, lots of sections of Asia and S. America off the map of the world with military precision

Some might see it as slightly anti-PC or even extreme, I grant you, but the ends would indeed justify the means in this case.

In what non-parallel dimension do you live?

[richxx87]

In what non-parallel dimension do you live?

It's not about me or my dimensions (or dementia). It's about people taking their own desires/thoughts to a logical and rational conclusion.

Think about it this way: Were you one of the billion people who were riveted to the Natalee Holloway/Aruba story a couple years ago? She's just 1 white American girl, but people were going looney. The Dutch and Arubans as well as the FBI spent many millions of dollars on a single, ultimately futile, case. The cable TV stations (Fox, in particular) gave it blanket coverage and ratings were through the roof and climbing by the day. But while that was going on, how concerned were you/fellow Americans/media that 16,000 children were dying every day in the 3rd World?

The point is that to put on these horrified airs about how much we care about starving Africans is, I dare say, living in a sort of denial. It reminds me of the supposed George Bernard Shaw conversation (some attribute it to Churchill). Shaw says to a woman at a cocktail reception. "Would you sleep with me if I were to give you my 1,000-acre estate and manor house?" he asks.
"Yes, I would!" she laughs.
"Would you sleep with me for 50 Shillings?" he returns.
"Of course not!" she huffs. "What kind of a woman do you think I am?"
"We've already established what you are, madame. Now we are merely negotiating a price."

In other words, if we've already established that you care more about 1 blonde kid than the thousands of African kids that die each day from a preventable condition, now we're merely negotiating the methodology by which to improve the world.

[AthleticsInBritain]

Ah this is the common fallacy of exponents of this type of theory. You have to have a wide base at the bottom of the pyramid in order to have a 'healthy' apex.

Who would work in the factories that give the 6Sigma nations their cheap consumer goods? Who would work in the rice paddies and wheat fields, sow the corn and tend the animals that the people in the 6Sigma nations eat on a daily basis? Who would you lend money to in order to receive interest? Who would dig the mines and pump the oilfields in order to exploit the natural wealth of 'poor-performing' countries?

By the way, I'm not endorsing this system - I think this kind of response highlights the inequalities inherent in neo-liberal globalisation.

[Marlow]

Were you one of the billion people who were riveted to the Natalee Holloway/Aruba story a couple years ago?

In a word, no. Sincerely never heard of her.

[Pego]

Were you one of the billion people who were riveted to the Natalee Holloway/Aruba story a couple years ago?

A young girl being murdered certainly made me notice. But "riveted" :roll: ?

It reminds me of the supposed George Bernard Shaw conversation (some attribute it to Churchill). Shaw says to a woman at a cocktail reception. "Would you sleep with me if I were to give you my 1,000-acre estate and manor house?" he asks.
"Yes, I would!" she laughs.
"Would you sleep with me for 50 Shillings?" he returns.
"Of course not!" she huffs. "What kind of a woman do you think I am?"
"We've already established what you are, madame. Now we are merely negotiating a price."

La Rochefoucauld, some 300 years earlier.