From: kberry@sactoh0.sac.ca.us (Kim A. Berry)
Subject: Re: Save the Planet and the Economy at the Same time!
Organization: Sacramento Public Access Unix, Sacramento, Ca.
Date: Sat, 2 Jan 93 19:41:39 GMT

In article <01JAN93.01077145.0061@VM1.MCGILL.CA> CXIR000 <CXIR@MUSICA.MCGILL.CA> writes:
>In article <donb.725749564@crash.cts.com> donb@crash.cts.com (Donald Bowen) writes:
>>.
>- Population control does not solve anything in itself. Our resource
>gobblers in the "first world" use up over one hundred times as much of t
>he earth's resources and energy as those in the third world. And history
>teaches that we in the first world did not limit our population voluntar
>ily until we had acheived a raised standard of living which included med
>ical care that raised average life expectancies to a high level and insu
>red the survival of most children born into adulthood. No ethnic group a
>anywhere or at any time in history has ever lowered its "fertility rate"
>before infant mortality rates are reduced, additionally, educational lev
>els have to be raised. So history teaches that it is precisely the other
>way around: FIRST you educate and raise living standards, reduce poverty
>THEN population can be controlled. To expect the third world to do it an
>y other way is unrealistic and, in fact, it could not be done without a
>fascist dictatorship world wide, which I don't think anyone would advoca
>te.
>Yours, Ian Ritchie,
>CXIR@MUSICA.MCGILL.CA

The problem with your proposal that we solve the population problem
by providing education, reducing poverty, and raising living
standards is that is nearly impossible on a global scale.

The U.S. cannot even curb these problems within its own borders,
and the global economy depends upon the exploitation of poorer
countries. Automated factories flood the world with consumer
goods while providing relatively little employment opportunities.
Economists generally agree that the U.S. could not survive if it
severed all trade in and out. So why should we believe a global
economy comprised entirely of first-world countries could exist? 

You correctly stated that individuals in the first world consume
100 times the earth's resources and energy as third world
individuals. And I hope you agree that this level of consumption
is a crisis. Yet your proposed solution would perhaps triple the
number of first world individuals in the world.

Face it. The PC term "Developing Nation" is a misnomer, since in
the past 30 years conditions in most "developing nations" have
deteriorated. What hope do Egypt, Somalia, and Ethiopia have of
competing globally against Japanese and Korean mega-corporations?
Even the U.S. was unable to compete in the cellular telephone and
LCD video screen market. The U.S. cannot play AFDC-to-the-world by
unconditionally air-lifting food to countries that have populated
themselves beyond their carrying capacity, while ignoring its own
economic problems.

I disagree that a "fascist world-wide dictatorship" would be
required to reduce population growth. In poor countries money is
a more powerful incentive than laws.

o    Provide educational assistance to poor children in places like
     Brazil and India in exchange for sterilization.

o    Make voluntary sterilization a condition of receiving food aid
     in places like Ethiopia and Somalia. 

o    Even in the U.S., deny AFDC increases based on additional
     children, and limit deductions to two dependents.

Certainly there are better ideas. If you feel these are "fascist"
measures, consider the alternative: Eventually the first world will
be unable to provide aid as the number of Somalia's increases
exponentially. Much of the world will deteriorate into a chaotic
nightmare of street gangs killing people for the shirt off their
backs.

Question: How did Ethiopia and Somalia get by for so long without
first world aid? For thousands of years African people survived
without huddling around U.N. food distribution centers. Conditions
have changed, so must the solutions.

Please propose a solution to the education, poverty, crime, and
unemployment in the U.S. before you attempt to solve these problems
globally.
-- 
---------------------------------------------------------------
     (Mr.) Kim Berry              kberry@sactoh0.SAC.CA.US

Newsgroups: ca.environment,sci.environment