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The week's question
In December 2024, in the thread "Re: BRK: Why Not XOM?", BreckHutHigh asked the members: "What about the long road trips with kids?" This week it is put to everyone again. The button below opens the small thread re-asking it - read what others have said so far, then give your own answer as an ordinary reply.
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Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy
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Author: albaby1 SILVER
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Number: of 84358 
Subject: Re: Overpopulation
Date: 07/26/23 7:15 PM
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But it cannot go on forever. Endless growth is not possible.

That doesn't mean that we're anywhere close to the limits to growth (to coin a phrase). Inputs are limited and finite by what's on the planet (for now) - but outputs are limited only by the creativity, skill, knowledge, and technology of humanity. Which can - and have - grown much much faster than Malthus or Ehrlich envisioned.

And no one need "endless growth." At some point, you would reach a 'post-scarcity' society - where any physical object can be provided to any person near-instantly at near-zero cost. For an analog, consider the world of Star Trek: TNG, or Iain Banks' Culture series. If you grow enough, you reach the point where you've grown enough - where additional growth is possible, but just unnecessary.

Regardless of whether you think such a society is possible (within the laws of physics or culturally), there's no reason to believe that the central thesis of Malthus or Ehrlich - that we can't have growth without "using up" the world - is correct.

Albaby
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This community has written 84,309 posts about US Policy. The article-length ones it recommended most:
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