Overpopulation solutions

[FaxModem1]

Lets say, in the near future, the population of Earth rises to 10 billion(it could happen), or this could apply to today with apopulation of 6+ billion. The UN forms a commitee to solve this problem(if their too weak for ya, say the nations make a treaty or INTERPOL does or NATO, or maybe something made up). What solutions are there? Please say something other than mass warfare or unleashing a plague(if you can't think of anything, go ahead and use these)

What are ya'll's solutions?

[Joe]

Don't worry about it, because it isn't going to be a problem.

[Master of Ossus]

http://art-bin.com/art/omodest.html

[TrailerParkJawa]

The most basic and probably best way to bring population growth under control is to raise the standard of living for women. Not an easy task, by any means but if you allow women greater access to economic and political wealth they will make choices for themselves to limit the number of children to 2.

[neoolong]

Forced limits on number of children, ala China.

Though TrailerParkJawa's solution seems ideal in the end.

[Master of Ossus]

Forced limits on number of children, ala China.

Though TrailerParkJawa's solution seems ideal in the end.

My way's funnier.

[RedImperator]

Birth rates are falling to match replacement rates in the Third World, and they're below replacement rate in the First. The only place they're still significantly higher than the death rate is Sub-Saharan Africa, and that's not going to last in the face of the AIDS epidemic. I've heard numbers that say half of the children or more in some countries down there are going to be dead of AIDS before they hit puberty. Overpopulation is a dead issue.

[TrailerParkJawa]

Forced limits on number of children, ala China.

Though TrailerParkJawa's solution seems ideal in the end.

My way's funnier.

I really prefer filet mingon or a nice New York cut. Ghetto baby chops are not my cup of tea.

[neoolong]

That's because you have to properly marinate them first.

[The Yosemite Bear]

Give all the "Holden" wanna be's "Hunting Licences?

remember they get fined, and have thier licence taken away if they hunt out of season....

[Grand Admiral Ancaris]

Perhaps a bit cliche, but I think a plague/virus is the best method. Some kind of geneticially engineered one would be best. One that could have the effect of making an infected individual sterile would be the most ideal. As such those infected wouldn't be killed, but further reproduction is prevented.

Highly unlikely, but we can always hope it happens.

[RedImperator]

Perhaps a bit cliche, but I think a plague/virus is the best method. Some kind of geneticially engineered one would be best. One that could have the effect of making an infected individual sterile would be the most ideal. As such those infected wouldn't be killed, but further reproduction is prevented.

Highly unlikely, but we can always hope it happens.

Hear hear! And may you and everyone related to you be the first to catch it.

[Grand Admiral Ancaris]

Hear hear! And may you and everyone related to you be the first to catch it.

Suits me just fine. you could hold a loaded gun to my head and that wouldn't bug me in the least either.

[SPOOFE]

Well, let's just take all the stupid people of the world and put them in one place, such as, say, France. Then build a HUGE wall around it. That should take care of about 90% of the population... and the best part is that stupid people feed off of their own idiocy, so they won't be taking up resources!!!

[Grand Admiral Ancaris]

Well, let's just take all the stupid people of the world and put them in one place, such as, say, France. Then build a HUGE wall around it. That should take care of about 90% of the population... and the best part is that stupid people feed off of their own idiocy, so they won't be taking up resources!!!

Oh that's good... I like it... the problem is Stupid people blend in so good, how are you going to seperate them from the intelligent part of the population?

[El Moose Monstero]

Actually, IIRC, the world's population is supposed (according to my biology and environmental science lecturers) to hit 12 billion by 2100, or somewhere around there.

At the risk of self-promotion, I point you to this page, for a look at the underlying problems of this population explosion.

http://mooserebellion.tgu.org.uk/basics5.html

[CaptainChewbacca]

I think Kim Stanley Robinson had a good plan in his Red Mars series;

Everyone gets half a child. A couple would be entitled to one. After a few generations die off, you're at half-numbers of population and can institute zero-growth controls.

[Wicked Pilot]

Take the nukes off the BUFFs and load them with condoms. Then launch sortie after sortie over third world nations.

This new bombing operation will be called "Operation Rubber Drop"

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Lets say, in the near future, the population of Earth rises to 10 billion(it could happen), or this could apply to today with apopulation of 6+ billion. The UN forms a commitee to solve this problem(if their too weak for ya, say the nations make a treaty or INTERPOL does or NATO, or maybe something made up). What solutions are there? Please say something other than mass warfare or unleashing a plague(if you can't think of anything, go ahead and use these)

What are ya'll's solutions?

Well, as the standard of living rises, people will tend to have less children. Unfortunately, you have to dramatically elevate the standard of living before this happens.

Until then, you have several tools to attack the problem with. Unfortunately, quite a few population-control efforts may end up slipping and sliding down the slope to eugenics. Here are a couple potential, bloodless, solutions though:

1 -- Taxing your way to ZPG: Abolish all tax credits for having children and institute tax penalties. Make these penalties increasingly severe for having more than two children. Also, impose a hefty sales tax on all childcare goods. And make the child penalty applicable to all tax brackets. (This concept, especially the hefty sales-tax increases will blanket the population with incentive not to have children.) You could also offer tax credits for the first two children a family has, but take it away and assess tax penalties for any child after two.

2 -- Economic incentives: Setup a program to offer say $5000 to any person who wishes to have themselves irreversibly sterilized. Some would complain that this program unfairly targets poor people, but the poor people have the lowest standard of living and the greatest incentive to crank out more kids (increased welfare benefits.)

3 -- Licensed parenthood: Set up a program to make it illegal to bear children without a license. Sterilize anybody who breaks the law, but let them keep their children (with intense state scrutiny of course.) You could either make the requirements very strict (to reduce the number of licensces issued,) or you can arrange it so one license = one child, and it only equals one child.

4 -- Aggressive socioeconomic development: The premise is simple. If poor conditions foster the production of 10 kids per family, eliminate the poor conditions. Of course, you'll have to deal with all the social effects that forcing rapid modernization on a nation might have, and you'll have to do it very carefully to prevent the creation of a gargantuan rich/poor gap. And you may have to institute regime changes to make this possible.

[TrailerParkJawa]

Take the nukes off the BUFFs and load them with condoms. Then launch sortie after sortie over third world nations.

This new bombing operation will be called "Operation Rubber Drop"

But think of the Children! How many will be hurt when the corner of a fluttering condom hits them in the eye?

[kojikun]

I can think of two options here:

Ignore it since humans only inhabit about 1% of the land area on the planet and start worrying when its more important.

or

Tax people by the number of children they have, reward them for not having kits at all.

[Hobot]

I can think of two options here:

Ignore it since humans only inhabit about 1% of the land area on the planet and start worrying when its more important.

It's already really important. We may not inhabit much of the land area available but we're sucking the planet's resources dry. There's no way there'll be enough food, water, materials, fuel, etc. to support a huge and rapidly growing population. I've seen estimates that say that in 2100 we'll have enough resources to support a comfortable standard of living for only 2 billion people.

[SirNitram]

The only solution I see ever working is migrating. Yes, I said migrating. One planet won't support us forever, even if we hit ZPG tomorrow. And while it may be Evolutions will that every species eventually vanishes, I don't think anyone will accept that.

The only real answer is to develop macoengineering, deep space engineering/mining, and start our way out. Generation Ships would be required, but it's better than waiting for the whole house of cards to fall.

[RedImperator]

It's already really important. We may not inhabit much of the land area available but we're sucking the planet's resources dry. There's no way there'll be enough food, water, materials, fuel, etc. to support a huge and rapidly growing population. I've seen estimates that say that in 2100 we'll have enough resources to support a comfortable standard of living for only 2 billion people.

Except it's NOT rapidly growing. Birth rates are falling worldwide except in Africa, where it doesn't matter because the death rate is set to explode. I've made this point once already and it seems to have been roundly ignored by people wanking over increasingly disturbing, immoral, and unnecessary population control means.

"Liscenses to have children"--just what we need, a government that has the power to tell us when we can and can't spread our own genetic material. This has been a shining human rights success in China. Or better yet, genetically engineered diseases to sterlize people. I can't think of any way THIS violates the sanctity of the individual (namely the right of the individual to refuse having his own body changed). And what happens, Dr. Moreau, it you can't control the spread of this miracle disease of yours? And the subtext of all of this is, of course, that the poor are the ones who will be sterilized, because EVERYONE knows that the size of your bank account determines your fitness to have children, and the reproductive tendencies of members of your socioeconomic class are enough for the government to determine if you "deserve" a liscense to breed. Jesus Q. Christ, am I the only one who thinks these ideas suck giant monkey balls?

EDIT: Repaired quote tags.

[LadyTevar]

As someone that sees firsthand the Birth to Death ratio via actually paper documents, I can say that in my state the Deaths are outnumbering the Births by ~400 people.

As of May 30, there were 7300+ Birth Ceritficates on file for 2003, and 7700+ Deaths.