Re: "The Only Thing They Learn" -- does anyone else find it irritating?

On Jun 27, 4:38 am, Matthias Warkus <War...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Quadibloc schrieb:

The trouble is that human populations have a tendency to expand beyond
the rate at which improvements in technology allow agriculture to be
more productive.

Nonsense. If this ever was true, it certainly isn't today.

I realize that many things I've posted in this thread may be highly
contentious.

But while my statement above might indeed stop being true for a little
while - _after_ we establish colonies in space to mine the volatiles
of the Kuiper Belt and so on - it appears to still be true today. Only
recently there were headlines about the price of rice going up.

And "ever was true"? That's taking it really far. History does tell us
that ancient societies had to control their populations through
institutions like primogeniture. The eldest son inherited the farm,
and was allowed to marry; the younger sons ended up joining the army
as their hope of earning a place.

When environmental limits are removed from people, as happened in the
case of the early settlers to North America, families with ten
children are commonplace. About four children is closer to the norm,
and that does involve a rate of population increase of, say, 3.5
percent per year. And, no, progress in agriculture has never made that
rate of growth sustainable.

It's true that Europe currently has a rather low birth rate, but that
is presumably a temporary aberration, brought about by overcrowding or
economic difficulties.

John Savard
.

Relevant Pages