It's Soylent Green that's just around the corner, not Prosperity ...

[dogtag]

The novel "Make room, make room" depicted the future as a place
where every square yard contained a person and the movie version
shows a front loader scooping up people in a crowd and dumping them
in a huge container. Soylent Green was the food - very tasty.
I'd hazard a guess that the vast majority of the nearly eight billion
souls now inhabiting the planet will be dependent on the better
educated minority. There has to be a point where hungry mouths
outstrip the available food supply. It won't be pretty.
I thought the population was around 4 billion. How wrong I was.

https://apnews.com/article/immigration-census-2020-us-census-bureau-4de516354af9af90f8e6cb5fa4cfd1c6

[one shot]

covid = population control it takes the old weak and sick

[togor]

Well the population roughly doubled since the introduction of intensive fertilization techniques in the 1960s. If the fertilizer supply chain breaks down there will be a lot less chow to go around.

In the event of widespread catastrophe, barbeque "pork" could be on a lot of menus for awhile.

[Art]

Almost all of the world population growth is in Africa and a few places in Asia and the mid east. That's where famines occur now and where the catastrophe will hit first if it comes. The developed countries, and I include China, Vietnam and Singapore in that, are actually well below the replacement birth rate of 2.1 live births per woman. The Japanese birth rate is so catastrophically low they are well on their way to becoming extinct unless they take serious action. Europe and North America only keep their populations up through immigration.

Togor is correct that the flaw in Malthus thinking was his failure to anticipate how effective agriculture could become (better living through chemistry.) He is also correct that if we have to go back to farming methods of the 1940s things will get really tight even here. Even with improved crop genetics, feeding 350,000,000 people with techniques used to feed 180,000,000 people will be dicey. Remember that third horseman.

[togor]

Nice quick take on Malthusian theory vs modern times. Easy read.

https://web.ccsu.edu/faculty/kyem/GEOG473/5thWeek/Food%20production%20and%20GM%20foods.htm

[Art]

Nice quick take on Malthusian theory vs modern times. Easy read.

https://web.ccsu.edu/faculty/kyem/GE...GM%20foods.htm

Excellent read, Thanks

[Art]

One thing about "Soylent Green." It was based on the best guestimates of environmental science in the 1970s. Technical advisors were provided by the association of environmental engineers. The prediction was based on a combination of modified Malthusian thinking on crop production, the effects of pollution and global warming. At one point Leigh Taylor Young's character says she remembers when there used to be Winter. It was set in 2022, 50 years after the production date.

[dogtag]

The more food you produce, the more people appear to consume it (Malthus, kind of)

[dryheat]

How come I have to pay for food?

[dogtag]

How come I have to pay rent to the Government when I own the house ?

[Vern Humphrey]

How come I have to pay rent to the Government when I own the house ?

It goes back to feudalism. The king owns everything, and you only rent from him.

[dogtag]

There was no property tax in England (at least when I was there).
The local government billed you for road, pavement upkeep,
street lighting and garbage collection. The amount was quite reasonable.

No, the King never owned everything. You're confusing the King with the Earls (Barons)

[Vern Humphrey]

There was no property tax in England (at least when I was there).
The local government billed you for road, pavement upkeep,
street lighting and garbage collection. The amount was quite reasonable.

No, the King never owned everything. You're confusing the King with the Earls (Barons)

The Earls (barons) swore fealty to the King for what they held.

[Art]

The Earls (barons) swore fealty to the King for what they held.

Correct. The lesser nobility held the land as a trust for the Crown.

Also, the Brits I know have told me about the numerous petty and onerous taxes and invasions of privacy the Brits have to put up with. For example, there was, and I assume is, a tax on televisions. A fellow I knew who was the Brit Consul in Houston in the 1980s told me about how the last stand of Black & White TV was in the UK because the annual tax on them was lower than the color (colour) sets. Also, the 'gubmint according to him, could come into your house at any time to see if the stamps were up to date. There are also the hidden taxes, the tax on gasoline in the UK is outrageous, which, of course is what the left wants here. Then there's the VAT tax which I understand adds 20% to the cost of almost all goods and services.

[Vern Humphrey]

Correct. The lesser nobility held the land as a trust for the Crown.

Also, the Brits I know have told me about the numerous petty and onerous taxes and invasions of privacy the Brits have to put up with. For example, there was, and I assume is, a tax on televisions. A fellow I knew who was the Brit Consul in Houston in the 1980s told me about how the last stand of Black & White TV was in the UK because the annual tax on them was lower than the color (colour) sets. Also, the 'gubmint according to him, could come into your house at any time to see if the stamps were up to date. There are also the hidden taxes, the tax on gasoline in the UK is outrageous, which, of course is what the left wants here. Then there's the VAT tax which I understand adds 20% to the cost of almost all goods and services.

I had a contract in England, and I would walk down the street and EVERY car had the "club" -- and not just the kind that locked the steering wheel. They had the kind that also locked the gear shift. I went to a "working man's club" and when we came out to go home, there were punks sitting on the hoods of the cars in the parking lots. The men went back inside to wait for them to leave. I said, "I wish this was Texas."

When they asked why, I mimicked racking the slide on a .45 and said, "Git off my F**kin' car!"

We owe George Washington and the boys a great debt of thanks.