Re:The UN thinks we could hit peak births in 2014
by penguindev on Friday July 18, 2014 @05:53PM
(#8055806)
The point is not that you can't outweigh all the 'bad indicators' by 'good indicators' that you, personally, weight more highly. If you want to make that argument, great. He said 'by nearly all indicators', which to me, frankly, is dishonest propaganda.
Re:The UN thinks we could hit peak births in 2014
by k-mcgrady on Friday July 18, 2014 @06:31PM
(#8055937)
I'm guessing 'by nearly all indicators' was referring to standard indicators used to measure these things (infant mortality rates, GDP, quality of life, life expectancy). Of course he's not going to take into account some of your 'indicators' (e.g. level of congestion on morning commute). That's a bullshit indicator. It's relevant to a relatively very small number of people. The indicators I've stated above are relevant to everyone.
Let me take just a few of the point you make:
>> "cheap carbohydrates == diabetes for a big portion of the population"
Ok. How about looking at it another way? Cheaper food means less people starving and dying young.
>> "how much toxicity do you want in your fish? Do we want to all be beta testers for Monsanto, just to stay alive?"
If it's a choice between eating toxic fish and living off it for many years or dying or course I want to be beta tester for Monsanto. I despise the company and am all for healthy sustainable food but for a lot of people it's a choice between eating and not eating.
>> "how much time do we sit commuting in mega-sprawls vs previous generations"
You have to sit in traffic in a 'mega-sprawl' and previous generations had to work their ass off on a farm from 6am to 10pm. You drive your nice, air conditioned car to work, or take cheap public transport while people in poorer countries dream of having a job. You have it easy.
You entire position is based on that of a comfortable person living in the US ignorant of the fact that when someone talks about the world they are not only referring to you. His statement was about the world. Here are a few of his points from the letter to save you reading it:
1. the percentage of very poor people has dropped by more than half since 1990
2. Since 1960, the life span for women in sub-Saharan Africa has gone up from 41 to 57 years, despite the HIV epidemic. Without HIV it would be 61 years.
3. The percentage of children in school has gone from the low 40s to over 75 percent since 1970.
4. Today there are only three countries left that have never been polio-free: Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria.
5. A baby born in 1960 had an 18 percent chance of dying before her fifth birthday. For a child born today, the odds are less than 5 percent. In 2035, they will be 1.6 percent.
The main reason I posted the link was the following point:
Drops in child mortality have been shown to lead to drops in the number of births. In countries where your child is likely to die at a young age you have many children to 'compensate' for the likely loss. If you can be quite certain your child won't die or measles, polio, malaria etc. then you won't have as many children.