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Politics : About that Cuban boy, Elian -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: E who wrote (7298)	6/11/2000 8:04:00 AM
From: Dayuhan	Respond to of 9127

There is no reason to think that thinking, even if people could be persuaded to do that, would yield the result you want. You are right, as usual, though I think it would be a small step in the right direction. In many developing countries, the cultural priority on large families stems from an agricultural economy in which more hands really did equal more wealth. The transition to labor-surplus economies in which more hands simply mean more unemployed mouths to feed, and two educated children are better insurance for the future than ten uneducated ones, has happened very quickly, and the cultures haven't quite caught up. Most people simply follow the established values, without thinking where they will lead. It doesn't help, of course, that the churches often continue to preach the old values, despite the evident consequences.

To: E who wrote (7298)	6/11/2000 2:40:00 PM
From: Jacques Chitte	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 9127

Your posts give me mightily to think, E. Imo what you have brought up is the seed of one of the greatest conflicts humanity will have to face. On the one hand, the right to have children is one of the very most basic human rights - up there with free speech and absence of slavery. On the other hand, the carrying capacity of the planet will soon be reached, unless technical progress will continue to outstrip population growth. (One can hope.) (But it is a precarious situation ... so much has to happen right for that to be borne out.) (Fabulations about Montana are summarily rejected. What about infrastructure!?) So, unless we're either really lucky (in terms of technical progress) or really unlucky (say, a global famine or war) we will soon be forced to decide how to regulate and limit the right to breed. That would be ultimate power - beyond even the power to hold slaves. Who would administrate that sort of power? This is the stuff of bloody revolution, or of war. Eeeek.