Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: neolib who wrote (128042)	7/29/2005 12:19:21 AM
From: Peter Dierks	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793896

Thanks for excellent post. You have some excellent points. "growing economy ... through ... mild sustained population growth..." But it begs the question of what growth really is. Most economic metrics normalize to population, so although increasing population grows the economy in absolute terms, the normalized effect is less so. Fortunately we live in the real world where productivity increases, and spending by others increases our standard of living. Economists need to normalize to understand what is happening. Hard sciences use a control group. Economists attempt to normalize to compensate for the lack of a control group. ...this is where biology intrudes and forces some sanity checks. First, there clearly comes an end to population growth although people will argue ideologically over the limitations that force it. Further there are clearly quality of life issues that become unavoidable at some point before that. Through intelligence and hard work, our species can extend the population growth way past what other species can (BTW, largely at their expense) but we cannot eliminate the barriers. In most human endeavors there are artificial limits. When they are reached, humans find a new paradigm. For example steel supports allowed building to get much higher. Human population density can probably get much higher than whatever limits we try to impose. I live in the Great Plains; there is much open land within a half hours drive; on a visit to a friend outside NY City he took us to a park on Saturday afternoon and the density of people in nature was much greater than any park near hear under similar conditions. I agree that as nature shrinks the ability of the earth to heal itself diminishes. Further, although most modern humans have been well schooled in considering all other humans as equals, there is still some link to ones kin, tribe, etc. Although I don't consider myself racist at all, I still can feel this. One of the secrets to why America has flourished while being invigorated by immigrants is that they get melded into the common culture, while morphing the common culture towards theirs. If we interfere with this, or allow exceptions for some sub groups we are doomed. There is not separate but equal. New Americans must become Americans, not Asians, Latin Americans, or Arabs who just happen to live in (name a city). Every person is prejudiced and/or xenophobic. Find me one who says they are not, and I will show you a liar. The worst are the ones who lie to themselves. This is no excuse for prejudiced behavior! the wages paid did not cover the cost of housing & schooling, and providing medical care for these workers. Instead, that money came from tax on the rest of the population, shifted through various governmental agencies... That is just plain wrong. The presence of a government safety net makes it likely to be abused. The solution is to abolish the welfare system. Would that be acceptable? Otherwise we must live with the distortions caused by it and attempt to correct the problems we encounter. "If we cannot craft steady-state economic systems without a chocking population, what makes one think we can when forced to under much higher stress?" Capitalism strives to solve problems. The mechanism has been called many things from the invisible hand to motivated self interest. We will not achieve a steady state under current systems. Perhaps that will be achieved in the future, perhaps not.