flink@umcp-cs.UUCP (12/04/83)
From: cas@cvl.UUCP (Cliff Shaffer) > Clearly we are in competition with the Soviet Union. I think this is > because of a scarcity of resources. That's one reason; there are others. But I digress. > Resources are scare (by definition) because there is not enough to go > around. Not exactly. If the price is high enough, there will be enough for everyone who is willing to pay. A better definition of scarcity would be in terms of cost. Resources are scarce because it costs something to get them. > There is not enough to go around because there are too many people. But more people can mean, in the long run, lower resource costs. And labor is a resource, too. Saying there are too many people is simplistic. > Hence my conclusion that we should be trying to solve (and in this group > discuss solutions to) the population problem rather than the nuclear > weapons problem. OK, here's my proposal: allow freer immigration, stop government policies (e.g., strings attached to foreign aid) that discourage births, and further improve health. Eventually, colonize other inhabitable planets, if any. What, you say we have different ideas of what "the population problem" is? Of course!, what do you expect from --The aspiring iconoclast, Paul Torek, umcp-cs!flink P.S. Murphy's lawyers have never won a case!