>For population to remain stable, everyone has to have (on average) 2.1 kids.
I never said I want the population to remain stable.
>Any lower than this, population starts shrinking.
Yes, and?
>Children grow up seeing all their role models have less than 2 (even none at all), internalize that as normal, and then they won't end up having more (at least on average), and so it becomes a death spiral.
I'm gonna need a big, fat citation here, hoss.
>Extinction looms.
Oh, come on.
>You're probably trying to be friendly, but if you are you're just plain wrong. And if not, well, then you're secretly sitting there in glee at the prospect of human extinction and hoping at least a few people fall for your "friendly reminder" spiel.
What a remarkably uncharitable interpretation of what I said. I don't particularly care what happens to humanity; its existence, or lack thereof, doesn't really affect me one lick. One day, I'll be dead, and it won't matter to me anyway. I think it would be neat if we could clean up our act and stop destroying the planet, maybe have the Star Trek future we always imagined, but I won't be terribly put out if the human experiment ends, and neither should you. Please don't project your feelings onto me.
If the only option is "infinite growth forever so I can prop up my 401(k)" and "human extinction", only one of those spares the rest of the planet. But I'm pretty sure there's a secret third thing, which is: the population lowers down to a more manageable number, and then everyone can have whatever stable birth rate makes sense.
Remember that humans aren't special. We aren't unique. Humanity is beautiful, but we, too, are part and parcel of this planet. We just got lucky and developed big brains and useful tools. We are not immune to the forces that govern other species and other natural processes here. One big meteor impact and that's it for another few million years, at least. The hubris comes in thinking that we deserve to exist, and not just exist on, but dominate this planet. That couldn't be further from the truth.
I never said I want the population to remain stable.
>Any lower than this, population starts shrinking.
Yes, and?
>Children grow up seeing all their role models have less than 2 (even none at all), internalize that as normal, and then they won't end up having more (at least on average), and so it becomes a death spiral.
I'm gonna need a big, fat citation here, hoss.
>Extinction looms.
Oh, come on.
>You're probably trying to be friendly, but if you are you're just plain wrong. And if not, well, then you're secretly sitting there in glee at the prospect of human extinction and hoping at least a few people fall for your "friendly reminder" spiel.
What a remarkably uncharitable interpretation of what I said. I don't particularly care what happens to humanity; its existence, or lack thereof, doesn't really affect me one lick. One day, I'll be dead, and it won't matter to me anyway. I think it would be neat if we could clean up our act and stop destroying the planet, maybe have the Star Trek future we always imagined, but I won't be terribly put out if the human experiment ends, and neither should you. Please don't project your feelings onto me.
If the only option is "infinite growth forever so I can prop up my 401(k)" and "human extinction", only one of those spares the rest of the planet. But I'm pretty sure there's a secret third thing, which is: the population lowers down to a more manageable number, and then everyone can have whatever stable birth rate makes sense.
Remember that humans aren't special. We aren't unique. Humanity is beautiful, but we, too, are part and parcel of this planet. We just got lucky and developed big brains and useful tools. We are not immune to the forces that govern other species and other natural processes here. One big meteor impact and that's it for another few million years, at least. The hubris comes in thinking that we deserve to exist, and not just exist on, but dominate this planet. That couldn't be further from the truth.