- 12 Feb 2017 13:03
#14775210
[quote="Prosthetic Conscience"]But not in all cases. Some majority Catholic countries like Spain and Italy have low birth rates; in the USA
In Muslim countries, [url=http://www.prb.org/Publications/Articles/2013/demographics-muslims.aspx]Iran, Lebanon, Tunisia, and Turkey[/url] have a TFR at or below 2.1; it's some others, like Niger, that have the huge rates. So Muslim populations can get their birth rates down a lot, in the right circumstances.
I think there should be a worldwide effort to make all forms of contraception free for users (including condoms - stopping the spread of diseases is their extra benefit), and this is something it's worth the developed world paying for in developing countries. Girls' education must also be encouraged; when they have a decent prospect of a career, they put off marrying, or marry and use contraception (the growth is in countries where single mothers are still rare). Again, there are plenty of other benefits to this.
Even if this starts to work, the existing demographics will mean an increasing world population for decades, and there's no way to say "all countries must sort out their own population problems". There will be famines, and wars, and refugees. No country need have a 'shortage' of young people; just remember that immigrants, especially refugees, are pretty powerless, and they don't affect a country in a major way unless they are literally colonising it. So if a country thinks there's an age imbalance, let in some immigrants.[/quote]
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Firstly, if those Catholics are breeding like rabbits, they are either celibate or mock Catholics. Unless of course, they have got the rhythm method down to a fine art. Muslims will breed at the rate necessary to take over the earth, but that's another subject for another day.
A lot of what else you say I agree with, however it's not that simple. I totally agree that young people should be using contraception both population and health reasons. Unfortunately they have been encouraged to do so for years, and if anything they are more stupid now than they ever have been. The lack of morals in most civilized countries has justified the promiscuous and irresponsible actions of many young people. In the UK condoms are readily available free of charge from family planning clinics, but this has failed to solve the problem. Anyway, the overpopulation problem tends to involve the old rather than the young. I hope you don't think I am picking on old people, because I am not that young myself. The fact is that younger people are more productive, and older people tend to cost the economy lots of money. Sad but true I am afraid.
Allowing in immigrants doesn't solve the world problem, it just moves people from one country to another to relieve employment issues. That certainly isn't the answer. Famine will do very little to alleviate the problem, because as soon as one baby dies the mother just replaces it with another. Wars hardly go anywhere to reducing the problem, because unlike the 2nd world war a very tiny % of the worlds population is at risk.
Ideally the heads of all countries should sit down and discuss the issue, but because of financial constraints this will never happen. Like I said in my opening thread, I know the problem, but I really don't have the answers
Last edited by Know It All on 12 Feb 2017 13:11, edited 1 time in total.
I have never met a Liberal who isn't a hypocrite