Will the problems never end, vol.2

[circeonya@hotmail.com]

I am glad that unlike a sailing site I frequent we can vent on this site on things political even if it is off topic. In OZ with have a minority Green representation in our parliaments and a bunch of dreamers they are, plus some other fringe dwellers. Because the two major parties rely on these idiot minorities to form a government, so when they say jump the party in power asks, how high?
I have no doubt about Climate Change. Eleven thousand years ago world population is estimated at five million, now just under eight billion and growing. The planet cannot sustain all of the eight billion in reasonable circumstances let alone the estimated twelve billion forecast. Oh for the days when the sun never set on the British Empire, IMO we are entering an era when an asian nation will be in that position and maybe sooner than most people think. When I was in China in 1997 it was a big deal they were heading for a population to top a billion, today 1.4 billion.

[Duncan Grimmond]

As long as the capitalist system prevails we are doomed to carry on with the "economic growth" on which it depends, regardless of the fact that resources are finite and so preclude endless growth.
Until we pull our heads out of our backsides and recognise this we are certainly in for a very rough ride for the forseeable future.

[andrew34ruby]

You are spot on there Duncan. Maybe we need to campaign for NEG. (negative economic growth)

[Duncan Grimmond]

Yes, it's sad to realise it but our grandchildren will curse us for having the knowledge and doing nothing with it for their future.

[Alan]

I’m actually more worried they will curse us for having the knowledge and doing the wrong thing. I wish the green lobby would rely more on science than it does on loud voices.

[Ray White]

Surely it's not economic growth but population growth that is the problem. The Planet simply can't sustain billions of consumers.

[Duncan Grimmond]

There is enough for everyone's need but not for their greed?

[Tony Griffiths]

There is enough for everyone's need but not for their greed?

Ah! rather like the old communist idea, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs". The trouble is, it never works, as several ex-residents of once European-communist-controlled countries have told me. What happens is that you do as little as possible and grab as much of the almost non-existent resources as you can. The reason? Anyone rising above the herd risks "denouncement" by the party's jealous and subsequent time in the Gulag. One chap, a super-clever electrical engineer, was told on his first day at work, "Avoid comrades X, Y and Z. Never correct what those big-heads say, even if it means that what they do - and it has happened - burns the place down."Naturally, he was disinclined to believe this, having had the Marxist rubbish pushed daily in school lessons, but decided to be cautious just in case. Sure enough, one of his fellow new-starters was soon in trouble with comrade Z and disappeared to goodness knows where. Seeing how things really were, my friend kept his head down and started a clandestine business fixing television sets to pick up West German TV - it was a given, of course, that the TV's were tuned to only the government's channel. He lived in a block of flats where, from new, the lifts had never worked, and had to lug them up and down by hand. Because there we no shops selling electrical components, a colleague used to take him suitcases of scrap electrical bits and pieces on his frequent business trips to the country. When the first arrived our enterprising young friend said, "Where on heart did you get this?" Told that it was the rubbish dumped by an electrical supplies shop in Manchester, he point-blank refused to believe it. Fortunately, five years after starting this capitalist effort the regime collapsed - and he's now head of that country's largest electrical company. I could go on with stories from the others but won't - they are basically all the same.

[Duncan Grimmond]

And you think capitalism works then? Trump, Johnson, Bolsonaro, I could go on but to little effect.

[Reckless Rat]

Gentlemen, friends, fellow Austineers. I think we should re-evaluate as we're drifting into dangerous territory. If we get into politics or religion it's a sure fire recipe for arguments and fallings-out. Let's move on.