Soylent Green

I was reading Amy Tuteur MD's latest post on OS when I got to thinking about the movie Soylent Green and the issue of overpopulation. Our current estimated world population is 6.7 billion and the current estimated U.S. population is around 306 million.

The two issues as I see it are the actual overpopulation and employment overpopulation. By actual overpopulation I mean the number of people that the world's natural resources can sustain and by employment overpopulation I am referring to the number of jobs that are available for people.

For the people who think the world is not overpopulated there is the often cited example that you could give every person on earth a 1500/SF condo stacked either 3 or 5 stories high (I forget which) and the entire earth's population could fit into the state of Texas. What's missing from this example is the natural resources required to sustain that population. It has been reported that over 80% of U.S. rivers and streams are contaminated with high levels of heavy metals or other contaminants. Our population is, again, 306 million. China, although a bit larger than the U.S. has roughly the same livable area and has a population of approximately 1.3 billion. India now has a population in excess of a billion as well.

As to the sapping of the world's resources, both China and India are in the early stages of a water shortage, with both countries barely able to supply the recommended daily intake of potable water. Major commodities are getting more difficult to obtain. It is fairly obvious to me that the current worldwide population is large enough to be putting a strain on the world's resources. I would estimate that another billion or so increase in the population would be unsustainable. There are certainly inefficiencies in food production and distribution that, if corrected, might allow for more people, but not much more.

Besides the issue of gross overpopulation, we have the issue of finding jobs for all these people. Ten percent unemployment in the U.S. results in 30 million people out of work. Ten percent unemployment in China results in 130 million people out of work. We have been fortunate in America to have a bunch of ravenous consumers who require the constant production of various commodities and generally useless (but necessary?) items. I maintain that the real issue is not so much how many people the world's resources can sustain, but, instead, how many people can be put to work in gainful employment.

At some point, you have a situation that so many people may be out of work that the rest of the people cannot help them, even though there may be enough natural resources to provide for a larger population. (Let's remember that though the resources may be available, you still must recover and distribute them) Before we discuss the final solution to overpopulation, let's take a walk down memory lane......back to the eugenics movement, and nope it did not start in NAZI Germany.

From the University of Virginia website: "The University of Virginia was home to supporters of the science of eugenics. Dr. H.E. Jordan who became Dean of the Department of Medicine at the University in 1939 delivered an address in 1912 in which he stated:
"It is not too much to say, I believe, that the idea of eugenics, based upon the science of eugenics, will work the greatest social revolution the world has yet known. Closely related to the concept of evolution, which has left its impress on every department of human thought, the idea of eugenics can hardly be compared with it in the pregnancy of its promise, the immensity of its scope, and in the serious import of its reception or neglect for the future trend of nations. It aims at the production and the exclusive prevalency of the highest type of physical, intellectual and moral man within the limits of human protoplasm."

and........"Most involuntary sterilizations occurred in the 1930s and 1940s, but some states, such as Virginia, continued the practice until the law was repealed in the 1970s. Most of the victims were poor and uneducated, and none received compensation. The alignment of eugenics and race purification is commonly associated with Nazi Germany, but the fervor of the eugenics movement in the United States is less widely acknowledged despite the vanguard role played by American scientists. These advocates pushed for the perfection of the human "gene pool" by influencing the reproductive process.
The impact of the Buck v. Bell decision was felt nationwide. After the 1927 decision affirmed Virginia's Eugenical Sterilization Law, there was a swift rise in the number of involuntary sterilizations in the United States. By the early 1930s, thirty American states had adopted eugenics laws. American eugenicists also pushed for anti-immigration measures and stricter laws to prevent racially mixed marriages. When signing the 1924 Immigration Restriction Act, President Calvin Coolidge stated: “America must remain American.”
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The Nazis picked up the eugenics ball and ran with it, but the idea started here. There were other European countries that were engaging in eugenics as well, such as Sweden. The Nazis took the next step, going from sterilization to attempted extermination.

This brings me back to Dr. Teuter's blog post "Is Alzheimer's care a waste of money?" in which the main gist is that due to the extremely high cost of health care for Alzheimer's patients that we should just discontinue the care for these people. Certainly, it is a practical solution.

So, what other practical solutions can be found for reducing the population? Well, we could say if unemployment tops 15% that the additional unemployed could be eliminated. We can then start getting into the master race issue. We can eliminate the lard asses, the mental gnats (I'm thinkin' liberals, but the libs are probably thinking conservatives), gays, lezzies (the Bible says they have to go, but one would lament the loss of seeing a couple of hot babes getting it on.....at least that would have been my thinking in my pre-Christian days) cigarette smokers, (cigar smokers get a pass) cab drivers, golfers, Catholics etc.

Once we figure out who to off, then we must think about what to do with all those corpses. Seems like such a pity let them go to waste. We could turn them into a spreadable creamy food product that you can smear on crackers or toast. The only thing is, that with all the hazardous chemicals people ingest, you could only eat the Soylent Green twice a month or your health may suffer.