Permanently Deleted
One billion Americans, he suggests, would more rapidly discover technologies to “make prosperous lifestyles sustainable,” which in turn would render “irrelevant” the sheer number of prosperous Americans.
The following sentence is also a doozy. He has taken the Pinker Pill.
I've had someone use this kind of argument to reconcile them having children and the global ecological collapse. "More people means there's a chance of one of those additional people inventing a technological solution to all our problems."
Oh Jesus Christ is this the next phase of futurism BS? “Ok ok so we didn’t make a sci fi Story magic solution to the problem. But what if there were MORE PEOPLE to try to make these magic solutions?”
Technocrat wonkery and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.
Doesn't technocracy imply that people who make the decisions are at least a little bit competent?
if we can terraform Pluto, then climate change is hardly an issue
One Billion Plutonians.
My argument for jettisoning MattY into space.
It's amazing that libs have managed atrocious takes from both ends of the spectrum from Bill "I'm obsessed with the reproductive habits of African women and trying to do a light genocide by giving everyone both control" Gates to Matt "Americans need to start pumping out children because yellow scare and I can't do simple math" Yglesias.
trying to do a light genocide by giving everyone both control
Is birth control genocide, now?
Gates distributed condoms and Plan B pills. He didn't kidnap people and rip out their reproductive organs, like they're doing out in Georgia.
Let's at least try to keep perspective.
there’s a real issue of a super-wealthy person imposing western conceptions about how many children a family should have
Gates's experiment in distributing birth control was a colossal failure, just as previous "please don't fuck" initiatives by authoritarians have been failures.
But what came out of it was genuinely good. Gates discovered that high birth rates correlated with high childhood fatality rates. And that by distributing vaccinations first, and birth control later, families would naturally aim for the replacement rate without any further outside intervention.
Gates's experience on the African coast is a valuable lesson and a strong argument for universal health care as national policy.
pushing the idea that it’s somehow population and not the conditions created by capitalism that impoverishes nations
Poverty predates capitalism by millenia. And while China/India illustrate why pure population has nothing to do with poverty, human health plays a substantial role. Gates's distribution of vaccines and other medical resources was beneficial to the residents lucky enough to receive it. Nationalizing and expanding the scope of his campaign would be a huge boon for the continent as a whole, and it would be a shame if leftists lost sight of that.
Gates discovered that high birth rates correlated with high childhood fatality rates. And that by distributing vaccinations first, and birth control later, families would naturally aim for the replacement rate without any further outside intervention.
What do you mean "Gates discovered"? There has been research done decades ago that showed this correlation. I don't think the research needed the veneer of Gates's philanthrocapitalism.
What do you mean “Gates discovered”?
I mean he tried distributing birth control and it failed.
Then he realized that populations where he distributed vaccines alongside birth control were showing lower birth rates than those where he neglected vaccination. So he switched strategies and realized significantly better outcomes.
There has been research done decades ago that showed this correlation.
Wouldn't be the first time Americans had to rediscover something half the world knew about already.
"Well, you see, my political views are actually completely detached from reality."
FYI, when people say that China is the largest carbon emitter that's because they have over a billion people and they're looking at the total. But when you look at the data per capita, America and Canada are much much higher
On top of that, a lot of countries in the global south produce our shit for us because it's cheaper over there. If China did not exist, a lot of those emissions would still exist, just elsewhere.
It is like people forget (or, more realistically, do not care) that the PRC accounts for nearly 19% of the global population.
Of-fucking-course they are going to be the largest aggregate carbon emitter.
I mean he's right? if people could magically immigrate to another country we could probably use magic to fight climate change too lmao
If I could magically make money grow on trees, paying rent wouldn't be a struggle
Thank you for coming to my TED talk
Did he proceed to talk about ludicrous geoengineering schemes as the solution to climate change?
Look, if we blacked out the sun for like a year, the earth would cool down again.
Can you imagine you have kids because Chyna? You know someone irl is using this chud take to convince their partner it’s time to have kids.
