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Comment by XorNot | Hacker News Reader

For roughly the same reason that "if I keep driving in a straight line, I'll crash into the tree at the end of my street" is disproven by the many years it hasn't yet...because it turns out the car has a steering wheel and I can turn when I reach the corner.

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The steering wheel in the case of overpopulation being a general reduction of living standards in the best case and widespread genocide and refugee crisises in the worst case.

No, not true. Many societies in the world have voluntarily reduced reproduction to the point where population growth would be zero, except for improvements in longevity.

These changes largely pre-date small recent drops in living standards, having taken place at the end of unprecedented runs of improvements in health and quality of life.

And how will you deal with the societies whose populations are booming in poverty and whom will desire to share your living standards? All the excess population from latin america, south east asia and africa will soon be displaced north by climate change

Enjoy reading about irrigation, greenhouses, mechanised farming, crop rotation, artificial fertiliser, herbicide, pesticide, the Haber-Bosch process, artificial selection, genetic engineering, futures contracts, state subsidies, refrigeration, salting, pickling, freeze-drying, vacuum sealing, National cheese reserves, food banks, and more!

The steering wheel in the case of overpopulation is gentrification. Turns out folks with all their basic needs met have way fewer children than folks who are barely scraping out an existence.

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