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Old 04-10-2008, 04:21 PM   #8 (permalink)
OldManOnFire
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Today it is estimated there are 6.6 billion people in the world.

It is projected to be 9 billion by 2050...about 75 million more people every year.

Geographically, people are not evenly spread around. Due to myriad reasons, we have concentrated areas of dense populations and vast areas with little population.

As long as there is an availability of land and sustainable resources in a particular area, or the world, it cannot be considered 'over-populated'. I know it feels this way when driving on some freeways, but as long as all those people find homes to live and food to eat, we are not officially over-populated.

But in those areas in which for whatever reason there are not sustainable resources for the existing population, or not enough money in their pockets to import the necessities, the circumstances can be dire.

We in the US seem to think it's as simple as planting some crops and having plenty of food and how can these people in Haiti or wherever be so lazy and stupid? Yet we have the same issues right here in the US of so many people who are hungry. I've always wondered why it's so difficult for the richest and most powerful nation in the world to not be able to provide quality food to all it's citizens?? The only answer I can come up with is MONEY rules!! So if it's this way in the US, then I suppose it's this way all over the world.

For me, the availability of food is analogous to the availability of health care in the sense that both are required for a reasonable shot at living to be 75 years old. We know the US health care system is broken, and when vegetables and fruit are ridiculously expensive and people are going hungry, we can assume the food system is also broken.

In a sense, for those who agree to universal health care (UHC) free to all people at all times, or politically it might be called socialized medicine, it seems that perhaps we are going to need a UFS, or universal food system. No matter how the economic system is supposed to work, reality says things like health care and quality nutrition are simply too expensive for the average person. Since both are necessary, and for the health of the nation, it's as if we are approaching Gene Roddenberry's vision of space and the future, where people don't need to worry about housing, medical care, death arrangements, or food--it's just there...
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