World, Writing, Wealth discussion

J. wrote: "I despise euthanasia. My personal views on suicide are more accepting, but not absolute.

It would be immoral for me to put my blood on someone else's hands. As for assisting in a suicide, the mora..."

I'm in the following camp.

My best friend has just had the lower half of his body taken away on a battlefield. I'm the only one there. I'm cradling him, while he bleeds out over the remains of his pelvis. He looks me in the eyes and begs for release....

I'm torn between holding him and telling him that 'It's going to be all-right,' while he breaths the last 90 seconds of his life or putting a 9mm round through his temple.

In all honesty, I'd probably just wait him out...

Papaphilly, away from the c word, you'd be surprised about how much we agree on.

I will say this only once, and never ask me to repeat it, but I regard you as an extremely level-headed chap, who clearly thinks topics through, is very astute, and is very rarely prone to overreaction.

Now, about my planned emigration to the US and becoming your next door neighbour...

😑

Graeme, that's why I posted that, "As for assisting in a suicide, the moral grounds are dubious at best. Suicide of those with psychological issues is a minefield."

Mercy for a comrade is laudable. But what happens when politicians, who have never been on a battlefield, start parsing it out? Do you think they'll learn towards compassion, saving money, or votes?

Population continues to increase in the poorest areas where many either don't have access to birth control or don't use it due to patriarchal rules or religion, which leads to child starvation and higher mortality rates for women. When women become better educated, they have smaller families, giving them the opportunity to rise above poverty.

As far as farming, families can grow some of their own food like people used to. Some people have backyard gardens. Not everyone will want to. But farmers are a diminishing breed.

Farmers are a diminishing breed because bigger farms make more money, and the amount of good arable land is limited, and probaly shrinking.

Liked your post 197, J. Take care of it yourself and no one to blame. I can see myself maybe doing that, but it might be difficult to do if you're still able to walk in the woods, have the strength to do it. That would take guts.

Beau wrote: "Papaphilly, away from the c word, you'd be surprised about how much we agree on.

I will say this only once, and never ask me to repeat it, but I regard you as an extremely level-headed chap, who c..."

You would certainly be welcome. Bring some Bass Ale with you as they have stopped selling it here.

Graeme wrote: "Papaphilly wrote: "Graeme wrote: "It's crashing."

No it is not. It is actually, still climbing right now."

We must be looking at different stats."

https://www.un.org/en/global-issues/p...

https://www.statista.com/statistics/8...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project...

https://tradingeconomics.com/world/po...

https://interestingengineering.com/sc...

https://datacommons.org/place/Earth?c...#

I hope this helps. It is just a start because ti is very complicated and much more than I can show in a few graphs. I use the UN numbers because they are recognized, but I am not enamored with them due to politics. But they are close enough.

What are you looking at?

Papaphilly, when I used to drink beer, I really liked Bass too. Your post got me thinking...I haven't seen it, or many similar brands, for a while too.

Just investigated and looks like many of these brands were taken over by big multinationals, more interested in quantity over quality, so they turned their attentions to easier-to-brew lagers, resulting in plummeting production of more traditional quality beers/ bitters like Bass.

This explains more:

https://wb.camra.org.uk/2024/01/02/fa...

P.S. CAMRA should be your go-to source for anything to do with proper beer.

Something like that happened here too. We ended up with two gint breweries, but then a number of smaller breweries sprang up. The odd one has got "mjd-size" but otherwise there is a rash of very small ones. My feeling is that beer is one of the few things where you can't suppress competition if you are not producing a type of beer that has a good number of potential consumers.

Beau wrote: "Papaphilly, when I used to drink beer, I really liked Bass too. Your post got me thinking...I haven't seen it, or many similar brands, for a while too.

Just investigated and looks like many of the..."

Thanks for the tip on the beer.

Ian wrote: "Something like that happened here too. We ended up with two gint breweries, but then a number of smaller breweries sprang up. The odd one has got "mjd-size" but otherwise there is a rash of very sm..."

We are ahead of you and are going the through the natural die off of the micro brands that cannot financially make. Not all of the beer is bad either.

D. wrote: "Population continues to increase in the poorest areas where many either don't have access to birth control or don't use it due to patriarchal rules or religion..."

[1] Would you agree that Iran is the poster child of a patriachal theocratic state?

[2] Would you agree that Iran is poor relative to the US where per capita income in 2022 was $4,670 USD vs $76,330 USD respectively?

REF: (Worldbank data) https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/...

[3] Then please explain how Iran's fertility has just dropped below the 2.1 replacement level to 2.081 in 2023, down from 6.534 in 1983 ... the big decline occurred with the arch-patriarchal theocrats in control.

REF: (MacroTrends) https://www.macrotrends.net/global-me...

Cheers Graeme

Papaphilly wrote: "..."

I'm referencing macrotrends which is also based on UN and other official sources of data.

Fertility as follows https://www.macrotrends.net/global-me...

The data table is from 2018 to 2022, and just eye-balling the data, most countries declined from 2018 to 2022, and many are already below the replacement level of 2.1, and are below across those four years.

Graeme, you always do your research to make your point.

Scout wrote: "Graeme, you always do your research to make your point."

Thanks, Scout. I do try.

Graeme wrote: "Papaphilly wrote: "..."

I'm referencing macrotrends which is also based on UN and other official sources of data.

Fertility as follows https://www.macrotrends.net/global-me......"

In this case, you need to follow the longer trends. This is a blip. You also have to look at the bigger picture, some countries are already on below replacement level, but not all countries and the population is still growing overall.

Hi All,

Recent (2023) data visualised.

Any country under 2.1 is below replacement level fertility.

REF: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/worl...

Papaphilly wrote: "but not all countries and the population is still growing overall...."

The plummeting fertility rate indicates total population will peak earlier and lower than expected, then turn down as society rapidly ages.

This is a transformative trend change.

Graeme wrote: "Papaphilly wrote: "but not all countries and the population is still growing overall...."

The plummeting fertility rate indicates total population will peak earlier and lower than expected, then t..."

It will be interesting to see.

Indeed.

Predicting the future is always fraught with failure.

Birth rates in rich countries halve to hit record low:
https://x.com/FT/status/1803716914348...
Hope it won't be paywalled for you, as it offers comfortable for understanding charts

Indeed, Nik.

Fertility is plumetting.

Graeme wrote: "Indeed, Nik.

Fertility is plumetting."

The question then is why? One answer is people are leaving it later to have children, and the probability of success falls with age.

Why are you worried about decreasing population, Graeme? Fewer people equals fewer resources used, less waste to dispose of, a positive impact on the environment.

Hi Scout, as mentioned on other threads.

We are not 'short of resources or over-populated,' both are approved narratives propagated by global elites for the purposes of enslavement and control.

Graeme wrote: "Hi Scout, as mentioned on other threads.

We are not 'short of resources or over-populated,' both are approved narratives propagated by global elites for the purposes of enslavement and control."

No,

It was a real concern 50 years ago. However, it never came to pass and science met most of the challenges. Famines are now a political problem and not actual shortage of food. There is going to be a collapsing population problem in the next 50 years. the world should top out within about 20 years. Some countries are already falling and a few are growing.

We are not short of resources, but according to the Royal Society of Chemistry we are burning through some rare elements at a rate where we shall be short of them, unless we find a very powerful source of energy. Fusion power, and in the interim, nuclear power, will solve the problem, but I don't see any great move towards nuclear power now.