supporting the world is madness!
While not advocating a draconian system like China's one-child policy, Lina believes that something needs to be done about cutting welfare -- at home and abroad -- because, as the figures below show, the world's population is increasing at such an alarming rate that it won't be long before those lucky enough to have jobs and ability to support themselves are not going to be able to continue supporting everyone else.
"Look at the figures below," cries Lina. "Last year, 6.5 billion babies were born around the world and by the end of this year there will be undoubtedly another 7 billion more mouths to feed. It's hard to get your head around 7 billion babies born in a year, isn't it? In my time, 1 billion babies were being born globally every year and the demographers went crazy -- calling us Baby Boomers -- and wondering how there would ever be enough room for us. Why are the demographers so quiet now?"
100+ (.450 million) 1906+
80+ (89 million) 1926+
75+ (183 million) 1931+
70+ (313 million) 1936+
65+ (484 million) 1941+
60+ (682 million) 1946+
55+ (945 million) 1951+
50+ (1.270 billion) 1956+
45+ (1.628 billion) 1961+
40+ (2.060 billion) 1966+
35+ (2.537 billion) 1971+
30+ (3.034 billion) 1976+
25+ (3.548 billion) 1981+
20+ (4.113 billion) 1986+
15+ (4.721 billion) 1991+
10+ (5.314 billion) 1996+
5+ (5.912 billion) 2001+
0+ (6.528 billion) 2006+
"I know it sounds incredibly cruel," says Lina, "but it you announce a deadline beyond which all welfare is cut -- at home and abroad -- young women will think twice about having more children, and responsibility for caring for families will fall fairly and squarely where it belongs -- with extended families."
"If you cannot afford to have children, support them yourself and assure them a future," says Lina, "then you shouldn't be having children in the first place and expecting other people -- in your community or abroad -- to support them."
"It's not just the burden of raising all of these children that bothers me," says Lina. "It's what to do with them when they grow up. There are not enough jobs going around for young people in first world countries let alone having to worry about finding employment in fifteen years' time for 7 billion young people -- most of whom would be in third world countries."
"These children are doomed to beg in the streets, prostitute themselves or eke out a terrible existence on a pittance they may earn in a dangerous workplace," sighs Lina. "Either that, or they will be recruited as child soldiers or terrorists in some terrible war."
"All those do-gooders and aging rockers who are raising funds today to feed the starving masses are merely creating a terrible problem down the line. Can't they see that? Every fifteen years they have feed the world concerts. Why aren't they organizing birth control concerts instead?"
"In areas of low sustainability, we cull animals to avoid the whole species being wiped out by overpopulation," says Lina, "and we should be instituting strict birth control to avoid a similar situation happening with humans."
"We should not just cut welfare to areas where people breed indiscriminately, but we should close our borders, too," says Lina. "Poor people are flooding into wealthier parts of the world not because they like us -- on the contrary, most of them hate us -- but because our welfare systems at home are better than our welfare systems abroad."
"Why settle for a sack of flour and some sanctimonious preaching from the organizations that hand it out when you can smuggle yourself into a first world country, claim to be a refugee and receive all of the benefits that others have built up for the use of their own community?"
"It's like someone coming along and demanding to share your pension fund, isn't it?" asks Lina. "I don't know about you, but I am going to need every penny of my pension fund -- providing that it's still there when I retire, and chances are that it probably won't be at the rate the country is going -- and it really scares me when I look at the global population chart and see billions upon billions of young people coming up behind me."
"When I am old and frail, and my government tells me 'sorry, lady, our pension funds are bankrupt', what chance will I have to survive? My parents are okay, I can afford to take care of them in an emergency, but I don't have children and even if I did I doubt whether they would be able to help me when I'm old."
"From time immemorial, families have looked after their own, and small communities have looked after those without families," says Lina. "At some stage in our recent history, governments took over control of just about every aspect of our lives, making families and small communities almost redundant, and not content with controlling us they then took upon themselves the responsibility of taking care of the world."
"This is all very well," says Lina, "but the government is using my taxpayer dollars, and yours, to fund its mission to feed the world and breed more billions of future-less lives, and I never had a say in it, did you?"
"As our welfare services at home are being ruthlessly cut -- health, education, pensions, etc -- the global welfare services are being expanded," says Lina. "We invaded Iraq illegally and we are now responsible for the welfare of 20 million more people, over and above the billions we already support."
"I subscribe to the lifeboat theory," says Lina. "One more person on an already full boat means the death of all, unless, of course, they take turns hanging on to the outside of the boat in freezing cold or shark-infested waters. When the times comes, you know who's going to be in the lifeboats -- the lousy politicians and their families -- and to hell with us!"
"With every sack of flour we send to the third world we should send 10 sacks of condoms with it and tell the women that from now on those with the least number of children will get more food," says Lina. "Oh sure, the religious freaks and the moralists will go mad, but the women with their hands out, those seeking our welfare, will get the message and say to their menfolk, if it's not on, it's not on."
"Similarly, with every single mom payment we make, we should decrease it rather than increase it with subsequent children," says Lina. "How are you going to get these women to have less children and behave responsibly when you're paying them to breed indiscriminately?"
"Right now,the world is producing TWICE as many people as it did thirty years ago," says Lina. "At whatever age you are now, just look at the chart and see how many people are coming up behind you. It scares me and it should scare all of us."
"Our government tries to deflect blame on the old people for welfare funding crises," says Lina, "but the chart clearly shows where our taxpayer dollars are going."
"How can the cost of caring for 1 billion elderly people over the age of 65 compare with the cost of caring for 17.8 billion children aged 0 to 14 and the 10 billion or so mothers aged 15 to 44 who produced them?"
(Lina's story first appeared as global welfare and population control and is reprinted with permission.)
"Look at the figures below," cries Lina. "Last year, 6.5 billion babies were born around the world and by the end of this year there will be undoubtedly another 7 billion more mouths to feed. It's hard to get your head around 7 billion babies born in a year, isn't it? In my time, 1 billion babies were being born globally every year and the demographers went crazy -- calling us Baby Boomers -- and wondering how there would ever be enough room for us. Why are the demographers so quiet now?"
100+ (.450 million) 1906+
80+ (89 million) 1926+
75+ (183 million) 1931+
70+ (313 million) 1936+
65+ (484 million) 1941+
60+ (682 million) 1946+
55+ (945 million) 1951+
50+ (1.270 billion) 1956+
45+ (1.628 billion) 1961+
40+ (2.060 billion) 1966+
35+ (2.537 billion) 1971+
30+ (3.034 billion) 1976+
25+ (3.548 billion) 1981+
20+ (4.113 billion) 1986+
15+ (4.721 billion) 1991+
10+ (5.314 billion) 1996+
5+ (5.912 billion) 2001+
0+ (6.528 billion) 2006+
"I know it sounds incredibly cruel," says Lina, "but it you announce a deadline beyond which all welfare is cut -- at home and abroad -- young women will think twice about having more children, and responsibility for caring for families will fall fairly and squarely where it belongs -- with extended families."
"If you cannot afford to have children, support them yourself and assure them a future," says Lina, "then you shouldn't be having children in the first place and expecting other people -- in your community or abroad -- to support them."
"It's not just the burden of raising all of these children that bothers me," says Lina. "It's what to do with them when they grow up. There are not enough jobs going around for young people in first world countries let alone having to worry about finding employment in fifteen years' time for 7 billion young people -- most of whom would be in third world countries."
"These children are doomed to beg in the streets, prostitute themselves or eke out a terrible existence on a pittance they may earn in a dangerous workplace," sighs Lina. "Either that, or they will be recruited as child soldiers or terrorists in some terrible war."
"All those do-gooders and aging rockers who are raising funds today to feed the starving masses are merely creating a terrible problem down the line. Can't they see that? Every fifteen years they have feed the world concerts. Why aren't they organizing birth control concerts instead?"
"In areas of low sustainability, we cull animals to avoid the whole species being wiped out by overpopulation," says Lina, "and we should be instituting strict birth control to avoid a similar situation happening with humans."
"We should not just cut welfare to areas where people breed indiscriminately, but we should close our borders, too," says Lina. "Poor people are flooding into wealthier parts of the world not because they like us -- on the contrary, most of them hate us -- but because our welfare systems at home are better than our welfare systems abroad."
"Why settle for a sack of flour and some sanctimonious preaching from the organizations that hand it out when you can smuggle yourself into a first world country, claim to be a refugee and receive all of the benefits that others have built up for the use of their own community?"
"It's like someone coming along and demanding to share your pension fund, isn't it?" asks Lina. "I don't know about you, but I am going to need every penny of my pension fund -- providing that it's still there when I retire, and chances are that it probably won't be at the rate the country is going -- and it really scares me when I look at the global population chart and see billions upon billions of young people coming up behind me."
"When I am old and frail, and my government tells me 'sorry, lady, our pension funds are bankrupt', what chance will I have to survive? My parents are okay, I can afford to take care of them in an emergency, but I don't have children and even if I did I doubt whether they would be able to help me when I'm old."
"From time immemorial, families have looked after their own, and small communities have looked after those without families," says Lina. "At some stage in our recent history, governments took over control of just about every aspect of our lives, making families and small communities almost redundant, and not content with controlling us they then took upon themselves the responsibility of taking care of the world."
"This is all very well," says Lina, "but the government is using my taxpayer dollars, and yours, to fund its mission to feed the world and breed more billions of future-less lives, and I never had a say in it, did you?"
"As our welfare services at home are being ruthlessly cut -- health, education, pensions, etc -- the global welfare services are being expanded," says Lina. "We invaded Iraq illegally and we are now responsible for the welfare of 20 million more people, over and above the billions we already support."
"I subscribe to the lifeboat theory," says Lina. "One more person on an already full boat means the death of all, unless, of course, they take turns hanging on to the outside of the boat in freezing cold or shark-infested waters. When the times comes, you know who's going to be in the lifeboats -- the lousy politicians and their families -- and to hell with us!"
"With every sack of flour we send to the third world we should send 10 sacks of condoms with it and tell the women that from now on those with the least number of children will get more food," says Lina. "Oh sure, the religious freaks and the moralists will go mad, but the women with their hands out, those seeking our welfare, will get the message and say to their menfolk, if it's not on, it's not on."
"Similarly, with every single mom payment we make, we should decrease it rather than increase it with subsequent children," says Lina. "How are you going to get these women to have less children and behave responsibly when you're paying them to breed indiscriminately?"
"Right now,the world is producing TWICE as many people as it did thirty years ago," says Lina. "At whatever age you are now, just look at the chart and see how many people are coming up behind you. It scares me and it should scare all of us."
"Our government tries to deflect blame on the old people for welfare funding crises," says Lina, "but the chart clearly shows where our taxpayer dollars are going."
"How can the cost of caring for 1 billion elderly people over the age of 65 compare with the cost of caring for 17.8 billion children aged 0 to 14 and the 10 billion or so mothers aged 15 to 44 who produced them?"
(Lina's story first appeared as global welfare and population control and is reprinted with permission.)
Labels: global welfare, lifeboat theory. one-child policy, population control, supporting the world, third world
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