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Re: Ecological Economics and Entropy
> As Herman Daly states in his introduction to _Valuing the Earth_, if a
> human population has a decreased infant mortality rate and an increased
> life expectancy (i.e. humans, in general, are having a much more
> permanent stay on earth), than the total flow of energy and matter used
> by these people must be reduced. Decreases in infant mortality are
> only
> positive when coupled with increased knowledge of birth control and
> social or political encouragement towards smaller families. Longer lives
> are only valuable when the elderly can be encouraged to serve as leaders
> and sages in a human quest for societal improvement, and human
> consumption over a lifetime is decreased dramatically.
>
> Toby Reiter
There was a huge amount of discussion during the last session of the
legislature concerning how the elderly were going to be treated as far
as their entitlements, (SS, Medicare, etc.). Thos in charge of these
matters have to come up with a way to keep from denying care and
security to those citizens who are surviving longer these days. What if
they could reduce the number in the society by 10% that would be a
savings that would be a long term cure. How to reduce the population by
10%? Raise the speed limit on the nation's and state's and county roads
to 75. It has been demonstrated that it is quite efficient,
indiscriminate, no one to blame way of limiting the population.
And the people love it!
JCA
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