Slate article: Famines of the future. We've been warned

I think we childfree will have the last laugh as the Soylent Green era approaches

LINK

Quote
a "why don't you just kill yourself then" BINGO!
I doubt Malthus will have the last laugh, given that he is dead.

At the risk of sounding mean, to those of you worried about overpopulation, get over yourselves and fertilize the soil already with your bodies. Fewer mouths to feed that way, you consume less carbon emitting products, you can provide nutrients to the soil, etc.

When one looks at Russia, it is far below population replacement levels; they are likely not to be a superpower in 50 years because there will be no one to change their depends diapers....

NO I'm not going to kill myself so that dolts like you can breed, take up more space and "feed more mouths". I've done my part, I'm sterilized and I have maybe five more decades tops on this planet, barring accidents, illness, or the collapse of civilization that will no doubt be ushered in by the mouthbreathers who value making more people over rational discussion on how to deal with problems that are clearly coming down the pike.

WHY does everyone think we need to keep aiming for "replacement level"? Do we really need one or more people to wipe asses of each and every elderly person? As I stated on another thread, the world population has nearly doubled in the past four decades. There are a billion more people on this planet now than in 2000. WHY is everyone so obsessed with who is going to wipe their ass in old age???

I don't get that whole ass-wiping thing either. 3 out of 4 of my grandparents have passed on now, but, they were all able to wipe their own asses right up until the end. My grandma is in her late 80s, lives at home (not in A home) by herself for the last 10 years, and has not needed to hire someone to wipe her ass either.

So yeah... the only thing I can figure is that SHAMoos think that we will all will end up as they no doubt will, the size of a compact car, and thus unable to reach our posteriors.

Maybe researchers at Carnegie Mellon University will come up with a robot that will have its own toilet paper dispenser and Cottonelle wipes that will be made to wipe asses. But what will they name it? Charmin the robot? Mr. Hankey?

I'm not sure people will be living so long as to need a lot of ass wiping anymore. I think as the idiocracy deepens we will just not be receiving the medical care that people have been getting. I know a lot of older people getting fancy complex surgeries that will not be available to them in the future. It seems that has peaked as Medicare pushes deep cuts, now with ACA there has to be further restrictions. All the money will go to the baybeez, and the old people are hit hard.

While Soylent green is gross cuz it's eating PEOPLE, the concept of assisted suicide, choosing when to go, painlessly, is something to consider. Especially with the road we are heading down, if things don't change imagine the future. How many billions can we sustain, and the world economy is crapping out. I don't want to live third world, I'd rather be a processed into a green cracker.

Furthermore, I read the local obits and every day people are dropping in their fifties and sixties, I'm sure they didn't need ass wiping. A lot of people just drop dead, heart attack, aneurism. Then you got the big C, taking them out early. It's a lot of confidence to think you will be around long enough to linger in a state of needing constant pamper changes. We were not designed for that anyway, it's unnatural.

Quote
blondie
While Soylent green is gross cuz it's eating PEOPLE, the concept of assisted suicide, choosing when to go, painlessly, is something to consider.

There was a story recently about a woman who was 89 years old who went to Dignitas to end her life because she was just tired of living in the world as it is. It sounded like she was CF. There were people actually saying that she shouldn't have had the right to choose to die. I wonder how many of those same people would have said she should just "kill herself" because she didn't breed.

But I agree - I think the option of painless assisted suicide is something that should be made available to all. It's so weird to me how being able to breed is considered a "right" but this is not the case for access to health care (which is considered a "privilege") and being able to choose when and how to die, with medical assistance (which is either illegal or can be difficult to obtain). I've recently seen this new thing where suffering in illness is experiencing "Christ's passion" or some crazy shit. It scares me that we have so many sick in the head masochists running around, and they have influence.

/sorry if I'm rambling, I'm still waking up

Quote
Ketchup

Quote
blondie
While Soylent green is gross cuz it's eating PEOPLE, the concept of assisted suicide, choosing when to go, painlessly, is something to consider.

There was a story recently about a woman who was 89 years old who went to Dignitas to end her life because she was just tired of living in the world as it is. It sounded like she was CF. There were people actually saying that she shouldn't have had the right to choose to die. I wonder how many of those same people would have said she should just "kill herself" because she didn't breed.

But I agree - I think the option of painless assisted suicide is something that should be made available to all. It's so weird to me how being able to breed is considered a "right" but this is not the case for access to health care (which is considered a "privilege") and being able to choose when and how to die, with medical assistance (which is either illegal or can be difficult to obtain). I've recently seen this new thing where suffering in illness is experiencing "Christ's passion" or some crazy shit. It scares me that we have so many sick in the head masochists running around, and they have influence.

/sorry if I'm rambling, I'm still waking up

I agree. Belgium is doing it right

With the current problem of neocons meddling in private, personal choices, I'm surprised that the measures in states that allow assisted death in the US have continued to survive.

As an aging person myself, watching the older folks in my family begin a long, painful descent toward the end, I may want to take a different route, having seen my possible not-too-distant future. Pisses me off that I'm at the mercy of the idiots who think an easy, less-painful assisted end should be denied to me.

Just remarked in another thread about my parents dying in their 60s and my doubts I'll see 70 myself.

A number of people who were my parents' friends recently died in their 60s and early 70s. Some recent figures show that the life expectancy of Americans in the lowest quintile (lowest 20%) of income has actually decreased, not increased, since about 1970. Much of that is bad lifestyle choices, but not all of it. Many simply don't have the access they need to health care.

So I seriously doubt that someone's kyd is going to wipe my ass in a nursing home in 30 years. I ain't gonna be here.

Don't forget that many breeders today are shitting out kyds who are autards or have other defects and cannot even wipe their own asses—and never will be able to, nor contribute anything worthwhile to society. Such as wiping geriatrics' asses...

Quote
a "why don't you just kill yourself then" BINGO!
I doubt Malthus will have the last laugh, given that he is dead.

At the risk of sounding mean, to those of you worried about overpopulation, get over yourselves and fertilize the soil already with your bodies. Fewer mouths to feed that way, you consume less carbon emitting products, you can provide nutrients to the soil, etc.

When one looks at Russia, it is far below population replacement levels; they are likely not to be a superpower in 50 years because there will be no one to change their depends diapers....

There needs to be a corollary to Godwin's Law for whenever some pedantic fucknob drops Malthus into the discussion. Yeah, one guy being off in his calculations back in the 18th century means that we can never discuss overpopulation again. And of course these douchenozzles assure us that "technology" will ride in to rescue humanity from climate and resource catastrophe yet somehow that same "technology" could never be harnessed to deal with a declining population and its all-important elderly ass-wiping needs.

Another interesting article from Slate that ties into overpopulation is how the military plans to react to countries (which will likely include ours) destabilized by climate change.

The article details how the military would handle the situation in a big way, but what about lesser incidents* that include terrorism. Climate change has already caused a significant impact to southern Africa, creating droughts and famine that are factors in Somalia-bred piracy.

Breeders want us to die out to make room for their spawn? Those future generations may one day curse their parents for bringing them into such a dire world.

*not meaning "lesser" as less significant and damaging, but acts focused in a concentrated spot