Actually, the narrative of impending human overpopulation is mostly mythical.
“What? How could the possibility of too many people be a myth? There are only so many natural resources.”
Yes, and no. The concept of natural resources is a pretty misunderstood one. People tend to believe that there have always been a finite number of useful resources to which humans have had access and that throughout the course of human history we’ve been dwindling down our supply. But this is a huge oversimplification.
While it’s true that we do live in a finite universe, the number of resources we have access to is constantly expanding.
“How is that possible?”
Because we’re constantly discovering new resources we never knew could be helpful to us and developing more efficient ways of harvesting what we already value.
“But what if we run out of resources before we can discover new ones?”
That doesn’t seem likely. To start with, since 1980, the population has gone from 4.5 billion to 7.5 billion. And yet, extreme poverty has been cut in half.
“Wait, so you’re telling me that as our population has increased poverty has decreased? But that’s the exact opposite of what we would see if more people meant fewer resources for everyone else. That’s insane!”
Well it might seem insane if you view humans as liabilities, but the truth is every person is an asset – beyond being valuable on a metaphysical level, we all have an incredible potential to produce wealth for ourselves and others. And as the population increases, this potential increases as well. In other words, as our need to consume resources increases, so does our ability.
poverty hasn’t decreased: that’s like saying there’s ten oranges split between two people 9/1. Now there’s three people so it’s split 5/4/1. Still doesn’t help 1 any you fucking clown
This is probably the worst take of the fixed pie fallacy and income inequality I’ve read in a long time.
Let’s work through a similar analogy, shall we?
Let’s say for simplicity sake that in the year 2010 only 1 in 10 people owned a smartphone. There was clearly an inequality of smartphone ownership in the country at that time, for what it’s worth. However, by the year 2020 there is virtually 100% smartphone ownership among everyone – only now, about 1 in 10 people now own smartphones on par with the 2015-era high-end models while most people people have one of the latest newer 2020 high-end models.
Now, are those 1 in 10 people who are “slumming” it with their 2015-era phones really impoverished just because they do not have the latest models? No, they are not. They are still much wealthier by previous standards, despite an inequality of smartphones.
This is how innovation brings us further and further away from real poverty. Expanding wealth in extreme ways only grows the pie, not cuts a bigger slice at the expense of another smaller slice. Just because someone has an exorbitant amount of wealth or a larger income than you does not mean you are somehow losing something. In fact, the complete opposite is usually true.
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