[InclinedPlane]

I hate this sentiment. It's counter-factual and absolutely poisonous.

Go live in a hut in the middle of nowhere if you're so concerned about resource use.

For me, I fucking relish the day when everyone on the Earth can be as wealthy, or indeed wealthier, as I am today. Can live comfortably and look forward to sumptuous and delicious meals instead of living in fear of starvation or disease or war.

[jsmcgd]

People who want to see a reduction in human population relish the same things you do. We can consume as much as we want if there are fewer of us.

You can to almost anywhere on this planet and you can see human settlement encroaching on and damaging natural habitats. The magnitude of these effects are in direct correlation to human population growth.

[InclinedPlane]

This is exactly backwards. The more people there are who are skilled, educated, and working, the more resources are produced. Resources aren't manna from heaven, they are the products of human labor and ingenuity. In 50 years we'll be using robots to pluck Neodymium and Copper from the ground and Iridium from asteroids. We're not going to be running out of resources, we're going to be wealthier and resources are going to be more abundant.

It's easy to imagine that we'll "run out" of "resources" because in theory many resources are in finite supply. But in reality the hard natural limits are so high as to be effectively infinite over extremely long periods of current levels of use and historically humans have gotten more and more clever about finding new methods to extract or produce resources that previously were not available.

Moreover, our increasing wealth and technological capabilities have made it possible to reduce and reverse our environmental impact and encroachment of habitats.

Personally, I like my life and I think it's worth living, and indeed even justified, and I think that denying the ability to live a similar lifestyle to others simply because they were born into a different part of the world is just know-nothing nonsense and veiled racism.

[TimReynolds]

I assume you also believe governments can spend their way out of debt?

[subsection1h]

    For me, I fucking relish the day when everyone
    on the Earth can be as wealthy, or indeed wealthier,
    as I am today.

I assume that your wealth, unlike that of many Americans, doesn't include a house with a big yard because everyone on Earth will never be able to have that.