I'm now tempted to collectivise my thoughts on this too but I'll just make my argument simple :P
Quote:
Originally Posted by 7aco
I'm not even trying to formulate any hypothesis here, just want you lot to gather from these facts: west - depopulating, not willing to have children; east (middle, mainly muslim) - highly reproductive. And we're rubbing against each other. Anybody disagrees we're going to get swallowed by them?
|
I don't think this will happen for a few reasons. I'm not going to argue a balance of power with other cultures is a bad thing but the rapidly growing populations of Africa, India and China will begin to decrease as they get wealthier because birthrates generally corrospond with wealth historically.This however poses problems because the West does not want these countries to get wealthy, nor does it want them to use up more resources with large populations. This can end in a few ways; reproduction rates severely drop due to contraception, education or poor nutrition; starvation reduces population; there is a large-scale conflict.
Again its unfair to blame religion for these high birth-rates; the importance of religion tends to drop with an increase in education and wealth. Contraception simply isnt available to many of these people nor are people educated about it. Now I'm not some apologist for religion, I am highly anti-religious really but I have respect for other's beliefs and my resentment is more towards the institutions than the beliefs.
Its also important to remember that there are a lot more old people; eventually the population growth due to aging though will be offset as people reach their maximum lifespan, you must remember the huge medical advances in the last 100 years have greatly increased, to varying degrees, every county's percentage of elderly people and thus the amount of people in total.
Not to say that this doesnt pose massive economic problems and while the west is in the driving seat you can count on their being some severe humanitarian crises as we struggle to maintain our position and lifestyles. However, I do think that technological advances will save us to a large degree (like for example food will be grown in towers and energy sources will gradually become renewable[which is effectively infinite]). Anyway, in the mean time I'm going to try and raise the birth rates in Britain
(Actually I won't cos I don't want children...)