Clement Tahershamsi @Clementulus@social.cleverlibre.org

@jbond Sorry but I'm not sure the point you are trying to make. The very sites you posted to me illustrate the point I made earlier; that the total global population growth rate is declining, with the sharpest declines in the most advanced economies. All that other stuff about wars and climate change is just word salad. The reason the human population has been able to grow is precisely because we learned how to overcome floods, poor harvests, wars and other challenges and there is no particularly convincing argument to be made that we will somehow just suddenly start failing at the very thing that we have been doing for the past 20 000 odd years. Will there be more challenges to come? Of course. Will people overcome them? All signs point to yes. And in the meantime population growth rate will continue to fall until we reach an equilibrium population.

@adrienne @CedScherer
I was also confused by how a Germany occupied by the Americans (just after the Holocaust) somehow was rated much higher than america itself.

@jbond Almost all developed countries have birth rates below the replacement rate, because adults living in a safe and comfortable society with equal rights for both sexes and good opportunities tend to only have 1 or 2 kids. Even chinas population is in sharp decline. If we can help boost the economies of developing nations to the point where they become safe and stable, we will probably see declining populations most places and we will need to actively encourage procreation just to maintain a steady population! There will be some challenges, like the point we are coming to in many nations where there are disproportionately large numbers of elders compared to working adults who will need to be supported but otherwise we should be fine.

@FranckLeroy I think you might be confusing Bitcoin with blockchain technology, which are not interchangeable terms. But even if we allow that a completely decentralized currency will be inefficent in its power use, you would need to show that it is more inefficient or otherwise causes more harm than centralized currencies (which are rife with tomfoolery to say the least).

@jcmacomber To be fair the unspoken part of that statement is "And I got super lucky." Which we all understand to be true implicitly. But those who become billionaires had no more control over their luck than anyone else, the only thing they could control was how much they took advantage of their luck, which required hard work. You never hear of all the people who could have been billionaires if they had not squandered the good fortune they had, or those who began with wealth then lost it. To think that all billionaires would be just as wealthy if they had misused their time and energy is not a logical position.

@notfunnyelle@mstdn.social How else you gonna pick your nose with no goddang hands?!

@wheeltod Cop: So a Volkswagon...uh huh... and did you happen to see the driver?