Something to ponder

[walksalone]

This had crossed my mind a while back, then reading "SOCAL's Razor", brought it back to mind.

 

Think about this long and hard for a couple minutes.

 

What if the world's population was cut in half? You can come to your own conclusion on how this would occur.

 

There are roughly 6.7 Billion people on the planet. Half of that is a shade under 3.5 billion people. Imagine how much the quality of life would improve?

 

A bit mind boggling to think about....

[Enhance]

Or, you could think about how much life would change. You cut the population in half, then you would have to cut the services and goods produced by half as well, unless you replaced those 3.35 billion people with machines. Half as many people would pick up trash, half as many people would produce food, etc.

 

I know I'm being difficult with that approach, but it's just another way to think about it.

[husker B-rent]

Or, you could think about how much life would change. You cut the population in half, then you would have to cut the services and goods produced by half as well, unless you replaced those 3.35 billion people with machines. Half as many people would pick up trash, half as many people would produce food, etc.

 

I know I'm being difficult with that approach, but it's just another way to think about it.

 

ok but you would also have half as many people producing trash, therefore only half the trash, and you would only need half as many services and goods because there are only half as many people. You wouldnt need enough food etc for 6.7 billion anymore, just enough for 3.35 billion so it really wouldnt change all that much, besides the quantity produced.

[NUance]

What if the world's population was cut in half? You can come to your own conclusion on how this would occur.

 

There are roughly 6.7 Billion people on the planet. Half of that is a shade under 3.5 billion people. Imagine how much the quality of life would improve?

If we are doing this to conserve resources then we don't need to cut half the population. We could get by with only eliminating a third of the world's population. If the third was selected from the fattest people. I say we kill all the fatties!

[walksalone]

Essentially, if half the people on the planet, up and died, everyone's quality of life would improve.

[General Blackshirt]

Essentially, if half the people on the planet, up and died, everyone's quality of life would improve.

Oh really? What's your genius plan for the disposal of 3.5 million dead bodies then?

 

I think earth would stink.

[Chucktown Husker]

What if the half that survived were all from underdeveloped countries? That would be interesting.

[Manhattan]

Just because you decrease the population by one-half doesn't mean all of the changes from that decrease would also be proportional, or by one half.

[Manhattan]

Some graphs on population increase, the second one showing how we are reaching a peak with oil production as a relation to our population:

 

 

[huzkerbob]

What if the half that survived were all from underdeveloped countries? That would be interesting.

 

That would be poetic justice if you ask me.

[sarge87]

What if the half that survived were all from underdeveloped countries? That would be interesting.

 

That would be poetic justice if you ask me.

Trafficking in human slavery, stoning women, and throwing gays off rooftops will be en vogue again. Yippee!!!

[M I K E]

It depends on what half of people died. If they were from the industrialized world, there would be huge consequences. If they were from third world countries, there would probably be a large effect on the global economy, but it would be less of an impact compared to the death of industrialized people. It would work the opposite for pollution though. Industrial people dead = huge drop in pollution and natural resource use. Third world people dead = negligible difference in pollution and natural resource usage.

 

My point here is that it would not necessarily be a good thing. We are not very affected by a dramatically increasing population here in the U.S. anyway. The people that live in poor countries that are having a lot of kids are the ones that have to constantly deal with famine and disease.