Papal Irresponsibility

Originally posted by Bosse de Nage
Why does he attribute the lack of energy & hope to a declining birth rate rather than other factors? Which societies would these be anyhow?

Japan's Birth Rate & Societal Aging

Declining Birth Rates


http://www.proteamjapan.com/jp_birth.htm

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"Among those countries facing problems of declining birthrates are Italy (birthrate per 1000 inhabitants: 8.89), France (12.15), Spain (10.1) and other European countries. Even Russia, demographers say, risks disappearing (9.8). As for Asia, Singapore (9.94) and Japan (9.47) are facing the crisis of an aging population. China (13.14) and India (22.32), despite having a huge population, are characterized by demographic disorder due to birth control policies and the almost systematic elimination of female fetuses, creating psychological imbalances and making it difficult for tens of millions of males to get married."


http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=4012

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Here you can find information on a lot of countries's demographics, including the phenomenon of declining birth rates:

http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/cat_trends_demographic.html

Originally posted by howardgee
So the latest Catholic muppet displays the usual religious stupidity.

He calls on the congregation to have more children and says that an increasing population is a sign of a successful society.

I'd have to say this is a far more insidious abuse of authority:

http://www.suntimes.com/output/religion/cst-nws-pope17.html

WTF is it with the RCC and molestation? Is it a hold-over from the Roman pederastry or what? And now the Pope implicated in the cover up? Why does that South Park episode entitled 'Red Hot Catholic Love' keep running through my head...Great Queen Spider, indeed.

Originally posted by howardgee
So the latest Catholic muppet displays the usual religious stupidity.

He calls on the congregation to have more children and says that an increasing population is a sign of a successful society.

Given that the world is already overpopulated by Humans and that the population is increasing by an estimated 87 million a year, shouldn't he be discouragin ...[text shortened]... te the entire population of "Chosen" people in the world, places us all at risk of extinction.

And you display your usual anti-RC bigotry.

For one thing, the Pope is specifically talking about European society - which is definitely looking at severe social security/national insurance/pensions crises in the future because of the shrinking workforce.

Second, nowhere does the Pope promote irresponsible and thoughtless procreation.

Originally posted by vistesd
3) Global population growth is probably one of the severest problems facing humanity, with a global strain on resources.

Is it so much a shortage of resources that is the problem as the allocation of those resources?

Originally posted by lucifershammer
Is it so much a shortage of resources that is the problem as the allocation of those resources?

Good question. The whole premise of economics has to do with allocation of scarce (i.e., limited resources). Sometimes an actual scarcity of resources in a given location can be alleviated by allocating reaources from somewhere else--e.g., sending food to help alleviate hunger in an area plagued by famine. But allocation too comes at an economic cost. A free good is one that is in such abundance that it cannot be assigned a cost. The scarcer the good, the higher the cost (or price--whether in terms of money or in terms of opportunity cost, which money prices are intended to reflect).

A small example: I remember when potable water in this country--at least where I grew up--was abundant and available enough to come at fairly low cost. We used to pay a flat-rate fee per month to the water company. (People in more rural areas had the fixed costs of sinking a well, and ongoing maintenance costs.) But, as water became scarcer relative to demand, that flat rate was replaced by billing based on usage.

With regard to the issue of global population, however, there is the question of how much the resources of the earth can sustain, at what level of existence. The allocation side of the question is: at what level of economic existence for whom.