How would you solve it?

[Boerseun]

So no, we should scale back. We should try to stop people being brain-washed into "Buy, buy, buy!". But this is what makes the world go around now. Envy, sloth and avarice are the sins du jour.

I agree with you 100%.

 

I think there's a lot of social issues today that can be traced back to the consumer society not exactly doing for the masses what the intention was.

But of course, the individuals making profit out of this system, are the Power Brokers of the day, and they will not see their empires crumble to make way for a better system.

Which is an interesting topic in itself: What better system could there be, to replace Capitalism with all its faults?

Is the consumer society the best we could come up with? The consumer society is directly responsible for the dumbing down of the USA, and the West in general. Give it another 10 years or so and see China surge past the hallowed West, where stupidity will reign, mass entertainment will rule the day, Hollywood will dictate to Washington (kinda happening already), and everybody will sit hypnotized, watching stupid shows like Oprah and Dr. Phil with faux emotions being squeezed out of every possible televisable second, enough to make you spew.

If I see another kid with an enlarged testicle, crying his guts out and making the audience weep with his pleading for a new specially-seated bicycle to accomodate his crazy left nut, or see that bald idiot tell another couple to stop having sex with power tools, seeing as it could be kinda dangerous, such obvious bloody advice which the Yanks are nowadays apparently too stupid to figure out for themselves, I'll hurl.

But that's mass entertainment for you. And it's here already.

 

What's the alternative?

[Turtle]

___I agree about using less (see "Minimalist Multifunctioism..." thread in the Lounge).

http://hypography.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1821&page=1&pp=10

Nonetheless, it is no argument to not try & help those in poor circumstance to have food, shelter, & work. The less I use, the more for someone else in need I figure.

___Besides modifying the rate/quantity of consumption by an individual, we really need to slow down the births it seems to me. How? Good grief I don't know! Education perhaps is the most benign method, & then on to draconian ploys like forced sterilization I suppose. Then there is the old standby, do nothing & things take care of themselves. If left unchecked, the human population will ultimately crash.

[Little Bang]

You know it's kind of funny how everbody has a solution for fixing humanities problems but know one wants to here the one solution that would fix 99.9% of all our problems. Reduce the population on this planet by 99%. How, allow only two children per female.

 

Your right turtle, if the present birth rate continues the human race will crash within 100 years.

[infamous]

You know it's kind of funny how everbody has a solution for fixing humanities problems but know one wants to here the one solution that would fix 99.9% of all our problems. Reduce the population on this planet by 99%. How, allow only two children per female.

 

Your right turtle, if the present birth rate continues the human race will crash within 100 years.

 

The unhappy truth is however, that humanity will never stand for that kind of birth control. Sadly the only solution to this problem will rest upon the aftermath of another world war. Not an acceptable solution but I believe inevitable in any case.

[bumab]

The unhappy truth is however, that humanity will never stand for that kind of birth control. Sadly the only solution to this problem will rest upon the aftermath of another world war. Not an acceptable solution but I believe inevitable in any case.

 

It's a luxury we can even talk about that solution. In many countries, lots of kids are required to work the farm, get food and water, and various other tasks. Kids are a neccessity. It's unrealistic to ask those people to give up their kids, because they need them. Now if we reduced our kid quota to 1, or even less (maybe tax breaks for those who adopt), it would be a start. After all, we use the resources (industrial nations), we should reduce first.

 

Off the soapbox....

[questor]

solutions:

each person is responsible for a couple of tons of waste each year. the solution is obvious--have a zero growth population.

develop alternative fuels to solve the petroleum problem.

will these solutions work if employed?..of course!

will they be employed?.. of course not! why not? because people can't focus on problems until they become emergencies.

P.S. the world was much warmer during the age of dinosaurs than it is now. why was this? lizard farts?

[Boerseun]

Glad to see this thread got bumped from a lone, dusty grave...

 

Yes. Birth control would solve a lot of issues. Matter of fact, can you imagine what the world would've looked like in a couple of years if the Chinese didn't have the amazing foresight to limit couples to one child? The only thing is that our permissive societies in the West will never stand for such limits to our freedom.

 

1) Like they say - the road to hell is paved with good intentions...

 

Then again, on the other hand, the Powers That Be wants more kids in the West, 'cause they will grow up to inherit the Earth from their Capitalist parents and consititute a larger financially capable Market. You can sell stuff to them. If the Chinese had money, the West won't keep quiet about their birth control policy, 'cause a couple of years from now, there could have been a couple 'o billion more consumers over yonder. Refer to point 1 above.

[Cedars]

Now if we reduced our kid quota to 1, or even less (maybe tax breaks for those who adopt), it would be a start. After all, we use the resources (industrial nations), we should reduce first.

 

Off the soapbox....

 

In addition to giving tax breaks for adoption, limit the number of dependents to 2 children of your own. If you want more kids fine but no tax break.

[Cedars]

Look at any city's skyline at night. Bright lights all over the show, and empty streets. Those lights are burning to nobody's benefit.

 

Thoughts? Or solutions to new issues?

 

Along this line of thought, one thing that really bugs me is all the office buildings who leave lights on at night. I can see a potential reason to leave maybe a few on the top floors on for air traffic *when there is no blinking light on top. But other than that, its a huge waste of electricity. It also causes alot of bird deaths during migrations that could possibly be avoided if the lights were out.

[Skippy]

solutions:

each person is responsible for a couple of tons of waste each year. the solution is obvious--have a zero growth population.

You like Swift's idea in A Modest Proposal don't you?

develop alternative fuels to solve the petroleum problem.

Now you are on to something. There are many alternatives for both large and small scale energy production. Windmills, biomass (burn some of the waste for energy), wave energy, biodiesel (from grain oils), solar, geothermal, hydrogen fuel cells, nuclear,... there are many alternatives to fossil fuels.

will these solutions work if employed?..of course! will they be employed?.. of course not! why not? because people can't focus on problems until they become emergencies.

Could not have said it better myself! (I would have added the 'rant' ( :D ) emoticon though. I have found that other parts of the world are far ahead of the US in advancing the causes of Alternative Energy Sources. I have my own theories which include: the negative effect of the extreme environmental groups ranting about the evils of oil; issues those same people bring up about windmills killing birds, nuke wastes, windmills not being aesthetically pleasing, and such; costs of conversion to other sources (fossil fuel technology is firmly ensconced and the intitial cost of new tech. is always higher); lack of understanding about the future supply of oil, and others.

 

Boersun asked for solutions too. The government should offer tax incentives for a few years for changing your home/business to an alternative source - to offset some of the costs of the change. The government should use its "eminent domain" powers to overcome the objections of fringe groups (who otherwise want what is proposed) to build alternative power facilities like wind farms in coastal areas (a NASA/Stanford study found that "wind captured at specific locations, if even partially harnessed, can generate more than enough power to satisfy the world's energy demands").

 

Check out The Alternative Energy webring for some great information on the subject. My modest blog is listed on the ring and on my profile :hihi: .

[Skippy]

Texas has concealed carrier laws and Dallas now has the highest crime rate in the nation (As of the released 2004 numbers). Armed people don't reduce crime, just as more cops do not reduce crime. Just yesterday in my hometown about a mile from my house, there was a DAYLIGHT armed robbery of a GUN STORE (with the armed clerk there) and about 50 weapons were stolen including about a dozen assault rifles. The conept of arms proliferation as a solution is absurd.

Washington, D.C. IS the Crime Capital of the U.S. (about 3 times the number of violent crimes per 100,000 in D.C. than in Texas and Washington, D.C. has one of the most restrictive gun policies in the country - in fact, they have spent thousands of dollars buying guns to get them off the street)

From the National Center for Policy Analysis:

"The right to carry may also be affecting Texas' crime rate in a positive way. Texas had a serious crime rate in the early 1990s that was 38 percent higher than the national average.

-Since then, serious crime in Texas has dropped 50 percent faster than for the nation as a whole.

-Murder rates have dropped 52 percent, compared to 33 percent nationally.

-Rapes have fallen by 22 percent compared to 16 percent nationally."

[Turtle]

Problem Statement: Residential homes waste water unnecessarily

Solution Proposal: Require new construction to divert all gray water to an on site cistern or drain field. Gray water is everything going down the drain except from the toilet. This will lighten the load on sewage plants, return water to aqifers, provide water for irrigation which can both produce food from a garden as well as grow plants that shade & cool the home reducing energy use. Besides requiring it for new construction, some kind of incentives or phase in plan for converting existing homes to the system completes the solution proposal. :)

[questor]

wasted water:

1. take showers, not baths

2. when brushing teeth, only use water for final rinsing

3. use California's mantra during the great drought:

''if it's yellow, let it mellow

if it's brown, flush it down''

[Turtle]

All good suggestions for reducing the incoming water; I was trying to be punny with the waste idea as well as practical. ;)

Speaking of jocular water & before someone beats me to it, "If it's yellow, brush your teeth." ;) :) :D ;)

[questor]

in a good society, people should not have to bear arms. if they do bear arms, it's either for crime or defense. the solution here is to remove bad people from society. a consensus would have to occur with the great majority agreeing on what constitutes a good person or a bad person, then the bad ones are removed. the bad corrupt the good,and the bad have no respect for laws or morals. if they remain in a society, they ultimately ruin it.

[Skippy]

in a good society, people should not have to bear arms. if they do bear arms, it's either for crime or defense. the solution here is to remove bad people from society. a consensus would have to occur with the great majority agreeing on what constitutes a good person or a bad person, then the bad ones are removed. the bad corrupt the good,and the bad have no respect for laws or morals. if they remain in a society, they ultimately ruin it.

Guns have been introduced into the world so they will never disappear. Someone will always exploit the power a gun gives them over someone without a gun. Since there are guns and since we can never totally remove them a better response is to require law-abiding citizens to own one. In places where this has been tried, crime has been drastically reduced.

 

Read Lord of the Flies, Animal Farm or a history of the Soviet Union's beginnings. In the absence of strong leadershhip, someone will exploit his/her physical/mental/technological strengths to place himself in authority over others (the real reason for the 2nd Amendment).

[questor]

How would you solve the problem of illegal immigration? would you let them continue to pour across our borders, 3000 or 4000 per night, bringing not just illegals, but criminals, drug smugglers, disguised middle easterners, or would you stop it? HOW?