Rand Simberg wrote:

On Sat, 20 Mar 2004 00:00:10 GMT, in a place far, far away,
lid (John Savard) made the phosphor on
my monitor glow in such a way as to indicate that:

If humanity has any value, then twice as much has twice the value. If
humanity doesn't have any value to you, then do you propose that we
exterminate ourselves?

If it becomes possible to support additional humans in comfort and
peace and happiness, then I am for it.

That is clearly possible. Or at least as "clearly" as your next
proposition.

Right *now*, however, there is
a great amount of poverty, even in the wealthiest nations. Clearly,
our population is much larger than can be effectively accomodated on
Earth with our present technological level.

That is not clear at all. Your conclusion doesn't follow from your
premise.

We are presently heavily dependent on "phantom carrying capacity"
created by the one-time bonanza of fossil fuels like petroleum. The
petroleum will probably run out sometime around the middle of the
century, and replacing it with renewable sources will be very difficult
and enormously expensive. I recommend a book called "Overshoot..." by
Catton, which may clear up some things.

Poverty is largely caused by misgovernment, not by overpopulation per
se, even at our current technology level.