[JohnMK]

Hi Nathan,

Can a mother who hasn't adequate nutrition and calories, give birth to viable young? No. So how is the state of overpopulation achieved? One might respond quite that our present civilization is sustaining and growing its population by borrowing from the Earth's piggy bank of resources, and that someday we'll have a rude, catastrophic awakening. But the Earth-model is not static, my friend, you don't need to worry so much. Humans can and do find substitutions, much more efficiently I might add through free markets. They are found all the time, they are just deployed slowly (as needed), commensurate with the dwindling of whatever resource is becoming more scarce and thus more expensive. We have achieved remarkable advances in crop yield, and will continue to do so in the future.

There is plenty of food for everyone on Earth. What there isn't, in some areas of the world, is adequate wealth to procure it with at a level that you would be more comfortable with (15%+ bodyfat for all?). In these areas what's needed is proper governance that guarantees property rights and embraces free markets, then you'll see investment in their economies, and of course agriculture where feasible, and deployment of new and productive technologies. You'd also eventually see declining birth rate . . .

How free are people to emigrate the world's food-scarce areas, by the way?