Places becoming more livable

[nanning]

El Cid, the world has changed 'a bit' since WW2. Our current culture is unrecognizable to people from those times.
Have you taken that into account?

[Tom_Mazanec]

El Cid:
I'm not so sure Western Civilization, especially the US, has that kind of culture.

[gerontocrat]

As to refugees To remote for us to get tens of thousands  boat people.
The rich? They bring money so good for our economy at present.
 Some  seem to think coming here will be viable bolt hole if civilization collapses.
If your money is no good and you don't bring the skill sets needed you will not be  safer here.

The rich? They bring money so good for our economy at present

Perhaps not so much money.
Perhaps some really weird people with really weird ideas.

The attached link is a really long read - but if I was a Kiwi I would be a bit alarmed. I am sending it to a brother (naturalised Kiwi) in Motueka.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/feb/15/why-silicon-valley-billionaires-are-prepping-for-the-apocalypse-in-new-zealand

Why Silicon Valley billionaires are prepping for the apocalypse in New Zealand

How an extreme libertarian tract predicting the collapse of liberal democracies – written by Jacob Rees-Mogg’s father – inspired the likes of Peter Thiel to buy up property across the Pacific.
The book’s 400-odd pages of near-hysterical orotundity can roughly be broken down into the following sequence of propositions:

1) The democratic nation-state basically operates like a criminal cartel, forcing honest citizens to surrender large portions of their wealth to pay for stuff like roads and hospitals and schools.

2) The rise of the internet, and the advent of cryptocurrencies, will make it impossible for governments to intervene in private transactions and to tax incomes, thereby liberating individuals from the political protection racket of democracy.

3) The state will consequently become obsolete as a political entity.

4) Out of this wreckage will emerge a new global dispensation, in which a “cognitive elite” will rise to power and influence, as a class of sovereign individuals “commanding vastly greater resources” who will no longer be subject to the power of nation-states and will redesign governments to suit their ends.

[oren]

Oh dear.

[gerontocrat]

Oh dear.

That really really weird weirdo Peter Thiel was of course with Musk in the Paypal Mafia.
Betcha they were fans of  Ayn Rand - "Atlas Shruged" & all that. Lots of Silicon Valley big chiefs were (are?) entranced by her "philosophy" (Alan Greenspan literally sat at her feet in the '50's).

Doesn't it make you feel all cosy and warm?

[nanning]

I think I see that already happening. Many governments are no more than lackeys of those people behind the scenes. e.g. Morrison.
Is this related? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Theory_of_the_Leisure_Class

I am sending it to a brother

There are more of you? OMG 
I wish I had smart siblings.

[Sigmetnow]

... the immediate solution is to reduce childbirth to one per woman...

A more effective control of population would be to reduce to one child per man.

[Tom_Mazanec]

... the immediate solution is to reduce childbirth to one per woman...

A more effective control of population would be to reduce to one child per man.

Why would that be any different?

[KiwiGriff]

A more effective control of population would be to reduce to one child per man.

Very good Sig.

[gerontocrat]

... the immediate solution is to reduce childbirth to one per woman...

A more effective control of population would be to reduce to one child per man.

Experience shows that the education of young women and affordable access to contraception is the most effective way of reducing the birthrate. 

Surely the idea is to give women control over how many children they have (if any), and who will be the father. This certainly seems to be the case in Japan and China, where despite exhortations by Governments composed mostly of grumpy old men like me, birthrates are less than that required to maintain the population.

The same applies in much of Europe, and to some extent in the US despite campaigns and laws mainly instigated by Christian Evangelicals, who seem to have little use for the New Testament (except maybe the letters of Paul - the original Male Chauvinist Pig who reduced so many women to status of Chattels and a life of servitude and slavery for nearly 2 thousand years).

see post re China @
 https://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php/topic,956.msg245059.html#msg245059

[nanning]

In these unprecendented times where the future of children is getting likely horrible, it could be that conscious knowledgable women don't want to have children because of empathy and a feeling of responsibility for the possibly horrible future for them.
As the AGW/Biosphere-collapse catastrophy unfolds and acceleratingly worsens, more and more might make that decision until at some point maybe they don't even want to have children because of their own vulnerability in the care for a newborn in a very difficult environment.
It depends on how fast the disasters will hit their country and themselves personally, and how the media change the message I think.

[Sigmetnow]

... the immediate solution is to reduce childbirth to one per woman...

A more effective control of population would be to reduce to one child per man.

Why would that be any different?

A woman can give birth no more often than about every 9 months, whereas a man can impregnate multiple women in that time.

Too many “population control” discussions involve ‘control’ or ‘restrictions’ of women, but what is missing is the matching concept of controlling men....

[TerryM]

Ideally the decision about parenting a child should be mutual between both parents.
Historically, and probably due to sexual dimorphism, males have claimed the upper hand.


Empowering women (or alternatively dis-empowering men) swings the pendulum toward a more neutral position. Education plays an important role in equalizing this balance of power.


Forcing women (or couples) to raise an unwanted child is barbaric. Forcing a woman to complete her pregnancy against her will is an unthinkable demonstration of domination.


Terry

[nanning]

Thanks Sigmetnow and Terry for that view.

To add:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Male_infertility_crisis:

The male infertility crisis is a term used by the popular media to describe the rapid decrease in sperm quality, and consequential problems with male infertility, seen over the 40 year period starting in the late 1970s.[1] Over that time period, the number of viable sperm in men in Australia, Europe, New Zealand and North America has roughly halved, falling at a rate of 1.4% per year.[2][3] This reduction has not been seen in other parts of the world.[4] A number of hypotheses have been put forward for the causes of the decline, including lifestyle factors and the presence of hormone-disrupting chemicals in the environment.[4]

(emphases by me)

[Tor Bejnar]

Wild white storks born in UK for first time in centuries
... more livable for storks, anyway ...

White storks have hatched in the UK for the first time in about 600 years.

The chicks were born from one of three nests in the Knepp Estate in West Sussex on Friday. Onlookers watched as the parents regurgitated food to feed the chicks in their nest on an oak tree.

The same pair also tried to breed last year at the Knepp Estate - but without success.

There is evidence that storks have been breeding in the UK for around 360,000 years.
...

... except not for the past 600 years.

I suppose we should say, "Welcome home!"