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V_V comments on Blind Spot: Malthusian Crunch - Less Wrong
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So, just to be clear, your position is that markets will prevent population growth from stopping in the foreseable future or that population will gracefully set at the capacity level without violent oscillations?
My position is that there is no alternative that you can credibly show to be better than the markets in dealing with the issue of resource scarcity.
Markets do not "prevent population growth from stopping". As to the gracefulness of landing, it's for the gymnastics judges to estimate. By the way, I do not expect the population to reach the "capacity level" in the foreseeable future.
Here's what I expect someone who seriously believed that markets will handle it would sound like:
"Wow, overpopulation is a threat? Clearly there are inefficiencies the rest of the market is too stupid to exploit. Let's see if I can get rich by figuring out where these inefficiencies are and how to exploit them."
Whereas "the markets will handle it, period, full stop" is not a belief, it's an excuse.
Here is what I sound like:
"Wow, overpopulation is a threat? I don't believe it. Show me."
I don't think anybody (but the most extreme leftists) is proposing a Soviet-like centrally planned economy, but without regulation, markets mechanisms alone don't necessarily deal well with resource scarcity. This has been both observed empirically and understood theoretically (tragedy of the commons, negative externalities, etc.)
Why not? Growth rate is already in decline, and AFAIK, most models of world population growth predict a peak in this century.
Well, markets don't exist in a vacuum, of course, they need a reasonable framework of law and order. Just to start with you need property rights and the ability to enforce contracts.
That's a different thing that doesn't have much to do with the markets ability to deal with resource scarcity.
You keep pointing out that markets are not Jesus and they don't automagically solve all humanity's problems. Yes, yes, of course, but no one is arguing that. We're talking about a fairly specific problem -- dealing with resource scarcity -- and you keep on bringing up how markets don't solve violence and pollution...
I expect the population to reach a plateau and stabilize at some point. I do not expect that plateau to be the capacity level of the planet.
Well, they should provide a constructive alternative to the former, and the latter is isomorphous with a scarcity of non-polluted air/water/land.