1,000 people living in tunnels under Las Vegas

[my7tvette]

Quote from Scataphagos:

Perhaps you need more of a "Darwinian view".... survival of the fittest. Provide for yourself, or perish. And in a biological sense.... once you've passed the age of procreation, you're no longer of benefit to the population. (The PRIMARY purpose of an organism in a population is to pass on its genes... especially in the hope of a beneficial mutation.)

The human society supports many, MANY tit-suckers which in other animal populations would be the first culled... all to the benefit of the population as a whole, of course.

America already has fewer jobs than people to fill them. In other words, we have an excess of people, an excess of labor. What is to be done with these folks? Welfare forever?

Soilent Green?

You raise some interesting points. I've often wondered whether welfare short-circuits evolution. On the other hand, the whole concept of private ownership in some sense warps the idea of pure evolution. If I am allowed to pass all my belongings on to my progeny, who did nothing to earn these benefits for themselves, then I have essentially bypassed "survival of the fittest". These benefactors may be less than capable of accruing the benefits they have received, yet they will be protected by the system.

Perhaps welfare is a way to ensure stability in the entire system. Without it, how many more people would resort to criminal behavior merely to survive. If we are talking about culling the population, then the only way to prevent anarchy would be organized killing by the government or majority. If someone is starving, could they be faulted for stealing, or killing, to survive?