11/22   http://www.lao.ca.gov/2000/calfacts/2000_calfacts_demographics.html
        Proof that when the economy is good, more people fuck and
        make babies. Recession=fewer babies, dot-com=lots of babies.
        Human beings are like cockroaches. When you give them food,
        they reproduce a lot.
        \_ Umm, and this wasn't obvious? This is just a corollary of the
           fact that people try to avoid spending money (babies cost a lot)
           when they feel like they've got less of it.
        \_ Only in the short term, in general, long term prosperity
           produces lower birth rates.
        \_ At current global growth rates, we'll have something like 40
           billion people in 100 years, 15 trillion in 200 years ... The
           growth party will eventually stop and if history is any guide
           it's going to be "demand destruction" in the most painful sense
           possible.
           \_ Thomas Malthus... Paul Ehrlich... Anonymous MOTD poster...
              Man, that's a rich tradition of accurate forecasting of
              over-population doom and gloom.
                \_ Actually famine and population decimation has been pretty
                   normal throughout all of history, including recent
                   times.  Witness Darfur, Rwanda, etc.
           \_ Don't worry, antibiotic/drug resistant AIDS, malaria, cholera,
              tuberculosis, flu, pneumonia, etc., famine, and war will knock
              down human populations well before the 40 billion mark.  Hell,
              we might have uncontrolled antibiotic-resistant pneumonic
              plague, too.
              \_ For humanitiy's sake, stop participating FightAIDS@home and
                 help reduce human population.  Yeah, really!
           \_ Do your population estimates take into account that as
              economic conditions improve people become less fecund?
                \_ This is where the "at current global growth rates" bit
                   kicks in.
                   \_ IOW, no.  Thanks for playing.
                        \_ Something will stop the global growth rates,
                           but it won't be improving economic conditions.