The Final Solution

I guess you're right, I got a little carried away with my metaphors last time. I keep forgetting that we don't get paid by the word here. Okay, here's another idea, and I'll try to be brief this time. It will never pass because both of our ilks will just hate it, but there's no harm in throwing it up and seeing where it lands.

Let's pay the poor, no let's pay everybody to become surgically sterilized. It would have to be strictly voluntary of course, and would be in addition to, not instead of, any existing programs. I seem to remember reading that they were doing this in India, but that was a long time ago, about the time I got my vasectomy, which would make it sometime in the 70s. I never heard how it worked out for them, and I don't know if they're still doing it.

Let's face it, there are way to many people on this planet. All the good land is occupied, and people are starting to fill up the mountains and the deserts too. It's only a matter of time till we are all standing shoulder to shoulder from sea to shinning sea. As the world becomes more crowded, there will be less of everything to pass around. We won't have to worry about the gap between rich and poor, we will all be poor.

Kids are expensive. The more kids you have, the less money you have for yourself. Reducing the birth rate alone will go a long way towards reducing poverty. Since poor people generally have more kids than rich people, reducing their birth rate will eventually result in less poor people to take care of, which means more money will be available to spend on each one. Less people, both poor and otherwise, will mean less competition for jobs, which will reduce unemployment and drive up wages. The wars and plagues of the Middle Ages accomplished the same things, but my way is more humane. It's also more humane than abortion.

My plan may not help much with the problem of teen pregnancy because we would have to limit it to consenting adults. Then again, with less kids being born, there will be less teenagers to become pregnant in a decade or so. Who can argue that the world wouldn't be better off with less teenagers in it?